This work carries out a revision of classical and contemporaneous authors in connection with the discussion of comprehension/interpretation in the construction of social and individual meanings, with reference to the phenomenon commonly known as “university dropout” or “academic failure”. The proposal stands on the need to consider, in the comprehension of the practices carried out by the individual in the university, both the influence of the social context and the familiar context, as well as also a certain capacity of the individual to resignify those social meanings related to, in this case, the possibilities of entrance and permanence in the university. Key words: comprenhension, interpretation, social construction and social practices.

Alvarado, Arturo and Diane Davis, “Political change, public security and deterioration of the law abiding condition in Mexico”. Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

In this project, authors explain the basic theoretical contents, the methodological and other important questions to analyze the Mexican situation of change of transformation of the policital regime and the setting up of the law abiding condition. The main questions are, on the one hand, if the law abiding condition is being built and the different kinds such process adopts and, on the other hand, in case this process is not occuring, understand and explain what is happening in the environment of the democratic guarantees of citizens expected by population. Key words: political regime, law abiding condition, security.

Allub, Leopoldo, “Attitudes toward risk and adoption of technological innovations in small rural producers of an arid zone (San Juan, Argentina)”. Vol. XIX, núm. 56, May-August, 2001

This article analyzes the independent effects of attitudes toward risk and income diversification on the degree of adoption of new farming technologies among small producers from the province of San Juan (Argentina). As a first step, we present a multiple regression model of decisional behavior in which risk aversion and income diversification are considered as variables that predict the adoption of technological innovations in agriculture. Risk aversion is a scaled measurement that required respondents to choose from among different aspects of farming activities that they considered risky. Together with income diversification -an objective measure of risk-both variables emerge as the most important predictor for the adoption of technological innovations. Later we develop a second model that attempts to identify the factors explaining risk aversion. Socioeconomic status emerges as the most important predictor for variations in the farmers’ aversion to risk. Additional variables testted in the model such as farmers’ perception of the agroecological quality of the land were not significantly correlated to risk aversion. The article concludes with proposals to support more efficient and effective rural extension programs of government to improve the living conditions of these farmers.

Belvedere, Carlos, “Globalization: Upper Phase of the Civilizing Process. Limits and Scope of the Elias’ Theory. Vol. XIX, núm. 56, May-August, 2001

Press and social sciences has dedicated themselves to the analysis of globalization, but in general they naturalized it. Starting from the theory of the process of civilization of Norbert Elias it is discussed the character and future of the same. In this critic note, in the first place, it is done a revision of the work of Elias, following the different moments of its development from the original version of The process of civilization, in 1936, up to its final publication, in 1990. Subsequently some relations between civilization and globalization are establisehd, analyzing the work of authors such as Perry Anderson, Charles Tilly, Armand Matterland and Nestor García Canclini among others. Later on, it is discussed the scope and the limitations of the theory of Elias. It is also carried out a analysis of the future perspectives of the civilizing process and globalization. Finally, it is proposed as possible an end of civilization and the entry to other type of social dynamic still incipient.

Blancarte, Roberto, “Laicization and secularization in Mexico”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, Septiembre-Diciembre, 2001

Laicization and secularization are two concepts closely linked to the social and political Mexican reality, despite of which they have been scarcely studied. The main purpose of this research is to cover such empty space. Taking into account the significant social impact that this issue has. All this in the context of what has been called the “religious recolonization of the public circle” and of the end in Mexico, of a political system identified as a way of combative and anticlerical laicization, which has driven certain political and social actors to the replanning of the idea and in consequence to the necessity of defining it with precision.

Key words: laicization, secularization, religious recolonization.

Brachet-Márquez, Viviane, “Research elements on polítical-administrative state capacity regarding public health. The cases of Guanajuato, Oaxaca and Sonora”, Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

This note is a description of the fate of public health in the states of Guanajuato, Oaxaca and Sonora against the background of democratic transition, macroeconomic policies of restriction of social expenditure, and the political administrative restrictions of decentralization of health services. Two important questions make up the project: 1) Do the effects of the macroeconomic adjustment on the access to quality health services and their use vary in relation to the characteristics of the state political/administrative process? 2) What are the state characteristics that may mediate between macroeconomic adjustment and performance in health services, and of what kind of nature are the mediations that operate? The author argues that decentralization, on the one hand, recentralizes at state level, leaving municipalities without any autonomy, and on the other hand, that both states and municipalities are restricted in their innovation possibilities in social matters. Moreover, the democratic transition introduces disputes within parties, with the violence, the electoral clientele and corruption, typical of such processes.

