Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Social sciences

What is a Text?

A text is a complete unit of oral or written communication, produced by a sender in specific circumstances.

Key Features of a Text

Every text possesses distinct characteristics that define its nature:

• It functions as a total unit of communication, always serving a specific communicative intention.
• It represents a communicative act (e.g., informing, persuading, narrating) where the sender expresses a clear purpose.
• It is deeply embedded in a specific situation or context; removed from this context, it may lose its intended meaning.
• It possesses an inherent structure that interrelates its elements, providing both coherence and unity.

Essential Textual Properties

For any communication to be considered a true "text," it must fulfill certain... Continue reading "Understanding Coherence, Appropriateness, and Cohesion in Text" »

Characteristics of Administration

• Universality

  Administration is present wherever there is a specific social organism. It possesses unmistakable characteristics and is often accompanied by insights from other sciences.

• Continuity

  Throughout the life of a company, most administrative elements exist in varying degrees, demonstrating their ongoing presence and importance.

• Hierarchical Unity

  Administration respects established authority levels within an organization, ensuring a clear chain of command.

• Instrumental Value

  Administration serves as an instrument to achieve specific organizational ends, rather than being an end in itself.

• Flexibility

  Its purpose is practical; administration adapts to the particular needs and unique circumstances of each organization.

Core Economic Definitions

An organization is a group of people organized and coordinated to work on a common goal.

A company is an economic unit that processes raw materials to develop products, meeting consumer needs and earning money by selling its products or services.

Economics is the social science that manages resources for all types of work, developing and converting them into goods and services to meet the economic needs of people.

A human need (or necessity) is the feeling of lacking something, a certain discomfort that generates the urge to fulfill what we need.

Business Fundamentals

Elements Involved in Business:

• Factors of Production: Nature, Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship.

Actors Involved in Business:

• Households
• Companies
• The State

Types

The Outstanding Features of the Bolognese Method

Faithfulness to Justinian Texts

A common idea among commentators was that Justinian texts held an almost sacred origin. Legal work involved careful and humble interpretation by lawyers, aimed at clarifying the meaning of the words and making sense of them.

Analytical and Not Systematic Approach

Lawyers conducted independent analyses of each legal text through "readings" (such as interlinear or marginal glosses or more complete reviews).

The Gloss

The "gloss" (a brief explanation of a Corpus Juris Civilis paragraph) was the basic model of this school. It cultivated diverse literary types: interpretive glosses, briefs summarizing a title, formulations of doctrinal rules, discussions of controversial... Continue reading "Method Bolognese: Key Features and Influence" »

The Stabilization Plan and Economic Reorientation

Following integration into international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Spain faced the need for economic reorientation. A Decree-Law enacted a new economic order known as the Stabilization Plan. This plan had two primary objectives: balanced economic development and the integration of the Spanish economy into the Western world. It emphasized demand management, price stabilization, and the liberalization of foreign trade and foreign capital imports.

The Stabilization Plan set the stage for the growth of the Spanish economy in the 1960s. Its effects were positive, including reduced domestic demand and inflation, price stability, and restructuring of the external sector.... Continue reading "Spain's Economic and Social Transformation in the 1960s" »

Understanding State, Power, and Authority

State: A group of people within a unified territory, sharing a single market, and organized under a legal framework to ensure social peace and order under a single government.

Power: The ability to impose one's will on others.

Authority: Leadership held by an individual with power.

The Leviathan and the Social Contract

The social contract serves as the foundation of political legitimacy, validating a social order where some rule and others obey. Equal and free individuals, acting rationally, enter into a contract, establishing a government as humanity transitions into society.

Rousseau's Perspective

Rousseau believed that the state of war exists within civil society, leading to inequality, domination, and... Continue reading "Understanding State, Power, and Authority: Key Concepts" »

Item 1: Legal Framework Evolution

Since 1978, the European Community (EC) initiated a dynamic transformation of the legal framework for Social Services (SS) in Spain. The Statute of Autonomy granted significant references to SS across all Autonomous Communities (CCAA). The 1985 Law on the Basis of Local Government (for populations over 20,000) further solidified this framework. Regional Acts addressing specific needs were also approved, alongside sector-specific laws such as the Penitentiary Law, Asylum and Refugee Law, Work-Family Reconciliation Law, Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners Law, Gender Violence Law, and regional Social Wage or Minimum Insertion Income Laws. This extensive legal framework has led to intense policy development at both... Continue reading "Social Services Evolution in Spain Since 1978" »

Decolonization After 1945

The decolonization process unfolded rapidly after 1945, concluding for most territories by 1962. It began in Asia with the independence of British India in 1947 and culminated in Africa with the expulsion of the French in 1962. Two distinct waves can be identified:

• First wave: Occurred at the end of World War II, primarily affecting Asia and ending with the formation of Israel in 1948.
• Second wave: A swift wave of decolonization from the mid-1950s to the 1960s, impacting Africa, particularly North Africa, followed by the independence of Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960s.

Several factors contributed to this process:

• The weakened state of traditional colonial powers like France and England, who lacked the capacity to maintain

Political Philosophy

Political philosophy's primary objective must be rational. The state must be devoted to studying political phenomena as they are. Its purpose is to establish how they should be to become righteous.

Domain

Domain is the capacity that an individual or group of individuals can have to impose their will on others.

Political Power

Political power is when some individuals or groups of individuals, intending to organize tasks, perform the task of directing the actions of members of the group or society. They make decisions that affect the entire community and even exercise some control over others, thereby forcing all members of the community to follow their guidelines and instructions.

State

State is a socio-political organization whose... Continue reading "Key Concepts in Political Philosophy and Governance" »

Company Policies and Their Purpose

In clearer terms, considering their purpose, we can distinguish two kinds of companies:

1. Private Companies: These have defined purposes, voluntarily chosen by their members. Their activities are aimed directly and immediately at the goal that inspired their creation through a conscious and voluntary act.
2. General-Purpose Companies: These have an indefinite and generic purpose, creating the conditions necessary for individuals and other companies that integrate into them to reach their particular purposes. Participation in these societies almost always depends on an act of will.

Companies are commonly referred to as general-purpose political societies precisely because they are not attached to a particular purpose... Continue reading "Understanding Company Policies and the Origin of the State" »