Los modos de decir en la política. Una intervención al análisis del discurso

The aim of this article is to discuss essential notions of political discourse analysis in the light of Jacques Rancière's theoretical proposals. To achieve this purpose, we will review definitions and categories with which different authors contributed to the development of that discipline. We suggest that this approach of political enunciation analysis would improve the episte-mological organization of the discipline and, at the same time, would allow for reconsideration of problematic issues of contemporary politics (collective building). With this approach, we can also reflect on the work of the analyst as part of an emancipation project.     

Entre la racionalidad tecnocrática y la gobernabilidad La importancia del consenso político en México

Since the 1980s the technocratic elite has controlled the Mexican economy, regardless of whether the country is governed by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or an opposition party. On top of showing an uncommitted stance in ideological or party terms, the elite has maintained a strict control of national public finances thus generating considerable political and electoral consequences in the country. Regardless of whether there exist or not different economic options, the main problem lies in that this elite has been unable to gain the society's support. The rationality that characterizes this elite does not admit communication with society nor does it take into consideration its opinion concerning the decisions they take. This has led to an extreme politicization of economic decisions of political parties. This article intends to expose the features of the Mexican technocracy, its development and survival during the transition, as well as the mediation flaws that have impeded communication between the society and governmental authorities concerning the development and implementation of economic measures.     

La resistencia al programa fuerte en la sociología del conocimiento: la asepsia científica y la amenaza del relativismo

In this article we defend the plausibility of adopting a Strong Program in the Sociology of Knowledge. We critically analyze various objections against it; in particular, we show that the auto-refutation charge is not decisive. We offer a Mertonian hypothesis to explain the reason why the Strong Program continues to be the target of very passionate attacks and mockery, despite its prima facie attractiveness and its affinity with contemporary epistemology. Such hypothesis suggests that at least some of the passionate arguments against the Strong Program are motivated by outrage occurring as a result of the violation of a central value of scientific endeavor.     

Inmigrantes laborales y flujo en tránsito en la Frontera Sur de México: dos manifestaciones del proceso y una política migratoria

This text presents a characterization of Guatemalan labor immigration into Mexico, its historical perspective and processes of change in relation to new places of destination, crossings and labor insertions. It also sets out the most fundamental traits of migrants who cross Mexican territory when in transit from Central America, new crossing trajectories and social costs in terms of human rights, within a framework of greater social vulnerability. It analyzes the role that the Mexican state has played in relation to the establishment of a new migration policy set forth in the last two administrations (2001–2012) by the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party), institutional and legislative arrandos gements, progress and unresolved matters with respect to the proclamation of human and labor rights. It is concluded that even though unprecedented progress has been made in terms of immigration regulations, these policies still have serious shortcomings with regards to Central American immigration into Mexico, be it labor immigration or migrants in transit. This migration has taken on new forms and has registered qualitative and quantitative changes in crossing, in an environment of greater risk in Mexican territory.     

Élites gubernamentales en tres entidades federales de México (2000-2012) Un análisis estructural

This article aims at analyzing the profile and the social structure resulting from the career itineraries of governmental elites in the states of Guanajuato, the State of Mexico, and Mexico City during the 2000-2012 period. The author applies a mixed method combining the conventional sociological analysis with a network approach. The study observes in the first place the relevance of the local space for the creation and development of elites. Secondly, it identifies the regularities and divergences in the elite recruitment and development processes in the three states under study. Finally, the analysis reveals that instability in employment may be simultaneously construed as uncertainty and an asset since it allows the local elites to gather a considerable political and social capital.     

