Vracare: Village wise women, reproductive health, and Yugoslavia's early socialist modernisation project.

This historical article examines post-WWII Yugoslavia and the state's campaigns to modernise and unify the extensive Yugoslav peasantry, and draws comparisons with other countries from the Communist Bloc. It argues that even though Yugoslavia ostensibly set out to create a new 'Yugoslav way' that was dissimilar to Soviet socialism, its tactics and underlying motivations were very similar to those of the Soviet modernisation projects. The article analyses the evolving concept of the vracara (elder women folk healers) as a vehicle for the state's modernising mission. Just as Soviet babki represented a threat to the new 'social order' in Russia, vracare were the targets of the Yugoslav state's anti-folk-medicine propaganda. It also argues that reproductive health provided a moment in the lifecycle when the state attempted to bind women to its services. The first part of the article deals with the bureaucratic push to disempower village wise women using propaganda campaigns and the introduction of medical facilities in remote communities. Even though the medicalization process ultimately failed to fully establish science-based medical services in all areas of the Yugoslav Republic, the negative image of the old crone healer endured well beyond the first post-war decade. The second half of the article examines the gendered stereotype of the old crone and how she became a stand-in for everything backward and undesirable relative to modern medicine.

Satisfaction and continuance intention of blended learning from perspective of junior high school students in the directly-entering-socialism ethnic communities of China.

BACKGROUND: Blended learning in DESEC only started after the introduction of the internet in recent 5 years. However, there is still no research paying attention to this region, because the area is remote and research subjects are not easily accessible. This article has potential application value in helping the government and educational institutions to make decisions on blended learning strategies supporting poverty alleviation through education in poor and remote areas and ethnic region. The study will be the first to examine satisfaction and continuance intention of blended learning in the DESEC. OBJECTIVE: To identify junior high students' perception of satisfaction and continuance intention for blended learning in DESEC. To identify the strongest factors affecting junior high students' satisfaction and continuance intention of blended learning in DESEC. METHODS: A subsample of 635 junior high students participated online survey with consent of their parents verbally in computer room in schools under teacher's instruction. Data was coded and analyzed to generate descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Structural equation model was used to evaluate the model of satisfaction and continuance intention of blended learning. RESULTS: The level for evaluating students' agreement on each of item were interpreted "agree" (3.76-3.89). The model explained variances (R2) of Continuance Intention, Satisfaction and Perceived usefulness were 0.665,0.766,0.718 respectively. Information quality, self-efficacy and confirmation directly and indirectly contribute to junior high students' satisfaction with blended learning, which further confirmed their continuance intention of blended learning. CONCLUSION: Information quality was the strongest factor affecting the junior high students' continuance intention of using blended learning, while confirmation was the strongest factor affecting the junior high students' satisfaction of using blended learning in DESEC. Junior high students do not have a strong and distinct perception on satisfaction and continuance intention for blended learning in DESEC.

Economizing Socialist Aid: China's Failed Surgical Plant in Algeria, 1973-80.

China is currently a source of technology for the developing world, yet little is known about its transfer of modern technologies before the 1980s liberalization. This article excavates a failed surgical turn-key project that China planned in the mid-1970s at Médéa in state socialist Algeria. The case of South-South collaboration analyzes how three principles-simplification, economization, and improvement of labor efficiency-dominated the negotiations and design process. The Chinese aspired to transfer technology suiting Algeria, but were restricted by capital input, technological capacity, and the pragmatism of convenience, as well as a distorted vision of Algerians' needs. This article puts Chinese industrial aid into perspective within the history of appropriate technology, examining the asymmetries in perceptions, interests, and priorities that sank this early attempt at South-South cooperation. By uncovering the often-neglected perspective of Chinese aid technocrats, it also breaks the stereotype of Maoist China ignoring cost effectiveness in its foreign aid.

Economic inequalities in contemporary rural China: How does political capital matter?

