El Proyecto Research Articles

The issue of social control in late modernity: alienation and narrativity

This article shows to what extent the new situation in our late-modern societies can see a further deepening of the social control typical of soft totalitarianism we experience in our globalised democracies, through the mechanisms already denounced by Arendt in her The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951): the promotion of rootlessness and superfluity. In particular, the paper focus on what Eliot (1927) called the hollow man or what philosophy and sociology have called the one-dimensional man, the absent subject or the saturated self, which the technological, social, cultural and economic environment in which we live so favours. The article diagnoses the reasons and means by which the alienation of the subject occurs, but proposes narrative and testimony as ways of combating social control of a psychopolitical kind[1]. [1] Investigación financiada por el proyecto del Banco de Santander – CEU titulado “Control social, posmodernidad y comunidad política” (COSOPOC) con código B920PR02 // FUSPBC-PPC14/2018.

How Do You Translate Compaña?

Working as principal investigator and head of the translation team for El proyecto de la literatura puertorriqueña / the Puerto Rican Literature Project (PRLP)—a free, bilingual, user-friendly, and open access digital portal that anyone can use to learn about and teach Puerto Rican poetry—has provided the author with insight about the colonial conditions that structure translation as word-making practice, survival strategy, and decolonial methodology. In collaborating with Puerto Rican writers, translators, investigators, and scholars and sustaining a dialogue with a long history of personal and collective archival work, the author has at times found, in collaboration with literary peers, that Puerto Ricans often act as self-translators, archivists, and historians, while navigating the conditional visibility and general invisibilization of their modes of speech, their literatures, and their lives.

From Utopia to Dystopia: The Demise of the Revolutionary Dream in Futuristic Cuban Cinema

The armed insurrection that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 was one of the most influential events of the 20th century. Like the Russian and Mexican revolutions before it, the Cuban revolution set out to bring social justice and prosperity to a country that had suffered the evils of corrupt regimes. A small country thus became the center of world debates about equality, culture, and class struggle, attracting the attention of political leaders not only from Latin America but also from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Its intent to forge a model society has often been described in utopian terms. Writers, artists, and filmmakers turned to utopia as a metaphor to trace the evolution of the arts in the island from the enthusiasm and optimism of the first moments to the dystopian hopelessness and despair of the last decades. Indeed, the Cuban revolution, like so many other social revolutions of the 20th century, became the victim of a whole series of internal and external forces that ended up turning the promised dream into a nightmare tainted by autocratic leadership, repression, and political and economic isolation. Although Cuban literature has extensively addressed these issues since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it is only recently that we can find similar trends in a cinematic output that portrays Cuba as a utopia gone sour. This article examines recent films such as Alejandro Brugués’ Juan de los Muertos (2011), Tomás Piard’s Los desastres de la Guerra (2012), Eduardo del Llano’s Omega 3 (2014), Rafael Ramírez’s Diario de la niebla (2016), Yimit Ramírez’s Gloria eterna (2017), Alejandro Alonso’s El Proyecto (2017), and Miguel Coyula’s Corazón Azul (2021). These films use futuristic imageries to offer a poignant (and often apocalyptic) depiction of the harsh paradoxes of contemporary life in Cuba while reflecting upon the downfall of utopia.

Entre la autonomía provincial y el proyecto nacional:la frontera norte santafesina en tiempos de laConfederación Argentina, 1852-1861

Los procesos de incorporacion de espacios fronterizos al Estado nacional en formacion durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX componen una problematica especifica de analisis. En sus abordajes actuales, la frontera es concebida como un espacio constituido por variadas y complejas relaciones entre los grupos en contacto que incluyen tanto su convivencia como conflictos, negociaciones y acuerdos. Desde esta perspectiva, en el presente texto distinguimos aquellos actores que participaron en la frontera norte santafesina durante el periodo de la Confederacion Argentina. A su vez, realizamos una aproximacion a las relaciones que sostuvieron para definir determinados aspectos que nos permiten delinear posteriores ejes de indagacion: la organizacion militar de la frontera norte santafesina, expediciones provinciales y el proyecto de avance sobre territorio chaqueno, y por ultimo, la trama de relaciones fronterizas sostenidas por indigenas, paisanos y misioneros.

