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

Techniques for Organizing Participation and Encouraging Creativity

The Sociogram: Mapping Social Relations for Action

The sociogram is a graphical representation of social relations present at a given time between a set of actors (governments, associations, groups, and sectors of the population). Understanding this plot is crucial for developing effective action strategies. A participatory practice that has yielded good results is producing the map of relations with the research collaborators themselves within the group. The dynamics method is simple:

1. Explain the rules of the game, defining what a sociogram is, what it does, and how it is drawn.
2. The moderator displays a large sheet of paper, provides pens, and establishes a point of reference on

Production Perspectives

The production and distribution of goods and services involve multiple tasks and functions, requiring an organizational instrument to coordinate the whole process. This is the company's role. There are several perspectives on the production of these services.

Economic Overview

Production is a process that meets families' needs by developing products based on factors of production (natural resources, labor, capital) employed by companies.

Functional-Utilitarian Perspective

Production practices add value to things by making them more useful than they were before. For example, in manufacturing a shirt, the components are fabric and yarn. Converting these materials into a shirt requires productive activity, utilizing a specific... Continue reading "Production Perspectives: Economic, Functional, and Technical" »

Marxism: Core Principles and Historical Impact

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, initially influenced by utopian socialist thought, developed a profound theory for social change known as scientific socialism. Their body of doctrine found its first comprehensive expression in The Communist Manifesto. They also developed a Marxist theory based on three core pillars:

• Analysis of the Past: The Class Struggle

  Marx and Engels considered the struggle between oppressors and oppressed as the primary driver of historical development. This fundamental contradiction arose from the social relations inherent in each historical period, such as slavery, feudalism, and capitalism.

• Critique of Capitalism: Exploitation and Crisis

  They argued that bourgeois exploitation

Let's consider an example to illustrate this concept:

• Risks associated with medical care and health.

Obviously, we have a set of indicators to describe the state of health of a population in general, and we use these to set priorities. For example, the infant mortality rate, the available vaccines, health workers, and their distribution in the area. The first step for the community social worker, and the institution or organization where they work or that finances their activities, is to describe such situations from three points of view:

1. We must build on what we may call the principle of heterogeneity of the population and its impact on health: The very unequal living conditions also produce very different epidemiological patterns among the different

Early 20th Century European Society

Industrial Growth and Social Inequality

The early 20th century in Europe witnessed significant industrial growth, enriching the privileged bourgeois classes but also creating a deep societal divide. The First World War (1914-1918) further exacerbated this crisis of values. The euphoria of economic and technological progress fueled a consumer society, sheltering the new liberal capitalist system. However, this growth also widened the gap between the wealthy bourgeoisie and the exploited working class, leading to the rise of protest movements and ideologies like Anarchism, Socialism, and Communism.

Crisis of Faith and Reason

Key ideologies challenged positivism and rational thought, denouncing the perceived failures... Continue reading "Early 20th Century Europe: Societal Shifts and Ideological Conflicts" »

Agrarian Conditions and Social Tensions

Agricultural laborers often lived in squalid conditions, only able to rent land temporarily for seasonal jobs. They became the main focus of rebellion against landowners.

The Rabassaire Conflict in Catalonia

In Catalonia, specific issues arose concerning properties like Mirjana, the Module system, and leases. A key element was the Contracte de Rabassa Morta (Rabassa Dead Contract), which lasted until two-thirds of the vines (rabassa) had died, typically after about 40 years. This system fueled significant social tensions in the countryside.

Unhappy and without possibilities for change, laborers organized strikes and riots, particularly between 1917 and 1920, encouraged by the Soviet Revolution. However, these... Continue reading "Spain's Second Industrialization and Social Conflict (1900-1929)" »

Marxism

Critique of Capitalism

• The core of the operation lies in the proletarian *surplus value* (plusvalía). This surplus value is the source of capitalist profits.
• Capitalists limit associationism and prevent improvements in working conditions.

Historical Materialism and Class Struggle

• The engine of history is the "struggle of classes" between oppressor and oppressed.
• History is a sequence of "modes of production," characterized by production relations between the owners of the means of production and those who only possess their labor.
• The transition from one system to another occurs when class contradictions destroy a mode of production and replace it with a new one.

The Communist Future

• When the proletariat acquires class consciousness, organized

Is it possible? This title may not be considered anything, but everyone's lips now are able to ask me to write about the text, and that way I will. Lasts! I almost forgot to say the title, *aix*.... Modernizing the Basque language is a question I addressed in this blog, i.e.
Basque is just peanuts for many, but to shit! They do not use anything, no friends, no home... anywhere! This text is aimed at those, there Tori!

Firstly, we need our own motivation to be able to speak Basque. Let's go there to make some changes, such as television. Only two channels are in Basque, and both are relatively boring. Well, yes! Something must have the following *pensatu*: Encouragement, *argitxoa* people between the eyes to light. But how? Is it possible?... Continue reading "Modernizing the Basque Language: A Call to Action" »

Liberalism: Foundations of Freedom

Liberalism is a philosophical system, economic, and political approach that promotes civil liberties and seeks to limit the coercive power of governments over individuals. It opposes any form of despotism and is based on the doctrine of representative government and parliamentary democracy.

Absolutism: Centralized Power

Absolutism is a form of government in which power is vested in a single person, who must be obeyed by all others, without accountability to Parliament or the people.

Democracy: Rule by the People

Democracy is a form of government and state organization in which collective decisions are made by the people through direct or indirect participation mechanisms that confer legitimacy upon their representatives.... Continue reading "Understanding Core Political Systems and Ideologies" »

Modern Literary Visionaries

H.G. Wells: Science, Progress, and Utopia

A new faith was still needed, and H.G. Wells found one in what may be called Liberalism: the belief that humanity's future lies on Earth, not in heaven, and that, with scientific and social progress, an earthly paradise could eventually be built. Wells is one of the great figures of modern literature.

His works, including The Time Machine, The First Men in the Moon, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, When the Sleeper Awakes, and The Food of the Gods, are concerned not merely with telling strange and entertaining stories, but with demonstrating that, through science, everything is theoretically possible.

Wells sometimes described himself as a "utopiographer." He was always... Continue reading "Literary Giants: Wells, Forster, Yeats, and Synge" »