Key words: public health, local autonomy, local innovation.

Canales Cerón, Alejandro I. “Demographic Discourse and Post-modernity. A Critical Revision of Malthusian thinking”. Vol. XIX, num. 56, May-August, 2001

In this article it is done the deconstruction of the demographic discourse predominant in the modern society, considering two lines of reflection emerging from the debate around post-modernity. On the one hand, exercise is done based on a revision of the concept of population and on the other hand, based on the revision of the concept modernization, as a framework of significance of the dynamics of population, specially in the circle of the approach of the demographic transition. The central hypothesis consists of that, within the framework of the discourse of post-modernity, population is problematized from the Malthusian thinking where the amount appear as the principal dimension from which the population becomes in the social and political matter. In short, the modern concern for the population is constructed from its relation with the dynamics of modernization. It is from the metastories of modernity from where the population is interpreted and signified within the project of the modernity itself.

Key words: post-modernity, demographic transition, theory, population

Cortés, Fernando, “Basics of the genetic epistemology applied to topics of discussion in the social sciences”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-October, 2001

This work is based in the Piaget’s idea about the epistemological framework to analyze some critical approaches to the Marxist Theory in relation to the fall in the tendency of rate of income and in relation to his theory about the operation of the working matter in the light of the ups and downs of the capitalist economy. In particular, from the idea that the “social facts” are interpretations of events and historical processes. It studies the consequences of the supposition of continuity implied in the critics, redefines the interpretation of the facts and reaches the conclusion that all criteria used for refutation are not valid..

Key Words: Piaget’s epistemological framework, labor market.

De la O Martínez, María Eugenia, “Toward a new model of work organization: radical change or old fashion?”. Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

In this work it is analyzed the discussion about the emergence of a new production model as a result of the changes in the world economy since the eighties. One of the most discussed arguments is the imminent transformation of the fordist paradigm to make the way for the new productive paradigm radically different, specially in its organizational aspect. However, the precepts examination of the main industrial schools and of work through the time, it is possible to identify common thesis related to the new productive approaches. From this point on emerges the necessity of determining if it is about a new organization model of work or about the convergence of the best parts of every method in a situation of the world economy.

It is concluded that it is necessary to carry out an exercise of critical reconstruction of the old and the new arguments in connection with the organization of work and with the new productive paradigms, under a point of view which allows to rescue the social-historical contexts in the world of work. This procedure will permit to obtain interpretative elements for concrete realities, avoiding in this way the acrimonious import of productive models prepared in different realities to the Mexican.

Dettmer G., Jorge, “Essential Problems in the macro-micro articulation: reflections on some not accomplished attempts”. Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

In this article author analyses several attempts of articulation macro-micro in sociology, carried out during eighties and early nineties. Among the theoretical methodological approaches he examines, the most important are: the theory of the power of dependence developed by Richard Emerson; the ritual chains of interaction or the hypothesis of aggregation, postulated by Randall Collins, the hypothesis of the not anticipated consequences of Anthony Giddens and the hypothesis of the representation, formulated by Karin Knorr Cetina. Notwithstanding the limitations which characterize this integrating efforts, this work concludes supporting the idea that only through integration and complementarity of theories and/or macro or microsociological levels it is possible to learn more about the social reality.

Key words: micro-macro link, integration and complementary of theories

Escalante Gonzalbo, Fernando, “The Therapeutic Redemption. Speculation from an Issue of William James”. Vol. XIX, num. 56, May-August, 2001

Religion has been in the history of West, an option to organize and explain the guilt, the secularization process has in it one of their more important axes. The mundanized religion needs to offer responses every time more immediate and worldly, while new psychological therapies prepare a new form of spirituality, unloaded of guilt. If we look at what the new therapies and the new churches offer, convergence results, not only logical, but revealing. In one way or another, it is proposed a polarity between the unauthentic life, tied to material concerns and to mechanical relations, and the authentic life, capable of generosity and love, whether the psychological ideas or the theology used to explain it are true or not, it results to be an emotionally satisfactory knowledge for many people.