To assess how the transition from state socialism to a market economy has impacted the social stratification order in China, some prior studies have debated whether the economic privileges of the political redistributors have declined relative to the emerging market elites, while others have examined the coevolution between the two in urban institutional contexts. This study provides new insights into how political capital influences economic inequalities in contemporary rural China by revisiting informal social institutions. Drawing upon a unique nationally representative household survey and using surname sharing with the village cadres to infer shared lineage membership, we find that lineage-based political ties help rural Chinese households to materialize income as well as asset advantages over fellow villagers bereft of such ties. Furthermore, the economic privileges of political connections are larger in villages with lineage groups than those without, and larger for villages of more frequent kin interactions than those of less frequent kin interactions. Our results extend prior findings on the coevolution between political and market elites by going beyond formal institutions and examining grassroots-level evidence in contemporary rural communities.

A atualidade de Gramsci - Odeio os Indiferentes: escritos de 1917 / Gramsci's actuality - I hate the indifferent: writings of 1917

Resenha do livro "Odeio os Indiferentes: escritos de 1917", de Antonio Gramsci, publicado no Brasil em 2020, pela Editora Boitempo. O livro inaugura a série "Escritos Gramscianos" e apresenta uma coletânea inédita de artigos deste importante pensador e militante marxista, no contexto em que trabalhava como jornalista e líder socialista, antes de ser preso pelo governo fascista italiano de Benito Mussolini, em 1926.

The Politics of Rationality in Early Neoliberalism: Max Weber, Ludwig von Mises, and the Socialist Calculation Debate.

Initiated by Mises and popularized by Hayek, the socialist calculation debate staked a political position on a methodological axiom: the "irrationality" of state planning. This article argues that Weber's typology of "formal" vs. "substantive" rationality at once drew from Austrian School marginalism and helped frame Mises and Hayek's critiques in the calculation debate. In turn, this debate shaped an anti-socialist front among the early neoliberals before their vaunted gatherings in Paris and Mont Pèlerin. Through social scientific interventions, early neoliberalism split economics (qua market rationality) from politics (qua social justice) so as to place the latter beyond the epistemological pale.

Repurposing Mises: Murray Rothbard and the Birth of Anarchocapitalism.

This article examines how Murray Rothbard, though he claimed to follow Ludwig von Mises very closely, ended up making a number of radical leaps that Mises never did. It argues that Rothbard constructed anarchocapitalism by repurposing Mises's economic theory. First, whereas Mises responded to interwar socialism, Rothbard redeployed his mentor's economics in response to the militarism of the right-wing. Second, whereas Mises defended the market as a consumers' democracy against ideas about economic democracy, Rothbard developed an anti-democratic view of the market in response to the egalitarianism of the counterculture. These differences in context account for the distinctiveness of anarchocapitalism.

Neoliberal Economic Thinking and the Quest for Rational Socialism in China: Ludwig von Mises and the Market Reform Debate.

This paper investigates the long first decade of reform in China (1978-1992) to show that Mises became relevant to the reconfiguration of China's political economy in this period. Mises's critique of socialism came to be debated throughout the 1980s and Chinese economists developed their own reading of Mises and the socialist calculation debate. When Deng Xiaoping reinstated market reforms in the early 1990s, a history of thought review of the possibility of rational socialism and socialist markets helped to justify the Socialist Market Economy with Chinese Characteristics as the official designation of China's economic system to this day.

Innovation and Maladjustment: Contraceptive Technologies in State-Socialist Poland, 1950s-1970s.

A range of contraceptive technologies was available in Poland between the late 1950s and early 1970s. Following the legalization of abortion in 1956, a public health campaign, supported by the communist authorities, popularized contraception. Based on archival sources, press items, and popular medical literature, this article is the first systematic study of contraceptive technologies in postwar Poland before the pill, which also examines the trajectories of female barrier methods and spermicides. The availability and quality of these contraceptive products fluctuated in the centrally planned economy, and they were ascribed at times contradictory values. Thus, the circulation of contraceptive technologies was shaped by concurrent processes of innovation and maladjustment disconnected from the authorities' declarations of support for contraception as an alternative to abortion. Focusing on the materiality of contraceptive technologies sheds new light on the history of reproduction in postwar Poland.

Vivir En Cronicidad: Terminal Living through Cuban Cancer Vaccines.