Enfrentando las políticas de integración y de ciudadanía: migrantes latinoamericanos en la ciudad europea

Over the last two decades, and with the so-called failure of multiculturalism, an important debate has emerged around integration policy making for immigrants in Europe. While these policies should aim to strengthen the participation of immigrant groups in all spheres of society and encourage intercultural processes, in practise, immigrants are made to shoulder the whole responsibility of their integration. Given the international economic and political context, Europe has underscored its rejection of non-western immigration and its policies tend to enforce control measures as well as the establishment of strict selection criteria. As shown in the Latin-American case, the efficiency of these policies is limited and migrants are participating in host societies through the use of informal social and civic networks and transnational activities developed by migrants themselves, instead of through formal policies designed to integrate them. Immigrants are opening alternative channels of participation in response to the weakness in the government's policies. The resurgence of the concepts of citizenship and national identity as a strategy for integration and social cohesion, and the urgency that characterises these integration policies despite the fact that they are processes that require long-term views and goals, are leading to the inefficiency –if not the failure– of these legislative efforts.     

Planteamiento teórico y evidencia del desplazamiento gradual del Estado autoritario al Estado pragmático en México: la transformación de las élites

Analyses of political change in Mexico since the government shift achieved in July 2000 have been undertaken with a focus on the democratic political transition that led to the so-called alternation, that is, from the stance of a classical approach about State transformations that led from an authoritarian stage to democratization. Analytical approaches in Mexico concerning political change are focused on the undeniable democratic practice at the ballot boxes; however, the outcomes' transparency, the adoption of a new regime, and the procedural condition of the young Mexican democracy make it appropriate to consider this shift from the realist view of the exercise of power and major mechanisms for the establishment of élites' political-governmental decisions. Thus, pragmatism is put forward as an alternative political approach. This article intends to establish that political change in Mexico has gradually changed from its past condition as an authoritarian State to become a pragmatic State, favored by the advent of governmental technocracy, globalization, the market, the us hegemonic ideology, and the obvious involvement of corporate elites contained in State power institutions.     

Analizando la violencia después del conflicto: el caso de Guatemala en un estudio sub-nacional

This article conceptualizes post-conflict violence by developing its definition, analyzing the factors which can explain it and constructing a typology of eight forms of violence. A central concern of this analysis is that there are different degrees of relation between the violence of conflicts and post-conflict violence given that some forms are fully related, while others are only partially related, and still others are completely independent of armed conflict. While general conditions of peace define post-conflict violence in a weak sense, direct legacies of war define post-conflict violence in a strong sense. The Guatemalan case study allows to identify patterns related to each form of violence at a sub-national level of analysis.     

Más allá de la representación y del clientelismo: hacia un lenguaje de la intermediación política

This paper proposes rethinking conceptual scopes of the term “political mediation”, in order to illustrate the analytical scope of indirect politics, whose range of possibilities has usually been thought of as if contained between the extremes of political representation and patronage. An analytical exercise is offered as one possible and tentative path to specify not only a vocabulary which is more sensitive to the demands of the present but to –in the words of Bunge– allow the initial reinterpretation of old symbols of our political vocabulary. To this end, in addition to a linguistic and conceptual journey of the term “intermediation”, three analytical dimensions of indirect policy are developed; thus facilitating dialogue with theories of representation, and leading to an analytical model that we call “cube of indirect politics”. We conclude with a brief case classification exercise intended to show the displacements produced by this model in understanding certain indirect political experiences.     

Migración,lucha por la vivienda y transnacionalismo socio-político: El caso de Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio

Transnationalism is, within Mexican migration studies, the predominant perspective to explain collective action undertaken by Mexicans in the United States. It takes into account the Mexican “diaspora's” interest and political participation in their hometowns. This article challenges transnationalism's basic tenet and proposes, instead, the notion of socio-political transnationalism. Nevertheless, the article emphasizes on how migrants fist act collectively to improve their living conditions in the host societies, rather than organizing around their ties with their homeland. This kind of organizing does not imply indifference towards the situation in their country of origin. It does mean, however, that the transnational perspective falls into a second plane. To illustrate, we will depict the history of Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio, an immigrants' organization in the City of New York, principally Mexican based, and their struggle against the gentrifying attempts taking place in East Harlem. We will also look at their political vision and the links they have created with organizations in Mexico.     

