Societies change; and sociology has, since its inception, described and evaluated these changes. This article proposes a revised theory of collective learning processes, a conceptual framework which addresses ways in which people make sense of and cope with change. Drawing on Habermas’ classic proposal, but shifting the focus from argumentation towards storytelling, it explains how certain articulations allow for collective learning processes (imagining more inclusive orders), while others block learning processes (imagining more exclusive orders). More specifically, the article points to (...) narrative genres (romance, tragedy, comedy and irony) which organize feelings and shape the social bond, proposing that ironic and tragic stories have the potential to trigger collective learning processes, while romantic and comic stories tend to block them. (shrink)

El artículo se interroga acerca de las posibilidades de alcanzar arreglos institucionales, al menos en el “espacio de gobernanza y de democracia local”, que aproximen nuestras democracias liberales al horizonte normativo del republicanismo moderno. Un reciente trabajo de Pedro Ibarra Güell (2008) servirá de base para nuestras reflexiones. Se expondrán los dilemas a los que se enfrenta su propuesta de una “democracia relacional”, se precisarán las condiciones que ésta debe satisfacer y, a la luz de diversas observaciones empíricas, se juzgará (...) su plausibilidad. (shrink)