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

Globalization: A Multifaceted Process

Economic Impact

Globalization is driven by the interdependence of financial markets, facilitated by information and communication technologies, and furthered by deregulation. This has led to growing interdependence among all regions, influencing government decisions and increasing the mobility of information and opinions. National economies are integrated into a global market, with the movement of goods and money occurring on a global scale.

Political Impact

Supranational political institutions and global organizations are increasingly making decisions that impact nations worldwide.

Communication and Technology

Centralized media networks extend globally, and new communication technologies connect more users... Continue reading "Globalization: Impacts and Future of a Connected World" »

Understanding Linguistic Registers

Our way of speaking depends on the communicative situation. The set of linguistic particularities a speaker chooses to adapt to the situation defines a type of language variety called a register. It is an index of the speaker's communicative competence.

Classes of Registers

Registers vary in formality, ranging from formal to informal. Formality is expressed in the speaker's concern for the form of the message. Registers can be planned or unplanned (spontaneous). Between these two extremes, there are many intermediate registers, for example:

• Intimate: Family and friends
• Friendly: Among neighbors and coworkers
• Neutral: Encounters with strangers
• High: Lectures, exams
• Ritual: Ceremonies

Factors Influencing Register Selection

Register... Continue reading "Understanding Linguistic Registers: Formal and Informal Language" »

Modernism: Ideological and Aesthetic Currents

Current Ideological and Aesthetic:

• Regenerationist: Believed art could transform society; therefore, art's destination is the service of society. Promoting cultural workers saw the regeneration of society. They were influenced by the ideas of Nietzsche and Ibsen.
• Aestheticists: Considered that art had no purpose other than to seek aesthetic pleasure, a form of escape from everyday reality. Were influenced by Baudelaire and Verlaine (symbolism), Oscar Wilde, and Maurice Maeterlinck.

Regenerationism vs. Aestheticism

• Art and culture as means for changing society. Rejection of art-as-evasion.
• Art as a shelter for those of a sensitive nature to the insensitivity of society.
• Propose art-for-art's-sake.
• Art

Decentralization in Venezuela: Administrative Regions

As a result of investigations and work, administrative regions were created by executive decree number 72, dated June 11, 1969. Eight regions were initially created. Later reformulations and new divisions occurred during the administrations of Carlos Andres Perez. The latter increased the number of entities to 16 with the creation of the sub-region south and west of Tachira, Páez Municipality of Apure state.

The creation of administrative regions aimed at decentralization. Therefore, the most viable approach for decentralization was the regionalization policy. Without it, progress would stagnate. This allowed for more practical government activities, whether at work or in domestic attention... Continue reading "Decentralization in Venezuela: Administrative Regions & Reforms" »

Varieties of Language

• Geographic: Varieties that a language presents depending on where it is used.
  • Causes: Degree of Romanization, other influences (pre-Roman languages, Germanic languages, Arabic, Italian, Indian languages, French, English).
• Diastratic: Varieties that coexist in one place, related to the sociocultural level of the people who use it.
  • Causes: Habitat, age, sex, occupation, socio-cultural level.
  • Types:
    • Learned: Careful language at all levels.
    • Media: Language that meets the linguistic requirements of communication but is cultivated.
    • Colloquial: Conversational language used by speakers in a relaxed environment without much concern for linguistic correctness (characteristics: cooperation, subjectivity, linguistic economy, spontaneity).

Sociology's Passage from Europe to America

The transition of sociology from the nineteenth to the twentieth century marks a shift from Europe to the U.S. Sociologists emigrated, settling in Germany and then returning to Chicago, where an intellectual movement emerged, shaped by the people who formed there.

Leading Sociologists: Late Transition and Early 20th Century

• Tönnies: Identified community with a pre-industrial society.
• Veblen: (Theory of the Leisure Class) Focused on pre-industrial social change in the field of leisure, conspicuous recreation, and conspicuous consumption.
• Simmel: Analyzed what happens in small groups, focusing on the meaning of money, fashion, etc., without focusing on the major criteria that cause social change.
• Durkheim:

EU Business Organizations

Characteristics:

• Weak links of interest, whether it is bringing together national organizations, territorial associations, or sectorial ones.
• Created as a pressure group with the intent to influence political decision-making processes.
• Groups 33 associations from various countries.
• Dominated by large companies.

Types:

1. Organizations with the sole function of interest representation exclusively related to the labor market and labor relations.
2. Associations with commercial interests (Chambers of Commerce).
3. Associations with dual functions (1 and 2). This is the case of the Spanish CEOE.

Objectives:

• Promote the interests of the represented associations.
• Report and press on legislative decision-making processes.
• Represent associate members

Curriculum Design in Argentina

Building a National Framework

The Common Basic Curriculum (CBC) in Argentina represents a set of knowledge domains that underpin the educational process across all provinces. It serves as the foundation upon which various jurisdictions design their curricula.

Development and Implementation

The transformation and innovation of pedagogical approaches in Argentina's provinces involved extensive review, planning, and implementation of updated curriculum designs. This process, part of a broader effort to improve the quality of education, faced challenges due to inconsistencies across provinces. While the movement motivated and mobilized educators, it also highlighted difficulties in ensuring consistent educational experiences... Continue reading "Argentine Curriculum Design: A Nationwide Approach" »

Literary Texts

• Mastery of poetics
• Innovative character
• Realization process (Never exactly reflects the outside world)
• Connotation and polysemy (Words take on particular contextual meaning)
• Appellative structure

Scientific Texts

• Objectivity
• Universality (Affirming truths for all phenomena: past, present, and future)
• Precision and clarity
• Cryptic character (Vocabulary available only to a privileged few, see points 1, 2, 3)

Legal Texts

• Imperative nature
• Predominance of appellative and expository functions
• Reference to other texts
• Necessarily written
• Conservative language
• Tendency towards objectivity
• Seeks precision and clarity

Advertising Texts

• Internal unity of image-text (topic)
• Brevity and condensation
• Structure: Headline (hook) - Body (product description and arguments)

Semiology: An Introduction to Linguistic Science

Semiology is the science that studies how environment has become the facts of language. It has gone through three successive phases before recognizing its true and only object of study:

1. Grammar: A study based on logic and devoid of any scientific view.
2. Language Rules: Only provides rules to distinguish correct forms from incorrect forms.
3. Discipline Rules: Rules far removed from pure observation with an unnecessarily narrow point of view.

Philology

This phase primarily aims to establish, interpret, and comment on texts, leading it to also address literary history, customs, institutions, etc. The flaw is that it considers written language too much and neglects living language.

Comparative Philology or