Entre la pampa del lenguaje y el alambrado de la escritura: la mancha roja como síntoma de la ambigüedad de lo real en La ocasión de Juan José Saer

La presencia recurrente del color rojo en La ocasión de Saer desempeña una función desestabilizadora en relación a la representación figurativa. En el artículo se establecen analogías entre esta función y el elemento voluble, no mimético de la pintura que el pensador e historiador de arte, Georges Didi-Huberman, denomina como “pan” en contraste con el detalle, categoría asociada con el carácter icónico de la pintura. Al igual que el “pan”, las manchas rojas en la novela apuntan a la dimensión de lo real que se resiste a la legibilidad y señala los límites de la narrativa realista. Saer se vale de contrastes cromáticos para aludir a tensiones políticas y epistemólogicas y a las paradojas de escribir una novela situada en el siglo diecinueve pero incorporando la experiencia literaria del siglo veinte.     

Más allá del crisol de razas: los judíos argentinos,el peronismo y la lucha por un hogar multicultural

Acknowledging the surge of Peronism as a critical turning point in Argentina's modern history -which has had a lasting impact on the contemporary society-, this study is focused on a very specific analytical perspective: the peculiarities of the process of insertion of different ethnic groups and their Argentina-born descendants during the first Peronism. The author describes changes in political representation and the various dimensions of the participative democratization process that the Peronist Argentina went through, and he later examines the Peronist efforts to mobilizing support within the Jewish-Argentinian population. Assuming that instead of promoting a traditional melting pot, the regime gave an increasing legitimacy and an unprecedented acknowledgment to multiple identities, this article asserts that before the rise of Peronism, Jewish were not always considered as part of the Argentinian polis, civitas or demos. Finally, the concept of citizenship is used as focal point and analytic framework to understand the change in the relationship among Argentinian-Jewish, the institutions, and the symbols of the Argentinian state.     

Políticas de la memoria. A propósito de su vigésimo aniversario en la ciudad de La Plata (Argentina): la configuración de un campo y sus prácticas

This article aims to outline and explain the development of twenty years of politics of memory in a city in Argentina. The configuration of institutions and social actors, the scope and limitations of their practices are described in order to understand the current timing of the trials of repressors of the last military dictatorship (1976–1983). In turn, the processes around the demand for justice and its impact on the city of La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires, are analyzed, from the perspective of the so-called time of “outbreak of memory”, launched since the mid-1990s.     

Integración,mestizaje y nacionalismo en el México revolucionario. Forjando Patria de Manuel Gamio: la diversidad subordinada al afán de unidad

This paper analyzes the integration program in Manuel Gamio's Forjando Patria as a national project arising in the historical context of revolutionary Mexico, where cultural diversity is conditional on the idea of unity. Firstly, we trace the relationship of the integration program with its history, the concepts of “mestizaje” and “mestizo” of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Secondly, we analyze the influence of some European models of nationality and socio-cultural change on Gamio's integrationism, in the context of socio-ethnic heterogeneity in Mexico during 1916. Finally, we highlight the links between the concepts of cultural diversity become visible, nation and nationalism in this author's work.     

Sobre l’essència del gènere líric: una reflexió teòrica a l’entorn de la paraula poètica en el llindar de l’experimentació

Abstract

Aquest article defensa que la impossibilitat de definir el gènere líric deriva del mateix caràcter experimental de la praxi poètica, que indaga en els signes amb què opera en un context de màxima expressivitat, i amb independència de la conjuntura històrica i de les actituds deliberadament rupturistes. Així doncs, per bé que s’hi analitzen algunes de les pràctiques d’experimentació habituals – com l’acostament de la poesia a la pintura, la música, o la matemàtica –, el que es resol és que la mateixa tradició poètica suscita ja una fèrtil activitat exploratòria: promou, per una banda, la revisió de tipologies estereotipades; i per una altra, la indagació en la capacitat de la llengua d’expressar el no conscient, i de conceptualitzar la realitat tot reinterpretant-la. L’estudi para esment, però, en el territori català, i sobretot en el vessant poètic d’Albert Ràfols-Casamada, i en els poemes Uh, d’Enric Casasses, i Bratislava o Bucarest, de Manel Ollé.