Key words: secularization, religiousness, XX century, sociology.

Espinoza Valle, Víctor Alejandro, “Political alternation and local governments in México”. Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

This article offers a general point of view of the processes of political alternation that have taken place in Mexico from the year 1989, when a candidate from the PAN political party won the Government of Baja California. This work presents and out-look of the way in which the local governments in the country are structured, based on comprehensive statistical information. In the first part, the eleven state governments from the opposition which form the background to the federal elections of July 2^{nd, 2000, are analyzed. Next, the current situation of political competitiveness is analyzed by means of the relationship between the governing party and the opposition group. In the third place, the way in which the different municipal governments are distributed is presented, as well as the juxtaposed governments, to show, lastly, the situation maintained by the eleven state congresses under the rule of opposition governments, where in eight of them there are divided governments.}

Key words: political alternation, governments, opposition and congresses.

Favela Gavia, Diana Margarita, “The structure of political opportunities of social movements in closed political systems: examination of the Mexican”

The structure of political opportunities in a closed political system lacks the characteristics frequently used to explain the attributes and outcome of social movements in liberal democracies. This paper explains that in a closed political system social movements are forced to resort to confrontation strategies and consequently receive repressive and excluding answers from the State. Nevertheless, social movements also have an impact, although in a retarded and slanted way, in the political system.

Key words: authoritarianism, political system, Mexico and social movements.

Figari, Claudia, “New options in the internal labor market: logic of formation and management of professions”. Vol. XIX, num. 56, May-August, 2001

In this work they are analyzed the policies of formation and management of profession in a company of machines and electronic products, Argentinean subsidiary of a transnational holding company whose main offices are in Germany. In the last decade, the company is being carried out a restructuring process in the productive, organizational and technological areas, this situation caused a deep reorganization in the internal labor market and in the relative positioning of different professional groups. In this context everything is centered on the human resources office as the dynamizer of restructuring actions. The situation focuses on the logic of formation and professional development implemented, evidencing its function in the forms of labor management, in the codification and transmission mechanisms of a new labor socialization and in the production of new options.

Key words: internal labor market, itinerary, professional development.

Flyvbjerg, Bent, “Habermas and Foucault: Thinkers of the civil society”? Vol. XIX, num. 56 May-August, 2001

Taken together, the works of Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highlight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between the normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actually done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding modern democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democracy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Habermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of coucault evaluatin their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and briging about, democratic social change.

Key words: modernity, Habermas, Foucault, democracy, ethics.

García, Brígida and Orlandina de Oliveira. “Recent transformations in the metropolitan labor markets in Mexico: 1990-1998”

This article analyzes the more recent changes (1990-1998) in the labor market in the three main metropolitan areas of the country (Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey), which are different due to their differential insertion in the national and international economy and because they experienced the restructuring and economic crisis processes in a different way. This article examines and compares several transformations carried out in the indicated areas. In a context of a varying advance of the restructuring and economic recovery processes, the comparative analysis of structurally diverse situations allows to know if, facing a deterioration in the quality of employment at national level there are urban economies or sectors of the population which may have obtained a benefit of the new economic measures, in comparison with other which have been excluded.

Key words: markets, labor, metropolitan areas, economy, gender.

García, Rolando, “Foundation of an epistemology of the social sciences”, Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-October, 2002

In this article Rolando García states that the fact of considering epistemology as a scientific discipline allows to establish the control of the phenomena it studies. He emphasizes that instead of stopping to define epistemology he uses the procedure to “establish” (or to “specify”) its content, just because the disciplines that were coming up historically did not start giving definitions of the control they will study. Inside this frame he locates the ideas of Piaget, who has developed the most complete and profound theory of knowledge, without defining “knowledge”. After such statements, the author focuses in differentiating three levels of analysis which -from the point of view of the constructivist epistemology-are considered essential to start researches or interpretarions of the social reality.

Key words: constructivist epistemology, theory of knowledge, Piaget.

