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The article is an obituary that reports on the death of Alfonso Ortí Benlloch in November 2023. Ortí was a renowned sociologist and historian in Spain for the past seventy years, standing out for his analysis of agriculture, the rural world, rural Spain, and social classes in the country. He also contributed to the study of consumption and consumer society in Spain and participated in the Critical Qualitativism School of Madrid. Although he did not receive much academic recognition, his legacy has been crucial in sociology and the social sciences. The Editorial Board of Revista Empiria expresses their sorrow for the loss of this important person in their perspective. [Extracted from the article]

Social Sciences have been interested in biographical studies since the 1920s. However, this way of observing and analyzing social phenomena was displaced, between the World War II and the 1980s, from the methodological scene. According to Daniel Bertaux, the oblivion in which the biographical method fell in that period is attributable to a double imperialism: the one of the structural-functionalism and the one of survey research. During the 1980s there was a new appearance of the biographical method within the social sciences that progressively derived in the consolidation of an academic field in which take part multiple disciplines (history, sociology, anthropology, literary studies, among others). The biographical studies field is characterized for the existence and, in the last years, proliferation of empirical research that relate theoretical elements that belong to different fields of knowledge. In this article, I present some reflections on the use of the biographical method within the social sciences. First of all, I make a brief historical review of the method origins, its disappearance from the methodological scene, its resurgence and, finally, its actual relevance. Then, I mention the main biographical research styles, according to the typology made by Ernesto Meccia (2019a). In third place, I highlight the differences between two terms that, within the biographical method field, are used frequently as synonyms: life history and life story. After that, I reflect on the truth status of the testimonies. In general terms, I conceive testimonies as tools for identity (re) construction and not only as factual accounts limited to an informative function. Then, I specify the way in which life stories assume a certain plot, an arrangement that is given by the biographical events or turning points. Finally, I show how life stories can express different social issues and problems that go beyond the biography itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in the field of social sciences in the study of topics related to the so-called gig economy or platform economy and, among them, in the figure of the rider-a term that refers to the home delivery workers employed through digital platforms. In these platforms, the work of the riders is organized from algorithmic management logics, a mediation in which the panoptic quality of their forms of control and governmentality has tended to be emphasized. In contrast to these frameworks, this paper presents a theoretical-methodological approach that emphasizes the co-constitution-in an open agency- of the rider and the application, to ethnographically approach the everyday labor practices of riders. In the interest of exploring how algorithmic mediation functions in the diversity of riders' experiences, we analyze the coordination tasks responsible for producing the shared space-time geography and the flexible control strategies that mediate the application. The text describes how the algorithm generates a kind of scaffolding that defines directive spatiotemporalities in the riders' operations, within which the deliverers extend the landscape of calculability to those elements that the algorithm cannot consider and to those others that the rider must incorporate in order to make his activity compatible with the algorithmic logic. This article presents the initial results of an ethnography carried out in Madrid since September 2021 with riders from several of the main digital home delivery platforms: Glovo, Uber Eats, and Getir . Along with the fieldwork with riders, we interviewed four technologists in urban logistics. The results show that salaried riders have a less intense experience of the directive chronography of the algorithm, showing how autonomy is not necessarily equivalent to the riders' capability to choose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes promoted in the dairy sector from the industrial restructuring process, which began decades ago, as well as the most recent governance systems and policies of the European Union in the matter, are fully related to the vast abandonment that a large number of dairy farms, both in Spain and Catalonia since years ago. This process is experienced in a special way by those smaller and family-type farms. Therefore, the consequences that this evolution of the sector may have in the medium and long term are not negligible from the perspective of the future of the agricultural world. For this reason, it is of great interest for the social sciences to know the socioeconomic conditions that currently characterize the evolution of dairy farms, as well as the social representations that farmers build on them. These will be the main objectives of the article. We therefore try to analyze the socio-economic conditions of the farms and the way in which they are conceived and valued by farmers, as well as exploring how they face their future. The empirical work has combined a quantitative analysis with a qualitative analysis through focus groups and interviews with dairy farmers. The results suggest the existence of fear of the end of the small family farm, as well as the disappointment of the ranchers in a crisis situation that they are not capable of reversing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since the mid-twentieth