I examine in this article a movement in Cuba known as cronicidad (chronicity), to reimagine advanced cancer as a normal social experience. In Cuba, cronicidad is particularly visible through treatments called therapeutic vaccines designed to slow the growth of tumors. I explore how cronicidad becomes possible through the Cuban socialist integration of biotechnology and public health. Drawing from interviews with and observations of Cuban cancer researchers and clinicians involved with a novel lung cancer vaccine, I argue that cronicidad differs from chronicity as an area of anthropological inquiry in its emplacement of advanced cancer within routine care in Cuba's socialist biomedical system.

"A sociedade socialista não pode permitir esse tipo de degenerações". As UMAP como dispositivos disciplinares da revolução cubana / "La sociedad socialista no puede permitir ese tipo de degeneraciones". Las UMAP como dispositivos disciplinares de la revolución cubana / "Socialist society cannot allow such degenerations. " The UMAP as disciplinary devices of the Cuban revolution

Resumo: O presente artigo resulta da problematização sobre o fenômeno da repressão a setores marginados da sociedade cubana nos primeiros anos da Revolução (1965 a 1968), especificamente contra homossexuais, religiosos, artistas e intelectuais. Partindo da perspectiva foucaultiana, analisamos o contexto sociopolítico em que se desenvolveram estas ações, onde o discurso do líder Fidel Castro teve um papel decisivo. Passando logo à análise dos mecanismos através dos quais se desenvolvia uma estratégia disciplinar e de normalização das pessoas que representavam um modelo distinto ao estabelecido oficialmente. Esta estratégia resultou no dispositivo conhecido como UMAP. Além disso, se reflete sobre o papel da Psiquiatria cubana na implementação destas estratégias e as principais normas jurídicas que outorgaram legalidade a estes dispositivos disciplinares.

Resumen: Este artículo surge de la problematización del fenómeno de la represión contra sectores marginados de la sociedad cubana en los primeros años de la Revolución (1965 a 1968), específicamente contra homosexuales, religiosos, artistas e intelectuales. Partiendo de la perspectiva foucaultiana, analizamos el contexto sociopolítico en el que se desarrollaron estas acciones, donde el discurso del líder Fidel Castro jugó un papel decisivo. Pasando al análisis de los mecanismos a través de los cuales se desarrolló una estrategia disciplinaria y de normalización para personas que representaban un modelo diferente al establecido oficialmente. Esta estrategia dio como resultado el dispositivo conocido como UMAP. Además, reflexiona sobre el papel de la Psiquiatría cubana en la implementación de estas estrategias y las principales normas legales que han otorgado legalidad a estas disposiciones disciplinarias.

Abstract: This article results from the problematization of the phenomenon of repression of marginalized sectors of Cuban society in the first years of the Revolution (1965 to 1968), specifically against homosexuals, religious, artists and intellectuals. Starting from the foucaultian perspective, we analyze the socio-political context in which these actions developed, where the speech of the leader Fidel Castro played a decisive role. Moving on to the analysis of the mechanisms through which a disciplinary and standardization strategy was developed for people who represented a model different from the one officially established. This strategy resulted in the device known as UMAP. In addition, it reflects on the role of Cuban Psychiatry in the implementation of these strategies and the main legal norms that have given legality to these disciplinary devices.

A identidade da direita em narrativas de seus militantes numa universidade brasileira / The identity of the right-wing in narratives of its militants in a brazilian university / La identidad de la derecha en las narrativas de sus militantes en una universidad brasileña

Em junho de 2013, emergiram no espaço público brasileiro diferentes grupos de direita rebelados contra o Partido dos Trabalhadores, que governava o Brasil naquele momento liderando uma grande coalizão de centro-esquerda. Desde então, uma nova direita se posiciona no debate político nacional, militando nas universidades e em outros contextos institucionais e mobilizando uma retórica agressiva contra o discurso de esquerda. O objetivo deste estudo é identificar os diferentes atributos da identidade da direita formulados em narrativas de militantes de direita de uma universidade pública brasileira, as contradições no conteúdo dessa identidade e os recursos retórico-discursivos mobilizados em sua construção. Com o uso do método de análise de discurso, foram analisadas transcrições de entrevistas realizadas com nove militantes de direita, alunos de uma universidade pública nordestina. Esses militantes mencionam três grupos políticos como constituintes da direita (os conservadores, os liberais e os libertários), mas somente dois são usados como categorias de autoidentificação: os conservadores e os libertários. Atributos identitários como o apreço pela verdade, a defesa da liberdade, a desconfiança em relação às mudanças abruptas e a valorização da família e da religiosidade cristã foram afirmados como definidores da identidade da direita. Em vários momentos, no entanto, os militantes produziam enunciados que contradiziam alguns desses atributos, revelando o caráter ambíguo e contraditório do discurso da militância estudada.(AU)

