Los nuevos héroes del siglo XXI


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People Without Science


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A persuasive argument that the majority of the world's population is becoming increasingly illiterate, scientifically speaking and a not especially-heartening look at what this situation portends for the future




SanaciAAn psicodAA(c)lica para el siglo XXI


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Este libro breve estA! lleno de informaciAAn fascinante sobre una de las A!reas mA!s polAA(c)micas de la psiquiatrAA-a: la terapia psicodAA(c)lica. Las investigaciones dentro de este campo de la medicina han sido reanudadas hace poco, tras haber estado prohibidas durante mA!s de medio siglo, y los resultados de los estudios realizados sobre los efectos de los psicodAA(c)licos en veteranos de guerra con TEPT intratable y en personas con depresiAAn resistente al tratamiento han sido muy prometedores. Actualmente, se estA!n haciendo estudios controlados sobre la eficacia del tratamiento con psicodAA(c)licos para la depresiAAn en la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad John Hopkins, en los Estados Unidos, y en la Unidad de NeuropsicofarmacologAA-a en la DivisiAAn de Ciencias del Cerebro, del Imperial College de Londres. Los resultados por el momento sugieren que dentro de una dAA(c)cada los psicodAA(c)licos podrAA-an ser un tratamiento farmacolAAgico para la depresiAAn y el TEPT. AdemA!s, estas sustancias son famosas por su capacidad de mejorar sustancialmente la creatividad y ofrecer visiones espirituales profundas, pero quizA!s la parte mA!s fascinante del libro sea la segunda secciAAn, que describe las experiencias de varios famosos que deben gran parte de su AA(c)xito en la vida a estos quAA-micos transformadores, entre ellos: el pionero de Apple, Steve Jobs, que adjudica su perspectiva innovadora al LSD, ya que este le dio una visiAAn completamente diferente sobre la existencia, que inspirAA muchos de los inventos exitosos de Apple; Francis Crick, el padre de la genAA(c)tica moderna, que percibiAA la forma de doble hAA(c)lice del ADN durante un viaje de LSD; el cosmAAlogo galardonado Carl Sagan, que dijo "e;La experiencia mAA-stica hindAA ya estA! pre-programada en nosotros; solo necesitamos 200 microgramos de LSD para que se manifieste"e;; Oliver Wolf Sacks, autor y profesor de neurologAA-a y psiquiatrAA-a en la Universidad de Columbia: "e;Me alegra haber tenido la experiencia. Me enseAAAA lo que es capaz de hacer la mente"e;; Susan Blackmore, escritora britA!nica independiente, profesora, autora de La mA!quina de los memes, que dijo "e;El psicodAA(c)lico mA!s importante, cuyo descubridor goza de salud y buen estado fAA-sico a los cien aAAos, es el LSD... No solo induce experiencias mAA-sticas, sino que puede tratar neurosis y mitigar el dolor y el miedo en pacientes terminales. Creo que estamos desperdiciando una 'droga milagrosa' en potencia"e;; Tom Robbins, autor estadounidense nombrado uno de los 100 mejores escritores del siglo XX por la revista Writer's Digest: "e;Sinceramente, el dAA-a que tomAA(c) 300 microgramos de LSD Sandoz puro fue el dAA-a mA!s feliz de mi vida, un dAA-a que no cambiarAA-a por ningAAn otro... los psicodAA(c)licos pueden mejorar la vida de cualquier persona inteligente y valiente, y es posible que incluso representen nuestra AAltima gran esperanza de supervivencia en este planeta"e;. Y la lista incluye muchas otras celebridades, como Aldous Huxley; el ganador del Premio Nobel de QuAA-mica Kary Banks Mullis; el inventor del VRML, Mark Pesce; el autor mejor vendido del New York Times y tambiAA(c)n mAA(c)dico, Andrew Weil; Bill Wilson, fundador de AlcohAAlicos AnAAnimos; Rupert Sheldrake; Colin Wilson; Walter Houston Clark; Stephen John Fry; Robert Greene; Robin Skynner; Abraham Maslow; Robert Anton Wilson; Huston Smith; Alan Watts; Ken Kesey; Cary Grant; y el editor de la revista Time, Henry Luce, que en los aAAos 50 escribiAA y publicAA varios artAA-culos muy positivos en la revista Time sobre el potencial de la droga, en los que alababa a Sandoz y al LSD mismo por ofrecer "e;una herramienta invaluable para los psiquiatras"e;.