Giglia, Angela, “Sociability and mega.cities”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

In the first part of this article it is revised and discuss critically the sociability concept related both the experience of the urban public space and the urban culture and other concepts linked to this matters such as urbanity, civility and citizenship. In the second part it is analyzed if it is still possible to talk about urban sociability in the case of mega-cities and through examples taken from a recent experience of investigation in Mexico City, three different dimensions of sociability in the mega-cities are proposed. Through the text, urban sociability is understood as an strategic theory valid to study the processes of recomposition of the public space in the mega-cities.

Key words: sociability, city, culture, public space, segregation.

Gil Antón, Manuel, “Around the Weberian Proposal”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

From the general conclusions of the methodological effort of Max Weber, it is related his programmatic proposal for the historic social sciences with one of his works. The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism. And this relation is analyzed from the perspective of the Piagetian constructivism, with the intention of showing his unquestionable achievements and certain limitations that today are surmountable due to the own development of the sciences and to the reorganizing power of constructivism as an epistemological option.

Key words: epistemology, constructivism, Piaget, the unexpected.

Giménez, Gilberto, “Globalization and culture”. Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April,

The discourse of the globalization of culture considers, in general, two opposite thesis: on the one hand, the homogenizing tendency of cultural expressions and on the other its kaleidoscopic fragmentation. None of these thesis has found a theoretically satisfying justification or a convincing empirical support. A more rigorous definition both of culture and globalization leads to redefine this problem in terms of confrontation among specific cultures -considered in different scales-and cultural industries. In fact. These industries are the only ones which may be considered as “global” due to the supraterritorial character of its production and the circulation of the latter. Within this framework, the article sets out several thesis. The author concludes that it is convenient to distance oneself from a certain hyperbolic rhetoric, which takes for granted the emergence of a unified global culture. In any case, the globalization of cultural industries is “weak”, compared to economic globalization. Indeed, “globalization of culture” might well be an improper and abusive expression, because the industrialized and commercialized cultural goods, do not spread out through the planet in an egalitarian and general way.

Gutiérrez Vera, Daniel, “The opposite of the sociological subject”, Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

As the basis of his reflection related to the conflict that confronts social actors, Alain Touraine has formulated a theory about social movements as collective process that express a subject, which postulates a sociological subject in its own right. In the exact opposite of this subject of society one can find located the subject of psycho-analysis, systematized by Jacques Lacan as the “subject of the signifier” or the subject of the unconscious”, the same that notwithstanding his eminently social condition, is not a collective subject. This work contrasts the perspectives of the sociology of Touraine and the psychoanalysis of Lacan in relation to the subject.

Key words: subject, Alain Touraine, Jacques Lacan, Social movements.

Hernández Rodríguez, Rogelio, “Institutional credibility and democratic consolidation in Mexico”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

Despite alternation took place till July 2000, the political process produced substantial modifications in the way of acting of the basic institutions of the system which extended pluralism and political participation. Notwithstanding this advance and the alternation itself, the institutional change still lacks of enough political credibility to guarantee the continuity of the democratic change. The essay discuss theoretically the credibility, the reliability and its relations with the institutional design and the political change, as well the modifications produced in Mexico. It ends with the revision of several indicators about the credibility in several basic institutions.

Key words: policies, institutions, credibility, political support.

Lezama, José Luis, “The Environment as Social Construction: Reflections about Air Pollution in Mexico City”. Vol. XIX, nun. 56, May-August, 2001

This article is reflected around environment as a product of the consciousness and, therefore, as a social fact. Arguments in favor of the social construction of problems as pollution. For this reason, even when it recognizes the importance of the physical dimension of environment, it emphasizes that its presence as an object of concern for citizens, government and its analytical interest, depend on the way in which it is internalized by the system of values of a society, in such a way that it emerges as an object of concern and recognition.

Key words: environment, ecology, culture.

