The general characteristics of the decades after the last World War, so far as the human situation goes, include two phenomena: these decades are marked by man's dissatisfaction with himself, his confession of ignorance of himself, his anxiety about his future, and also his earnest search for the ground of his being, which can give him a feeling of security with reference to his life here and hereafter; they are also marked by man's pride about his achievements in science and (...) tech nology, a hope of a better life on earth, and a faith in himself as capable of engineering the individual and society for realizing peace, harmony, and happiness for all men. The contemporary thinking man is conscious of the predicament these two kinds of characteristics have created for him, admits failures, hopes for improvements, and works for them. In carrying out this work, he has to and wants to know what human life is, what the meaning and purpose of life are, and why his struggles and achievements have not succeeded in giving every man a reasonable amount of comfort and happiness. He has come to realize also that the accumulation of material comforts does not necessarily lead to happi ness, although happiness for man - except for the monk, fakir, or sannyiisin - is not possible without material comforts. Here we have the problem. (shrink)

Manuel Castells: un elogio emocional e inofensivo de las movilizaciones de protestaCuatro observaciones preliminares sirven para enmarcar una lectura crítica de la obra reciente de Manuel Castells, Redes de indignación y esperanza. En primer lugar este género de elogio exaltado e inofensivo de las movilizaciones de protesta actuales en el mundo ha dado lugar en muy poco tiempo a una amplia literatura, pero también ha suscitado no pocas críticas, ya que se trata por general de estudios y traba..

We introduce stellar photometry, its purpose and relationship to other astronomical quantities, presenting it within the context of astronomical research at the Vatican Observatory. We demonstrate the usefulness of the Vilnius Photometric System previously shown at Vilnius Astronomical Obs., Edinburgh Royal Obs., and Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, and then adopted by the Vatican Observatory for use with its Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham, AZ, USA. The development of astronomical observations has led from photographic plates, through photoelectric detectors (...) to the use of sensitive CCD cameras. Expanding the photoelectric databank of “Vilnius Stars”, we describe the development of new techniques of data-acquisition, calibration to photometric standards, stellar classification and interstellar-matter characterization. Looking ahead, we briefly describe the extensive data set, and our plans for further detailed analyses. (shrink)

La construcción de la identidad es un elemento constitutivo en el desarrollo vital de las personas y de los colectivos. En nuestro mundo actual globalizado y diverso, este elemento cobra una relevancia nuclear, más si cabe desde una mirada de los flujos migratorios y la integración social. Es en el día a día donde se juegan muchas de las dinámicas identitarias, en las que se entrelazan procesos de identidad personal y colectiva, tendencias más estáticas y dinámicas. El objetivo de este (...) trabajo es aportar luz a los modelos de integración y de cohesión social desde los procesos de construcción identitaria, en diálogo con el modelo de integración mixto. Para este fin, se ha presentado muy enriquecedor el dialogo entre el modelo de conductas mayoritarias y minoritarias de J. L. Segundo, el enfoque de las capacidades de A. Sen, los modelos clásicos de integración de personas inmigrantes, el modelo de construcción de identidades de M. Castells, junto al estudio empírico realizado por P. Norris. (shrink)

My main point is that the creation of a free public time implies the creation of a democratic collective inspired by the project of social ecology. The first and second parts of this article focus on the modern social phenomena correlated to the general crisis and the emergence of the Internet Age (Castells, 2012). The third and fourth parts focus on new significations that seem to inspire modern social movements and the challenges that modern democratic ecological collectivities face. I use (...) the term “social ecology” as defined by Murray Bookchin: “Social ecology is based on the conviction that nearly all of our present ecological problems originate in deep-seated social problems” (Bookchin, 2006, p. 19). And I use the term “democracy” exclusively in the original, true meaning, of direct democracy where society is self-governed by the equal participation of every individual to political decisions and functions, as opposed to a modern representative democracy or republic, where political decisions rest in the hands of an oligarchy. In this sense, a truly democratic political collectivity is a truly ecological collectivity and vice versa. (shrink)

Como respuesta a las inquietudes que deja el debate sobre el pluralismo cultural en el marco del Forum de las culturas 2004, celebrado en Barcelona, el artículo presenta la tesis de que la pluralidad cultural responde más a la lógica del mercado que a un esfuerzo denodado por comprender la dinámica de la diversidad cultural. En este sentido, los esfuerzos por pensar el pluralismo cultural en el marco del evento, por argumentar en contra de tesis como las del choque de (...) civilizaciones de Samuel P. Huntington, intentan aclarar los difundidos temores de una uniformidad cultural fruto de un proceso de globalización económica potenciado por el avance tecnológico aplicado a las comunicaciones. El problema está en que el temor difundido puede servir al mismo propósito que lo convoca. En este orden de ideas, la estructura del análisis se divide en tres partes. Primero, una precisión conceptual de globalización a partir del trabajo de Manuel Castells en su trilogía titulada La era de la información; segundo, presentación de las líneas del debate sobre globalización y cultura en el marco del Forum; y tercero presenta la circularidad del argumento que afirma al pluralismo cultural en contra de la globalización. (shrink)

Self-organization of modern society more and more reveals as self-organization of social networks. This become obvious thanks to the appearance of informational web of internet that finish building over social networks as such. Socialcommunicative practice of networks strengthens their self-organizing and selfregulative aspect of their activity. Social researchers create the theoretic ground that allows to analyze phenomenon of network. F. de Saussure investigated the language as a web of notions which exists in network of social-communicated ties. P. Blau and R. (...) Emerson realized that when actors interact and communicate they create the network of social ties. The idea of social networks influenced upon M. Castells, who assumes that structure of modern society penetrates by multitude of communicative ties and become more and more similar to the network.J.L. Moreno considered that in horizontal communication networks formed confidence, solidarity and social capital and mutual support of men. B. Kollanyi, Sz. Molnar and L. Szekely notice that in network society increases the role and significance of personal moral position of man, and growth of his social capital in result of equal communication and other reasons. The increased intensity of communication and reflection is a important factor of self-organization of social networks. (shrink)