Ferréz: entre la propuesta colectiva y el proyecto individual

Along with a collective proposal for self-assertion of a peripheral identity and style, the literature produced in Sao Paulo’s outlying areas from the late 90s is composed of a series of writers that show their concern regarding the construction of self-representation and their texts’ beyond the marginal designation, while self-identifying as part of a group. This article analyzes the legitimization and consecration mechanisms of the paulistano author Ferrez taking into account the complexity of his profile as a literary writer.

La Formación Docente en Argentina. El Proyecto “Polos de Desarrollo” a partir las narrativas de los actores

Throughout the history of the Argentine teacher training, many processes have gone through that have attempted to implement differentiated training projects with their own characterizations. It is possible to identify experiences that had different intentions of base, and varied intensities in their effects, but left traces that today survive in the institutions, in the provincial educational systems and in the subjects themselves. In this article we will especially recover the project “Poles de Desarrollo (2000-20001)” from the testimonies of the actors themselves and from the field of teacher training. We will use the biographical-narrative approach, since it gives us the possibility to reconstruct and reorganize the experience of the actors through the narrative, attributing meanings to the past with reference to the present and to the personal conceptions. This policy lacks visibility in Argentine academic productions and therefore constitutes the main object of our research.

The DIYLab project (Do It Yourself in Education: Expanding Digital Competence to Foster Student Agency and Collaborative Learning) / El proyecto DIYLab (Do It Yourself in Education: Expanding Digital Competence to Foster Student Agency and Collaborative Learning)

The DIYLab project aims to promote lifelong learning by expanding students’ digital competences, autonomy and creativity through collaborative and meaningful learning. DIYLab locates students at the centre of the learning experience, turning them into the producer of their own learning material. This three-year-old project has been implemented in primary schools, secondary schools and universities in three European countries, where students create digital products that are subsequently published through a Hub or digital centre.

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In a changing context in and for the university, with new organizational approaches coming from the unique situation – such as that associated with the EHEA –, along with the undeniable technological progress; it is also unequivocal the permanence and, at times, the aggravation of social and economic inequalities in the national and international levels. That is why we must try to educate college students through ways and means capable of strengthening a consistent scale of social values and attitudes; taking into account the self-construction of personality and giving special attention to social experiences. Since in a changing social and economic environment, a more conscious and active citizenship, more adaptable and competitive while more supportive and critical, will be the thorough answer. The proposal outlined in this paper considers service-learning as an instruction path inside the classroom, but even beyond the class. Thus, we are presenting the PEINAS project (Multicultural Pedagogy and service-learning), an experience developed at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where students of 2nd year of the Degree in Pedagogy. Within this program, students learn while they are performing a service with organizations working for interculturalism. Among the conclusions reached, most importantly, here and now, it is that service-learning shall be understood as a vector of innovation, with the assistance of other strategies it can produce a better connection between the academic and social dimensions of learning.How to reference this articlePriegue Caamano, D., & Sotelino Losada, A. (2016). Aprendizaje-Servicio y construccion de una ciudadania intercultural: El proyecto PEINAS.

Good clinical outcomes from a 7-year holistic programme of fistula repair in Guinea.

Female genital fistula remains a public health concern in developing countries. From January 2007 to September 2013, the Fistula Care project, managed by EngenderHealth in partnership with the Ministry of Health and supported by USAID, integrated fistula repair services in the maternity wards of general hospitals in Guinea. The objective of this article was to present and discuss the clinical outcomes of 7years of work involving 2116 women repaired in three hospitals across the country. This was a retrospective cohort study using data abstracted from medical records for fistula repairs conducted from 2007 to 2013. The study data were reviewed during the period April to August 2014. The majority of the 2116 women who underwent surgical repair had vesicovaginal fistula (n=2045, 97%) and 3% had rectovaginal fistula or a combination of both. Overall 1748 (83%) had a closed fistula and were continent of urine immediately after surgery. At discharge, 1795 women (85%) had a closed fistula and 1680 (79%) were dry, meaning they no longer leaked urine and/or faeces. One hundred and fifteen (5%) remained with residual incontinence despite fistula closure. Follow-up at 3months was completed by 1663 (79%) women of whom 1405 (84.5%) had their fistula closed and 80% were continent. Twenty-one per cent were lost to follow-up. Routine programmatic repair for obstetric fistula in low resources settings can yield good outcomes. However, more efforts are needed to address loss to follow-up, sustain the results and prevent the occurrence and/or recurrence of fistula.