Loaeza, Soledad, “México: The Rebellion of Elite Group”. Vol. XIX, núm. 56, May-August, 2001

During the most part of its history, Mexico has been a country of elite groups, where minority groups have enjoyed a virtual monopoly of political, economic and cultural resources, as well as they have disproportionately influenced the governmental decision making process, the preparation and transmission of ideas, and the dominant images and values in society. The preeminence of elite groups has been a reflect of the authoritarian structure of power. Nevertheless, this historical pattern seems to be finished beginning this new century. In the first part of this essay, it is described the transformations of the Mexican society in this period, using the social mobilization concept; the second part talks about the impact of these changes over the elite groups; later, it deals with the outbreak in the eighties of the inter-elitist pact which had supported authoritarianism during more than fifty years; and, at last it is studied how the problems inside these groups were the base of the new political formations which terminate with the hegemony of the official political party.

Key words: rebellion, elite groups, Mexico, mobilization, masses society.

Luhmann, Niklas, “The Form of Writing”. Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

Luhmann refers in this essay (originally published in the Stanford Literature Review, vol.9.1. Spring, 1992) to one of the communicative ways that have structured modern societies. One of the peculiarities of written communications in that they go beyond the environment of privacy and of individual consciousness. Therefore, they are essentially public and external actions. Within Luhmann’s general theory of social systems, the form of writing became in the last three centuries one of the conditions that allow an uderstanding of the development of modern sociological and historical thinking. The autor emphasizes that the usage given by Jacques Derrida to writing is important and proposes some ways to reach the definition of such term. He suggests the need to explore with conceptual rigor what happens when writing becomes a kind of communication. Luhmann claims that “we are free to discontinue the conceptual traditions and to propose a communication concept (and with that a theory of society) which matches with what we know about the impact of writing and of printing press in the communication system”

Key words: form of writing, system theory, modern sociological thinking.

Millán, René, “Mexico in change: differentiation, coordination and contingency”, Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

The article proposes that the recent change in Mexico can be read as a change in its way of integration and not only as a democratic transition. It argues that the signifying process of systemic differentiation which has departed from the previous integration model is under way. The new model, more differentiated, exacerbates the problems of political and social coordination, as well as their contingency margins.

Key words: change, differentiation, coordination and contingency.

Montesinos, Rafael and Griselda Martínez V., “The sociological uses of Norbert Elias”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

The purpose of this text is to check the sociological proposal of Norbert Elias expressed in his main works, as well as to establish some comparisons with other prestige contemporaneous sociologists. On the other hand, the sociological uses of the author are translated into objects of study for the author of the essay that recovering the concepts and approaches offered by Elias, suggest great possibilities in the reconstruction of the social reality. Obviously, the concept of figuration, the power as a relation of equilibrium among the parties, as well as the psicogenesis and sociogenesis processes emerge as the more important conceptual aspects in this essay.

Key words: configuration, social tissue, introjection.

Murillo, María Victoria, “A rapprochement to the magisterial syndicalism in Latin America”. Vol. XIX, núm. 55, January-April, 2001

The purpose of this article is to analyze sevety-nine works related to the magisterial syndicalism in Latin America and which were published during 1980 and 1990, in like manner, it suggests future directions of research which can contribute to the understanding of syndicalism of the teaching staff in the region. Thematic research shows trends reflecting a historical continuity in the interaction between labor union and government and in the way in which teachers’ associations respond to the educational and salary policies of different administrations. From the formal and research point of view, the conclusion stresses the necessity of moving forward in the systematic study of the question examined in the article starting from the comparisons of several national and regional experiences within the same country, taking advantage of the convergence of educational policies in the region. It suggests the combination of research methodologies like: quantitative, historical, and ethnographic which allow a deeper analysis of the relation among the teaching staff associations, the teachers themselves and the educational policies.

Key words: labor union and government interaction, educatinal policies, teachers.

Pérez Cortés, Sergio, “Artifices of Eternity, Indigenous Memory”. Vol. XIX, num. 56, May-August, 2001.

How could antique cultures maintain their identity despite that their written records were limited or nonexistent? To this apparently simplem question the book written by Enrique Florescano tries to respond. For this reason he mobilizes an important number of research works that, referred to very different cultures, face the same question. As well as other antique societies, the Middle america cultures are, in a certain way, enormous mnemonic devices destined for the safeguarding of the essential values for the preservation of the group. The purpose of the critic note is to show that such small change of perspective allows a renewed and clear look about the obstinate continuity showed by the indigenous culture, Besides, other contributions and authors are incorporated.