Kuxlejal Politics


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Over the past two decades, Zapatista indigenous community members have asserted their autonomy and self-determination by using everyday practices as part of their struggle for lekil kuxlejal, a dignified collective life connected to a specific territory. This in-depth ethnography summarizes Mariana Mora’s more than ten years of extended research and solidarity work in Chiapas, with Tseltal and Tojolabal community members helping to design and evaluate her fieldwork. The result of that collaboration—a work of activist anthropology—reveals how Zapatista kuxlejal (or life) politics unsettle key racialized effects of the Mexican neoliberal state. Through detailed narratives, thick descriptions, and testimonies, Kuxlejal Politics focuses on central spheres of Zapatista indigenous autonomy, particularly governing practices, agrarian reform, women’s collective work, and the implementation of justice, as well as health and education projects. Mora situates the proposals, possibilities, and challenges associated with these decolonializing cultural politics in relation to the racialized restructuring that has characterized the Mexican state over the past twenty years. She demonstrates how, despite official multicultural policies designed to offset the historical exclusion of indigenous people, the Mexican state actually refueled racialized subordination through ostensibly color-blind policies, including neoliberal land reform and poverty alleviation programs. Mora’s findings allow her to critically analyze the deeply complex and often contradictory ways in which the Zapatistas have reconceptualized the political and contested the ordering of Mexican society along lines of gender, race, ethnicity, and class.




Psychology of Liberation


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Since the mid-1980s, the psychology of liberation movement has been a catalyst for collective and individual change in communities throughout Latin America, and beyond; and recent political developments are making its powerful, transformative ideas more relevant than ever before. Psychology of Liberation: Theory and Applications updates the activist frameworks developed by Ignacio Martin-Baro and Paulo Freire with compelling stories from the frontlines of conflict in the developing and developed worlds, as social science and psychological practice are allied with struggles for peace, justice, and equality. In these chapters, liberation is presented as both an ongoing process and a core dimension of wellbeing, entailing the reconstruction of social identity and the transformation of all parties involved, both oppressed and oppressors. It also expands the social consciousness of professionals, bringing more profound meaning to practice and enhancing related areas such as peace psychology, as shown in articles such as these: Philippines: the role of liberation movements in the transition to democracy. Venezuela: liberation psychology as a therapeutic intervention with street youth. South Africa: the movement for representational knowledge. Muslim world: religion, the state, and the gendering of human rights. Ireland: linking personal and political development. Australia: addressing issues of racism, identity, and immigration. Colombia: building cultures of peace from the devastation of war. Psychology of Liberation demonstrates the commitment to overcome social injustices and oppression. The book is a critical resource for social and community psychologists as well as policy analysts. It can also be used as a text for graduate courses in psychology, sociology, social work and community studies.




Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift


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This volume has 41 chapters written to honor the 100th birthday of Mario Bunge. It celebrates the work of this influential Argentine/Canadian physicist and philosopher. Contributions show the value of Bunge’s science-informed philosophy and his systematic approach to philosophical problems. The chapters explore the exceptionally wide spectrum of Bunge’s contributions to: metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of technology, moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, medical philosophy, and education. The contributors include scholars from 16 countries. Bunge combines ontological realism with epistemological fallibilism. He believes that science provides the best and most warranted knowledge of the natural and social world, and that such knowledge is the only sound basis for moral decision making and social and political reform. Bunge argues for the unity of knowledge. In his eyes, science and philosophy constitute a fruitful and necessary partnership. Readers will discover the wisdom of this approach and will gain insight into the utility of cross-disciplinary scholarship. This anthology will appeal to researchers, students, and teachers in philosophy of science, social science, and liberal education programmes. 1. Introduction Section I. An Academic Vocation (3 chapters) Section II. Philosophy (12 chapters) Section III. Physics and Philosophy of Physics (4 chapters) Section IV. Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind (2 chapters) Section V. Sociology and Social Theory (4 chapters) Section VI. Ethics and Political Philosophy (3 chapters) Section VII. Biology and Philosophy of Biology (3 chapters) Section VIII. Mathematics (3 chapters) Section IX. Education (2 chapters) Section X. Varia (3 chapters) Section XI. Bibliography