Vocal-Medical: On-Line Language Learning and Cultural Preparation for Emergency Services

Abstract The VOCAL-Medical Project (Vocationally Oriented Culture and Language – Medical) is a two year Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project, funded by the EU Commission, and part of the Lifelong Learning Programme. It follows on from two earlier EU projects, namely VOCAL (www.vocalproject.eu) and the award winning Problem-SOLVE. The VOCAL-Medical project partnership brings together 14 partner countries and 9 languages. The end product will be an on-line training tool for emergency staff who deal with patients who do not understand the local language. There will be also an app for mobile phones (smart phones) and tablets (with HTML5 functionalities) which can be used by the consultant in an emergency medical situation. This project is directed at professionals in the medical sector who need to communicate with patients who are non-nationals in emergency situations where good communication skills can literally mean the difference between life and death.It responds to a growing need in the medical sector to overcome the language andintercultural barriers which are occurring with ever greater frequency as a result of demographic changes and increased mobility. The project aims to bridge the gap between different healthcare systems and different cultural behaviours inherent in the doctor-patient relationship. This has benefits for healthcare systems, for the professionals who work in them and for patients. Resumen El Proyecto VOCAL-Medical (Vocationally Oriented Culture and Language – Medical / Cultura e Idioma Medico Orientado a la Formacion Profesional Vocacional) es un proyecto de dos anos del Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation (Transferencia de la Innovacion), financiado por la Comision Europea, dentro del Programa de Aprendizaje Permanente. (Lifelong Learning Programme). Es una continuacion de dos anteriores proyectos de la UE: VOCAL (www.vocalproject.eu) y el ganador de premios Problem-SOLVE.

The Resurrection Project of Mexican Catholic Chicago: Spiritual Activism and Liberating Praxis

Drawing on historical archives, oral history interviews and ethnographic material, this essay explores the history of Chicago’s “The Resurrection Project”/ El Proyecto Resurreccion , a community development organization that builds healthy communities through housing and critical consciousness. The mission of the organization emerges from the lived realities of Mexican Catholic Chicago, formulated in large part by the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as a history of exclusion, displacement and marginalization in the Windy City. It argues that the spiritual activism and liberating praxis articulated between 1990 and 2005—namely housing and the formation of a critical consciousness—profoundly links experience, culture and faith. This integration of lived realities, culture and faith suggests an expansive view of popular religion.

The People, Not the Movement

The social mobilization against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in Costa Rica between 2002 and 2007 was the strongest of any nation associated with the treaty. The popular opposition was able to delay for years and nearly stop its ratification. It did so by amassing support from the public at large and, in preparation for a national referendum, adopting a strategy of complete decentralization and horizontal, voluntary work at the grassroots level. This strategy ultimately led to a loss of the battle against the agreement, but it avoided costly clashes over leadership and forced the Costa Rican government to become more open and transparent vis-à-vis the popular organizations and the public. La movilización social costarricense contra el CAFTA entre 2002 y 2007 fue la más contundente en cualquier país asociado al tratado. La oposición popular logró detener el proyecto por varios años y casi evita su ratificación. Su éxito se basó en el apoyo general del público y, en preparación para un referendo nacional, la adopción de una estrategia descentralizada y horizontal fundamentada en el voluntariado de grupos de base. Esta estrategia finalmente resultó en la pérdida de la batalla contra el tratado, pero evitó costosas desavenencias en torno al liderazgo y obligó al gobierno costarricense a abrirse y dar cuentas más transparentes a las organizaciones populares y el público en general.

Tourist Attitudes Towards Marine Mammal Tourism: An Example from the Dominican Republic

In 2002, residents of the village of Bayahibe, Dominican Republic, became concerned about their local dolphin population when eight bottlenose dolphins were captured for a Dominican dolphinarium off the coast of their village within a national park. Subsequently, a collaborative project, El Proyecto Amigos de los Delfines, was established to learn more about this dolphin population and to initiate conservation efforts in the region. In 2007, a survey of tourists in Bayahibe was conducted to assess the degree of interest in local sustainable marine mammal tourism. The results indicated that tourists in this area had a high concern for dolphin conservation and would rather see wild than captive dolphins. Respondents also expressed support for sustainable (vs. conventional) tourism practices.