Key words: indigenous memory, culture, Middle America.

Pérez Lizaur, Marisol and Leticia Gandara, “Corporation, Profession and Family: The High Executives of Transnational Corporations”. Vol. XIX, num. 56, May-August, 2001

This essay outlines the analytical framework of a collective project of research around the transnational corporations and their high level executives. Here it is explained and explored a new problem in the social sciences, and, in particular in the anthropology. This problem focuses on the globalization process which characterizes the last decades of the XX century, it is interested in the big transnational corporations considered as the essential agents of it and centers on the study of the high corporate executives as a new social group generated and developed in the heart of the big corporations. This essay is organized around the following main conceptual axes: the globalization process, the great corporation and the high corporate executives. Reflections from different analytical angles around these three conceptual axes allow to contextualize, both historically and analytically, the studied group. It is, in short, the main purpose of this work.

Key words: executives, high level, corporations, family.

Pérez Saínz, Juan Pablo y Minor Mora Salas. “The risk of poverty. An analytical proposal from the Costa Ricaen evidence of the decade of nineties”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

Latin American has started a new moment of its modernization marked by the centrality of market, a moment which is included in the dynamics of globalization. This supposes that risk produces one of the structuring processes of the societal order. In social terms. This phenomenon is expressed in the development of vulnerability which would be affecting wide sector of population. In this article, this phenomenon was analyzed emphasizing one of its main manifestations: the risk of impoverishment. In the text, it is studied the Costa Rican reality during the decade of nineties. This country is a good example, because it is a case of intermediate social development in which the impoverishment risk phenomenon would be more pertinent.

Key words: risk, impoverishment, vulnerability, social development, poverty.

Porras Martínez, José Ignacio, “Policy network or public policy network: An introduction to its methodologic of research”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

The study of the public policies has experienced deep changes in the recent times. There is an evidenced incompetence for the tratidional paradigms to respond for the complexity that at the present time acquires the formation, decision and execution process of lacks. Within this framework, a vision which seems to be more promising is the one related to the idea of policy network or public policy network. Nevertheless, the embryonic position of the development of this new approach leaves many doubts related to its possibilities. This article focuses on one of the more valuable aspects, the mentioned methodology of research. In short, it is intended to introduced the methodological principles which guide the empirical analysis of the public political networks, taking as a base a previous study carried out by the author himself.

Key words: policy network, methodology, Bolivia, agriculture, entrepreneurs.

Portes, Alejandro, “The Hidden Dwelling: Sociology as the Analysis of Unexpected Facts”. Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

This article deals with the interest matters for the contemporaneous sociologist theory, as the exam of the factors which modify or can modify the relation media-purpose in the rational action and which cause unexpected consequences of different kind. This theoretical analysis constitutes a critic of the desires of the American sociology which tries to function as a social engineering tool, because it is in charge of recognizing and locating its limitations. Author reintroduces issues already traated by theoretical researches of renown tradition in sociology, relocating them and giving them an original treatment. It is also proposed to determine the scopes and limits of the sociological work focusing on matters related to the intervention in the social reality and to the production of theory.

Key words: rational action, intervention in the social reality

Pozas, María de los Ángeles, “Globalization, Industry and Organization of Work. Reflections for the construction of a Theoretical Frame”, Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

The analysis of the incorporation of the Mexican industry to the global chains of production and their effects on labor relations in the country, requires the construction of a conceptual theoretical frame which facilitates to researchers to deal, in an integral way, with the diverse factors involved in the world restructuring of the productive system. The purpose of this critic note is to contribute to the theoretical discussion checking some debates that such questions have caused among the researches of the developed countries, essentially from the United States. A common element of the studies checked is that they identify the emergency from a new kind of company horizontally integrated in production networks, and this effects the whole organization model of the main production in the international scenario during the XX century. It will correspond to the collective research in this area to ratify which ones of the theoretical arguments used are applicable to the Mexican reality.

Key words: global chains of production, companies horizontally integrated.