Ser médico ayer, hoy y mañana


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Mi ayer, al que me referiré en este libro, es 1947, año en el que me gradué. En ese entonces, ser médico significaba haber adquirido los conocimientos teóricos en la facultad y los prácticos en los hospitales. El conocimiento médico avanzaba de a pie y con paso de paseo. Los médicos podían ser clínicos y cirujanos, y abarcar varias especialidades. Ser médico hoy es muy diferente. A la responsabilidad ética de antaño hacia la propia conciencia, se ha sumado la responsabilidad legal respecto de pacientes muchas veces hostiles y estimulados por abogados poco escrupulosos. Mañana (un mañana que ya es hoy) se le añadirá todavía la responsabilidad económica, exigida por quienes gerencian los sistemas de salud. Así, cualquier clínico, además de enfrentar problemas activos de un paciente concreto, deberá enfrentar –ya lo hace hoy–problemas probabilísticos. Ayer, hoy y mañana no son sólo cambios cronológicos, sino también variaciones de pautas culturales. Sabemos que no podemos detener el tiempo; aun así, podemos defender de la erosión las pautas culturales que creemos dignas. Hasta hace algunas décadas, el médico vivía la pauta cultural de la entrega generosa y la sabiduría, que hoy debe cambiar por la de la efectividad y la eficiencia. El esfuerzo debe apuntar, entonces, a conciliar ambas culturas; el desafío es cómo hacerlo. Alberto Agrest Sus escritos, que deberían ser de lectura obligada para quienes se dedican a la medicina y más aún para las nuevas generaciones que planean hacerlo, lo han convertido ya en un clásico de la reflexión sobre el destino de la medicina contemporánea. Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry




Crítica


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The Political Economy of Transnational Power and Production


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The Political Economy of Transnational Power and Production: Mexico's Metamorphosis 1982-2022 How and why Mexico’s socioeconomic structure was transformed through plutocratic preferences, US corporate strategies, and ideology—all powering transnational processes of neoliberalization—are issues examined in this comprehensive, carefully documented publication covering four crucial decades of metamorphosis. The causes and consequences of the creation of a new, regional power bloc—the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—are extensively examined. Readers will benefit from the many important demystifications presented here, chronicling the asymmetric Mexico-US production system. The impacts of the new transnational structure for labor on both sides of the border are matters of centrality. Specialists and general readers alike will find an explicit and accessible account of the powerful forces opening access to and profiting from millions of low-wage workers enabling Mexico to become a strategic source of US imports. Portrayed by mainstream economists and major policy makers as a "win-win" triumph of "free trade" theory, this book documents the opposing reality imposed by NAFTA and the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement on both the US and Mexican working classes. US economists foretold a dramatic narrowing of the income gap—the US would benefit; Mexico would benefit even more. But instead, the yawning gap increased for three decades, bringing devastation for workers while debilitating Mexico’s national industrial base.




Cases on Developing Effective Research Plans for Communications and Information Science


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Different events in communication and information in today’s society have highlighted the significant role that research plays in these two fields of the social sciences. Therefore, it is essential to determine how the efficacy of research can be enhanced at various levels, especially at the academic level. Of primary relevance in this is research connected to communication, both human-to-human and through media, and interactions with information sources. There exists a need for a resource for communications and information science researchers to enhance the effectiveness, impact, and visibility of research. Cases on Developing Effective Research Plans for Communications and Information Science provides relevant frameworks for research in communications and information science. It elaborates on the strategic role of research at different levels of the information and communication society. Covering topics such as audience research, literary reading mediation, and social science theses, this case book is an excellent resource for libraries and librarians, marketing managers, communications professionals, students and educators of higher education, faculty and administration of higher education, government officials, researchers, and academicians.