In June 2013, different right-wing groups emerged in the Brazilian public space rebelling against the Partido dos Trabalhadores, which ruled Brazil at the time leading a large center-left coalition. Since then, a new right-wing has positioned itself in the national political debate, militating in universities and other institutional contexts, and mobilizing an aggressive rhetoric against the leftist discourse. This study aims to identify the different attributes of the right-wing identity formulated in the narratives of right-wing militants in a Brazilian public university, the contradictions in the content of that identity, and the rhetorical-discursive resources mobilized in its construction. We analyzed transcripts of interviews conducted with nine right-wing activists, students from a public university in the Northeast using the speech analysis method. These militants mention three political groups as constituents of the right-wing (conservatives, liberals, and libertarians), but only two are used as categories of self-identification: conservatives and libertarians. Identity attributes such as an appreciation for the truth, the defense of freedom, a distrust of abrupt changes, and the appreciation for the family and Christian religiosity were affirmed as defining the identity of the right-wing. At various times, however, the militants produced statements that contradicted some of these attributes, revealing the ambiguous and contradictory character of the studied militancy discourse.(AU)

En junio de 2013, diversos grupos de derecha rebelaban contra el Partido de los Trabajadores, que gobernaba Brasil en ese momento liderando una gran coalición de centro-izquierda. Desde entonces, una nueva derecha se ha posicionado en el debate político nacional, militante en universidades y otros contextos institucionales, y movilizando una retórica agresiva contra el discurso de izquierda. El objetivo de este estudio es identificar los diferentes atributos de la identidad de derecha formulados en las narrativas de activistas de derecha en una universidad pública brasileña, sus contradicciones y los recursos retórico-discursivos movilizados. Como método el análisis del discurso, se analizaron las transcripciones de entrevistas realizadas a nueve activistas de derecha, estudiantes de una universidad pública del Nordeste (Brasil). Estos militantes mencionaron tres grupos políticos como constituyentes de la derecha (los conservadores, los liberales y los libertarios), pero solo dos utilizan las categorías de autoidentificación: los conservadores y los libertarios. Los atributos identitarios como el aprecio a la verdad, la defensa de la libertad, la desconfianza ante los cambios bruscos y el aprecio a la familia y la religiosidad cristiana fueron considerados definitorios de la identidad de derecha. En varias ocasiones, los militantes contradijeron algunos de estos atributos, revelando el carácter ambiguo y contradictorio del discurso de la militancia estudiado.(AU)

From occupational to existential class: How to analyze class structure in hybrid societies (The case of Serbia).

In this article, we propose a model to analyze the class structure of hybrid post-socialist societies in South-East Europe (SEE), using the case of Serbia. We argue that, in such hybrid societies, social inequalities are generated by several mechanisms of similar strength: exploitative market mechanisms (based on economic capital) and different types of social closure mechanisms (based on political and social capital). Their influences are intertwined and cannot be analytically isolated or reduced to a common foundation. Therefore, occupational class analysis in these societies can have only limited explanatory power. In an attempt to overcome these challenges, we were forced to modify the instruments of several established approaches to class analysis. These modifications included (1) a reconceptualization of Bourdieusian notions of political, social, and cultural capital, (2) a different operationalization of social space, (3) identification of specific mechanisms of generating social inequalities, (4) paying attention to both practical and discursive classifications of lifestyles in the establishment of symbolic boundaries, and (5) relying on differential association analysis for identifying class boundaries. Our analysis's final result is a model that enables studying general social inequality, that is, generalized social advantage/disadvantage, in SEE post-socialist societies.

Sex and gender norms in marriage: Comparing expert advice in socialist Czechoslovakia and Hungary between the 1950s and 1980s.