Ramírez Parra, María Eugenia, “Social construction of values about sexuality. The case of the women in Xochimilco”, Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

Starting from the transmission of knowledge in respect of sexuality and marriage. In this research the values about sexuality of women from Xochimilco are analyzed. Survey is carried out by means of the exploration of the everyday life, the changes and permanencies operated in their subjectivity, as well as of the secret languages and the social imaginary, elements that combined provide a peculiar characteristic to experiences, practices and interpretations related to sexuality.

It is important to mention that essential premise over which analysis lies is that social behaviors are the result of an structure of relations and meanings that operate in a certain social, cultural an ideological context. Such context is formed by individuals, but at the same time controls their behavior and can be modified, that is why their nature is dynamic.

Key words: sexuality, everiday life, gender.

Rodríguez Solera, Carlos Rafael, “Socioccupational classes and distribution of the personal monetary income in Costa Rica”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

The problem of the unfair distribution of wealth has been present in the main theoretical trends of sociology. In this work, it is analyzed the explanation proposed by Marxism, the structural functionalism and the Weberian Theory, using this last conceptual framework, as well as the Giddens contributions, to study the problem of the unfair distribuition of the personal monetary income in Costa Rica, based on the data obtained in the Survey of Homes in 1995. It is intended to identify the main factors which operate as “capabilities of the market” and which have an influence to obtained economic resources. It is also analyzed the distribution of income and its relation with the socioccupational classes, the sex, the age, the education, as well as the influence of the political power to determine the amount of the income of population.

Key words: socioccupational classes, unfair distribution, income, occupations, education.

Romero, José, “Mexico: four strategies of growth”, Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

Since 1940, Mexico has applied two growth strategies to expand the modern sector, From 1940 to 1982, a growth strategy based on substitutive industrialization was applied that had excellent results and that was abandoned, not for intrinsic problems of this strategy, but for mistakes in the macroeconomic management. The second “strategy started to be applied from the crisis of 1982, and it is based simply in carrying out the “structural reforms” requested by international organisms. The results of this strategy have been disappointing. This has led to set out other alternatives, taking into account that it is not easy to abandon the present strategy. One of them is the expulsion of the exceeding labor force by means of migratory agreements with the United States, and another consists of improving the productivity of the backward sector. In this paper, the first two strategies are analyzed and the alternatives mentioned are also discussed.

Key words: growth, modern, backward, salary, work.

Salvia, Agustín, “Winning Sectors and Losing Societies: Restructuring and Globallization in the Southern Patagonia”. Vol. XIX, num. 56, May-August, 2001

Changes in the economy, in the public companies and in the State during nineties caused in Argentina, as well as in other regions in Latin America, important transformation in the social structure and in the behavior of the economic and political actors. In this context, the regional -local dimension has become the specific scenario of the development of new businesses and new conflicts. The transformation experienced by the enclave economies and the industrial complexes of the Argentinean Patagonia make up an “exemplary” case of this new social phenomenology which emerges under “globalization”. Such process was particularly intensive in those regional subsystems linked to the scheme of the “development pole”. The study of this phenomenon inside the patagonian region results in an effect of economic growing, together with a weakening of the political, institutional and socio-occupational conditions of the previously existing local systems.

Stavenhagen, Rodolfo, Ethnic Conflicts and National State: Some Conclusions. Vol. XIX, núm. 55, January-April, 2001

In this article you will find de conclusions of a compared research about the ethnic conflicts and the national state. Factors which origin such conflicts are analyzed, as well as the dynamics of their evolution and the elements determining the diverse ethnic identities; it is remarked that they used to be formed based on the “ethnopolitical” struggle. In like manner “ethnic speech” as a violence and confrontation factor which may determine the outbreak or achievement of such clashes. Survey explores the economic implications of conflicts and their effects over the economic and social development in different societies. Also analyses the diverse states policies toward ethnic minorities which may help to solve the conflicts or on the contrary, promote and intensify them. Finally, it mentions the international implications conflicts have in connection with the interventions of foreign agents and with the efforts carried out in the center of the UNO to guarantee the human rights of the ethnic minorities. It is pointed out that the concept of “cultural” citizenship may be a useful support to promote respect to pluralism and the human rights in the multiethnic societies.

Key words: ethnicity, nation, conflicts.