century, the scientific field of social sciences has been transforming the trajectory of its institutionalization. This is because the trend towards reducing the number of disciplinary categories that had been identified since 1850 was reversed after the Second World War through a steady increase in names. However, such multiplication does not seem to have been developed proportionally to the necessary communication that should exist between them; suggesting a propensity of modern social sciences to hyper-specialize its subjects and therefore, to increase and extend the gaps between their related fields (also called here “No man’s land” spaces). This circumstance seems to be constituting a blockage in the field’s explanatory capacity, and studying it can contribute to unblocking it. Thus, the present research has focused on providing a micro and macro view of the discipline, on the one hand describing different phases through which it is developed and, on the other hand, by identifying the sociocultural conditioning to which it is exposed. From the analysis of these questions, two aspects have been obtained that seem to characterize the production of knowledge in modern social sciences, which are: a.) the existence of a higher risk of obstruction in the disciplinary construction after the specialization phase- because it is when research activity tends to be more likely to be trapped in hyperspecialization-, and b.) the tendency towards a greater appreciation due to its applicability to social interests of nomothetic attributes as opposed to idiographic ones-whose reproduction in knowledge is produced through mechanisms of legitimization. From these results, we can extract what seems to be a causal relationship between the nomothetic tendency of the current hyperspecialization, the increase of idiographic gaps between related fields, and the need for the legitimization of the theories in the contemporary symbolic universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation criteria used by the Research Ethics Committees come from studies in medicine, some specialists project, from their sources and experiences, universal ethical requirements based on clinical research. This opens the discussion on whether such principles can be transferable to evaluate social science research, which commonly uses complex methodologies and knowledge that challenge the Committees on ways to understand informed consent, the risks and benefits of research. The objective of the article is to systematize the project review work of the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) of the University of Santiago, Chile. The methodology includes the content analysis of 114 projects from the social sciences. The seven universal ethical requirements of Ezekiel Emanuel were used as a guiding element of the analysis, whose proposal is assumed and followed by Chilean ministerial instructions that order the work of the Research Ethics Committees. Among the results is that the universal requirements of Emanuel are present in a large part of the projects in social sciences, but they are not enough to approach the specific situations of research in social sciences, being the deliberation of the investigations by multidisciplinary teams essential to respect the heterogeneity and complexity of the social subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Grounded Theory (TF) is a widely known and widely used research methodology in the social sciences. It has various versions (Glaserian Grounded Theory, Straussian, Dimensional, Constructivist and Situational Analysis) show differences that tend to generate some confusion in their study and use. It is the case with the data analysis process. To identify these differences, we carried out an intentional review of the literature published in the last 20 years in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. We did a systematic search in five scientific databases and Google Scholar Beta. We selected 72 texts, included books and articles. They were 31 of them written by the main referents of each version and, 41 were written by other authors who contribute to the understanding of the method. The analysis of these texts allowed us to identify common elements and significant differences. The results that we found reveal five common aspects between the versions: constant comparison, theoretical sampling, elaboration of memoranda, theoretical sensitivity, and theoretical saturation. Also, we found we find significant differences in the data analysis process, the philosophical currents of each version, the theory generated, the data collected as interviews, among others. In particular, the analysis process in the five versions has common aspects, but the procedures used are different. Finally, we elaborate graphical representations to facilitate understanding of data analysis. The article makes it easier for investigators, especially new ones, to recognize how and when to fit in the various aspects used for data analysis, especially if the research requirements force you to mix or merge some perspectives during the analysis process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Lengua y Literatura Catalana, Gallega y Vasca is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Informative Bulletin of the University of Salamanca Political Law Seminar, created and directed by Enrique Tierno Galván, assisted by the enthusiastic dedication of his young university collaborators, encouraged the democratic and pro-european concerns they professed and introduced currents of thought that helped to renew the social sciences in Spain. The Bulletin was published for ten years overcoming material difficulties and those that the political regime imposed to the free and plural expression of ideas. Authors from different specialties wrote on its pages, many already renowned at the time, and others that would become renowned later [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including social sciences, management of education and spanish education.

