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

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:

Science: Definition and Role

Science is rational, systematic, accurate, and verifiable, therefore inherently fallible and subject to constant revision. It forms the foundation of scientific research. As an activity, science is integrated into social life when applied to improve the quality of life (e.g., in medicine, engineering, architecture), thus transforming into technology.

Technique vs. Technology

Understanding Technique

Technique refers to a procedure or a set of procedures aimed at obtaining a particular result.

Defining Technology

Technology is a comprehensive set of procedures or processes designed to achieve a determined result. It serves the needs of human groups, individuals, and society. While science seeks knowledge and technique focuses... Continue reading "Core Concepts: Science, Technology, Management, and Systems" »

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" »

Monolingualism

Refers to a single linguistic community within the same state (e.g., Albania).

Linguistic Conflict

A situation that occurs when there is tension, normalization, or replacement of languages. Conflict between two linguistic communities and social dimensions always leads to language normalization or language shift.

Language Shift

The process through which a first language is gradually replaced by another. This process of linguistic substitution is normally directly related to homogenization processes within a certain state framework or to processes of colonialism. For a process of substitution to start, an element of political pressure is necessary, such that the linguistic community must become a minority.

Linguistic Right

A discipline... Continue reading "Sociolinguistic Terminology: Language Contact and Dynamics" »

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