Response to Nondipping in Patients With Hypertension

We thank Ben-Dov and Bursztyn for their interest in our article1 and also for their positive feedback and criticism.2 We would like to try to answer directly to the 3 points raised in their letter. First, is siesta influencing the nocturnal BP dip? In the Spanish ambulatory blood pressure monitoring registry, the daytime period was calculated from the time of wake-up in the morning to the time of going to bed in the evening. However, in our opinion, 2 aspects minimize a possible …

Community engagement in health research: two decades of experience from a research project on HIV in rural Uganda

To describe how a research project on HIV epidemiology in rural Uganda has engaged the community over the past two decades, describing activities, opportunities and challenges that have arisen. The review draws on the experience of the authors as investigators involved in the project at various times since its inception in 1989, and on project documents and peer-reviewed publications. The project attracts community interest, participation and support mostly through community groups. The three main areas of activity are: health care and promotion, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and community development aimed at poverty reduction. Key opportunities arise from the long-term joint commitment of the project and the community over nearly 20 years, and the potential to accommodate research beyond HIV. Challenges arise from participation fatigue, countered by innovations for the community and investment in capacity development for staff, and from the need to balance community development expectations and the project focus on HIV research. Judged by criteria of longevity, acceptance, and scientific output, community engagement in this HIV research project in rural Uganda has been successful. The experience from this project contributes to the collective documentation and analysis of case studies from various research projects in developing countries which identify good practices from multiple stakeholder perspectives.

Elucidating empowerment in El Proyecto Bienestar (the Well‐Being Project)

This paper describes differences in how socioculturally diverse participants in one community-based participatory research project negotiated 'empowerment', and the implications of those differences for nurses involved in farmworker health and safety efforts. Internationally, empowerment and community participation are increasingly being used as strategies to reduce health disparities. Theories of empowerment vary in the academic literature and their connotations vary across cultures. Study participants were part of El Proyecto Bienestar, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project whose aim was to identify and respond to occupational and environmental health threats in one Mexican-American farmworker community in the United States of America. Participant observation was used to audiorecord 18 participants in the third year (2006) of this 4-year project discussing future project activities. Discourse analysis was used to analyse the transcripts. While participants agreed that 'empowerment' was central to the project, they had different perspectives on what the term meant and the role that the project should play in empowering the farmworker community. Empowerment discourses positioned the project in three ways: (1) as an instrument used to strengthen farmworkers' collective political voice, (2) as an instrument used to represent multiple community interests and (3) as an instrument used to advocate on behalf of farmworkers. Individuals used multiple discourses signifying the complexity in participants' roles and obligations. Balancing power and developing knowledge collaboratively requires understanding multiple approaches to empowerment. Community empowerment as an outcome should not come at the expense of individual empowerment as part of the CBPR process.

Striving to Provide Opportunities for Farm Worker Community Participation in Research

Hispanic farm workers and their families in the U.S. face a number of environmental and occupational health risks, yet they are rarely given the opportunity to choose the focus of the research and interventions that take place in their communities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be one effective approach to changing this situation. CBPR is an approach to research that makes community members partners in research rather than subjects of research. This article describes the experience of El Proyecto Bienestar (The Well-Being Project), a CBPR project in the Yakima Valley, Washington, with the aim of facilitating the Hispanic community's involvement in the identification and prioritization of occupational and environmental health issues among farm workers. The project utilized three forms of data collection (key informant interviews, community surveys, and a town hall meeting) to create a list of environmental and occupational health issues of concern. Investigators strove to provide opportunities for community participation in the various stages of research: study concept and design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, conclusions, and dissemination of results. This article describes the involvement that community members had at each stage of the three forms of data collection and outlines the basic findings that led the Community Advisory Board to prioritize four areas for future work. In addition, it describes the challenges the project faced from the researcher perspective. Using examples from this experience, we conclude that this model may be an effective way for farm workers and their families to have a voice in prioritizing health and safety issues for research and action in their communities.

Out-of-Office Blood Pressure Control Among Treated Subjects

To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Banegas et al1 dealing with the control of office blood pressure (BP) and daytime ambulatory BP in 12 897 treated patients with hypertension in primary care settings in Spain. They found that office BP was adequately controlled (<140/90 mm Hg) in only 23.6% of their patients. In contrast, daytime ambulatory BP was adequately controlled (<135/85 mm Hg) in 51.6% of patients. We previously conducted a comparable survey in primary care settings in Japan, …

Rapid achievement of the child survival millennium development goal: evidence from the Navrongo experiment in Northern Ghana