Tuñón Pablos, Esperanza and Enrique Wroza Solana, “Gender and adolescent sexuality. The search of an evasive knowledge”.Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

In this text it is established the state of the art of the gender issue and adolescent sexuality in Mexico in the two last decades. It is planned the theoretical contribution of the gender category, the development of studies about sexuality, the historical construction of the term adolescence, the thematic, methodological and disciplinary path, of the studies relating gender and adolescent sexuality and the research agenda open for the immediate future. It is emphasized the dominant spiral figure in this field of knowledge and the pendular movement that exists among the diverse methodological approaches in the most important studies carried out about this problem in the academic environment of the country.

Key words: adolescent, gender, sexuality.

Verduzco, Gustavo, The evolution of the third sector in Mexico and the problem of its meaning in the relation between public and private matters. Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

This article offers some results obtained thanks to the research efforts carried out pursuant to the comparative project coordinated by memebers of the Johns Hopkins University.

First, it is presented a set of reflections related to the present discussion about the terms commonly used to make a reference to the problem expressed due to the concepts of “third sector” or “nonprofit sector” and “civil society”, this last is the more generalized reference both in Mexico and in some other countries. Below we intent to define clearle the characteristics defining the nonprofit sector to then check some of the more common meanings of the terms in the case of Mexico; this part ends with an attempted proposal wich emphasizes the content expressed in that action field. In other section, of historic nature, some of the most important characteristics of the trend that the nonprofit sector has followed in the Mexican case are examined. With this analysis we intent to check the specific situation of Mexico to stress. On the one hand, the existing differences among the third sector institutions and, on the other hand, interpret the actions of the different organizations which form it. At last, they are outlined other proposals which are in a certain extent diferent within the environment of the pertinent literature, the Mexican, above all. Key words: third sector, nonprofit sector, public, private

Werneck Vianna, Luiz, “Brazil: between two republics”, Vol. XX, núm. 58, January-April, 2002

In this Note of circumstance, the society-democratization process is posed as a kind of break of the social control exerted over the subordinate sectors that intend an autonomy of civil rights. From this premise, the author discusses the aspects that have retarded the process of social democratization in Brazil. It mentions some causes why problems like the democratization of access to land in not addressed with real policies. In reference to this last topic, the author gives as an axample the is not addressed relationship of the government with the Movement of Landless Workers, MST (from its acronym in Spanish). Also discussed in the cause why this process has not been objected, neither admitted as the holder of a requirement of consolidation-widening of the Republic. One of the answers set out to explain the controversies, is that the formulation of rights is exchanged for short-term benefits granted to the population and to political forces. In this article, “the social” is considered from different point of view, analyzing mainly the relationship of it with the two republics.

Key word: democratization, civil rights, Movement of Landless Workers (MST).

-----, “The left and the fifteen years of transition in Brazil”. Vol. XIX, num. 55, January-April, 2001

This article travels around the last thirty years of the political history of Brazil in the search of explanations to the failure of the strategy of the “antique left”, represented by the Brazilian Communist Party, that author considers as the main promoter and support of the transition to democracy. Werneck, starts from the dissociation between the political democracy and the social democracy, and from the comparison of interpretations about the causes of the Brazilian delay and the corresponding diagnosis, emphasizing the one that attributes to the performance of the “republican” syndicalism the causes of the disaster in 1964. It also examines the contradictions and hesitations of the direction of PCB and the changing positions of the political forces, including the ones on the center and on the right. In that context studies the emergence of the party of Workers (PT).

Key words: antique left, Communist Party, republican syndicalism.

Yocelevsky, Ricardo A. “The sociological explanation in Marx”. Vol. XIX, num. 57, September-December, 2001

These notes planned the necessity of considering Marx among the classics of sociology for the essential reconstruction of the sociological tradition which is taking place in the present situation of the social sciences. This refoundation of the social science is explained here from the point of view of the constructive epistemology created by Jean Piaget and the contribution of Marx to this enterprises is valued starting from the reading that Piaget makes of him. The location of the social sciences in the first level as an object of the social science proposed by Marx has a theoretical and epistemological importance, for this reason consequences are examined superficially starting from other contemporaneous authors, emplasizing the historical character of the present sociology.

Key words: Marx, Piaget, social science.