Copyright of Espacio, Tiempo y Forma: Serie VI, Geografía is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The use of methodological «recipes» and the appeal to various forms of political correctness in the study of different groups are temptations to which a large number of social scientists often embrace. In this article, we attempt to develop a critical revision of the way in which some of these common places of social research operate, based on «methodological» principles as dogmas in the abstract. In the same vein, we also describe, by appealing to research examples, frequent impostures of the «right» way that abound in academic discourses, as is sometimes the case with researchers who define themselves as «militants» when they study subaltern sectors. Consequently, in this paper some tricks are developed, as defined by the sociologist Howard Becker, who question formalities, tendencies and agreements implicit in the scientific-academic work that do not precisely stimulate creativity. The application forms that circulate in the scientific system, the «methodological» subjects, the guidelines for the evaluation of academic production and the intellectual impostures, configure a diversity of situations that often promote comfortable routines linked more to rigidity than rigor. Although this text is constructed in perspective with the Argentine case, it refers to practices that are also present in the diverse scientific traditions in the social sciences. Such approaches, guided by political correctness, often result in asymmetric assessments that sacrifice creativity because they to lie down in comfortable routines that are usually celebrated in the academic environment. On the contrary, other types of academic proposals are confronted with the censorship of «normal science», which in certain contexts are accompanied by a set of moral and ideological judgments that can dissemble creativity, open discussion of ideas and exploration of problematic empirical vacuums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the social sciences, methodological debates contribute to the understanding of social research. This paper discusses one way of understanding the role of the investigator in relation to the approach and analysis of the object/subject of study. The objective is to question the use of the researcher's metaphor as a craftsman. This image appears in the 1950s in order to explain the creativity required by the research process and qualitative data analysis. However, the artisan's metaphor represents a deductive approximation of the researcher to the subject/object of study. On the contrary, the qualitative analysis is oriented by inductive procedures. The metaphor of the hunter after the prey is then proposed as a resource with a paradigmatic and epistemological consistency that contributes to the understanding and training in the qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The development of different software is facilitating the extension of multilevel models in different disciplines of social sciences in recent years. These quantitative techniques help us to observe characteristics of individuals and the contexts in which they interact in the same analytical model. It let to regard the effect of several explanatory variables on a phenomenon considering both the differences between individuals and the available information that they are grouped above in different hierarchical. Although initially it's thrived in models of linear dependent variables, it could also be used in models with categorical outcomes. The Multilevel logistic regression (MLR) can facilitate estimation of complex models with a dichotomous categorical dependent variable type. The current article is a brief explanation of this technique. We seek to indicate that it can be used in different areas of sociological analysis, especially in inferential statistics. Despite its apparent complexity, thanks to the recommendations of some authors, we can utilize in a feasible and to facilitate the provision of information on the association of variables and the context of a phenomenon. In the second part of this text we offer an adjusting exercise of multilevel logistic models. The intention was to observe the incidence of individual variables such as working conditions, occupational conditions and the domestic-family demands that working people have, together with variables of the labour market and social protection of the 27 EU members on perceived health status. The main results indicated already that the worst working conditions and temporary employment were associated with poor health with significant gender inequalities between countries. These conclusions were noted by some occupational health studies. This study allowed going beyond the individual analysis and observing that a percentage of the differences between employees can be explained by different variables of welfare between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper shows a methodological proposal carried on in a PhD research, entitled "La población inmigrante extranjera y la construcción de la diferencia. Discursos de alteridad en el sistema educativo andaluz" (Olmos Alcaraz 2009). In the text is analized the convination of Critical Discourse Analysis and Ethno-graphy, to approach the study of the 'construction of the difference' toward foreign migrant students in Spain. To do that in the paper are described the procceses of production and analysis of the data and the results obtained in the research on the methodological sphere, to claim an inter, multi and trans-disciplinary approach in Social Science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In an editorial the author notes the honorable recognition for the Spanish periodical "Educación XX1" and discusses the impact of scientific periodicals in Spain. The author discusses Spain's need to make periodicals available to the international community. Other topics include social sciences, humanities studies, and the development of technology in Spain.

The article discusses the book "Fomento de la población rural" by Fermín Caballero and the role of social science and government in his writing. It describes Caballero's agricultural contribution to the prosperity of Spain through his introduction of systemic strategies for the rural economy and rural population. Caballero's impact on the moral of the Spanish people is also discussed. It explains topics addressed in his book such as the people in his life as well as how he views the government, scientific associations, and the common people. Caballero's study of theology and its effects on his writing and work is also discussed.