To determine the impact of deploying nurses and volunteers to village locations on demographic and health outcomes. We implemented an experimental design that emphasizes the value of aligning community health services with traditional social institutions that organize village life. Data for this analysis come from the Navrongo demographic surveillance system, a longitudinal database that tracks fertility, mortality, and migration events over time. The experiment uses conventional demographic methods for estimating mortality rates from longitudinal demographic surveillance registers. Posting nurses to community locations reduced childhood mortality rates by over half in 3 years and accelerated attainment of the childhood-survival millennium development goal (MDG) in the study areas relative to trends observed in comparison areas. Results from the Navrongo experiment demonstrate that community health and family planning programmes can have an impact on childhood mortality. Posting nurses to communities can dramatically accelerate the pace of progress in achieving the childhood-survival MDGs. Community-volunteer approaches, however, have no additional impact, a finding that challenges the child survival value of international investment in volunteer-based health programmes. The total cost of the intensive arm of the project is less than $10 per capita per year. Navrongo research thus demonstrates affordable means of attaining the child survival MDG agenda with existing technologies.

Homogamia educacional en México y Brasil, 1970-2000: Pautas y tendencias

En un contexto historico de expansion educativa, mejora de los rendimientos de la educacion y aumento de la participacion de la mujer en la actividad economica, este articulo examina y compara las pautas y tendencias en homogamia educativa en Mexico y Brasil entre 1970 y 2000. Concretamente, tratamos en perspectiva temporal y comparada las siguientes cuestiones: grado y alcance de la homogamia educativa y simetria en las relaciones de genero. Para ello utilizamos las muestras armonizadas de microdatos de los censos de Mexico 1970, 1990 y 2000, y de Brasil 1970, 1980, 1991 y 2000, puestas a disposicion por el proyecto IPUMS-International. Los resultados muestran un aumento de la homogamia entre las capas mas instruidas y una disminucion de la hipergamia femenina en ambos paises. Comparativamente, la homogamia educativa es mayor en Brasil que en Mexico, reflejo de una mayor desigualdad social, mientras que las diferencias de genero son mayores en Mexico. Educational homogamy (marriage between individuals of the same level of educational attainment) in Mexico and Brazil is declining significantly with the revolution in school attainment. In Mexico, over a mere three decades, the proportions finishing primary school doubled, rising from 40 percent for the 1931–40 birth cohort to 80 percent for those born 1961–70. In Brazil, where primary school consists of only four grades (compared to Mexico's six), the completion rate rose even more dramatically from 33 to 73 percent. Nevertheless these figures also show that in both countries sizeable fractions of the youngest generation did not complete primary schooling (one-fifth in Mexico and one-fourth in Brazil). Substantial inequalities of access to schooling persist. At the upper end of the educational spectrum, for these same cohorts the percentage of Mexican husbands with some university studies increased even more dramatically, from 5.1 to 13.2 percent and, for wives, from 1.1 to 8.3 percent. In Brazil the comparable figures are 2.2 to 5.8 percent and 0.6 to 5.7 percent, respectively. Marriage choice in both countries is strongly associated with levels of schooling completed—such as graduation from primary school, completion of basic or upper secondary, and attendance at or graduation from university. Years of schooling completed is not as salient. Thus, this research focuses on culturally significant categories rather than arbitrary number of years of schooling to compare patterns of marriage by educational attainment in the two countries. We analyze three successive ten-year birth cohorts, beginning with the 1931–40 generation, and take into consideration all marital unions, consensual as well as official. All coresident spouses in which either the husband or the wife was born between 1931 and 1970 are considered. The number of Mexican couples analyzed is 2,396,320 and Brazilian, 1,546,365. Our sources are high density integrated, anonymized census microdata samples obtained from https://www.ipums.org/international/index.html for the period 1970–2000. A series of nine log-linear models control for the unequal frequencies of various levels of educational attainment to reveal striking changes in the propensities of marriage within and between these groups. Log-odds ratios show universally positive homogamy for both countries, all censuses, and all levels of educational attainment except for one—where either the husband or the wife began but did not complete the secondary grades. (For this group, heterogamy was the rule in both countries and increased over time.) At the higher levels of educational attainment, homogamy is most extreme and is increasing in intensity over the generations, while at the lowest levels, homogamy is lower and declining slightly. Homogamy levels are much higher in Brazil than in Mexico, a finding which demonstrates the greater social inequalities in Brazil, and the fact that for Brazilians social mobility by means of education is more difficult than for Mexicans. These findings are suggestive rather than conclusive, and call for further research taking into account variables that influence educational attainment.