First, we argue that sexuality was central to socialist modernization: Sex and gender were reformulated whenever the socialist project was being revised. Expertise was crucial in these reformulations, which harnessed people's support for the changing regimes. Moreover, the role of the expert in society grew over time, leading to ever expanding and diversified fields of expertise. Second, gender and sexuality stood disjointed in these changes. Whereas in the early 1950s sex was a taboo subject in Hungary, in the last three decades of socialism it was gradually acknowledged and emancipated, along with a discursive push to alter gender roles within marriage. Conversely, Czechoslovak experts paid close attention to sexuality and particularly to female pleasure from the outset of the regime, highlighting the benefits of gender equality for conjugal satisfaction; yet, they changed course with Normalization (1969-1989) when they embraced gender hierarchy as the structure for a good marriage and a fulfilling sex life. It follows that gender and sexuality can develop independently: Change in one is not necessarily bound to similar progress in the other. Thus, third, whereas there was a shared initial push for gender equality, there was no unified socialist drive for the liberalization of sexuality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Voices from Silence? Reflections on 'Coming out' in Socialist Czechoslovakia.

The region of Central and Eastern Europe and oppressive social conditions in former socialist society often became symbols of the impossibility to articulate non-heterosexual identities under the conditions of a totalitarian regime. This study analyzes data from 19 in-depth interviews with people older than 50 living in the Czech Republic who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. It focuses on the ways in which their forced silence and inability to speak about their sexual desires resonated throughout their biographical narratives. The first part of this paper focuses on themes surrounding the absence of representations of non-heterosexual identities in socialist Czechoslovakia's public sphere and the impact of this absence on participants' perceptions of their own life experiences. The second part of the paper analyzes the ways in which participants relate to their own coming out and their reflections on their previous lives in relation to newfound opportunities to live outside of heterosexual norms. The paper strives to problematize the concept of "silence" as one of the defining features of this generation, in contrast with the concept of coming out as a sign of emancipation in younger generations.

Da relevância do materialismo histórico dialético para uma análise feminista / The historical dialectical materialism relevance for a feminist analysis

Este artigo tem por objetivo dar uma contribuição ao debate teórico-metodológico do feminismo, tomado por uma perspectiva política e científica.Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e bibliográfica, cuja base teórica se encontra em livros e artigos científicos, clássicos e contemporâneos. A argumentação se desenvolve no sentido de uma crítica a apropriações do método de Karl Marx que desviam seus fundamentos e recaem, por um lado, no economicismo, e, por outro lado, no politicismo. Feitas as críticas, avançamos para a relevância do uso do materialismo histórico dialético para uma leitura da realidade concreta que,da ótica feminista, avance no sentido de uma luta unificada contra o capitalismo e pela derrocada do patriarcado e do racismo

This article aims to contribute to the theoretical and methodological debate of feminism, taken from a political and scientific perspective. It is a qualitative and bibliographic research, whose theoretical basis is found in scientific, classic and contemporary books and articles. The argument develops in the sense of a critique of Karl Marx's method appropriations that deviate from its foundations and fall, on the one hand, to economism, and, on the other, to politicism. Having made the critiques, we move on to the relevance of historical dialectical materialism for a reading of the concrete reality from a feminist perspective to advance towards a unified struggle against capitalism and the overthrow of patriarchy and racism

The Introduction of Pavlovian Theory and the Change of the Medical System in China in the 1950s: Focusing on the Construction of the Protective Medical System.

In the 1930s, Stalin established Pavlovian theory as a socialist medical theory, criticized bourgeois science and ideology, and consolidated his dictatorship. Stalin used Pavlov's theory to emphasize the interaction between man and environment and the inheritance of acquired characteristics, trying to ensure the legitimacy of the socialist system reform in politics and society. Therefore, if the Soviet scientists and doctors did not conform to Pavlov's theory, their research would be strictly controlled, making free and creative research impossible. In the 1950s, China and North Korea, which accepted the socialist political model of the Soviet Union, also had this dogmatic tendency. In 1950, China signed the "The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship," initiated the movement of learning from the Soviet Union in politics, economy, society, education, law, science, medical care, and other aspects, and established a socialist country based on the Soviet model. In Chinese medical circles, through the "Pavlov Learning Movement," they accepted the health care system and medical technology of the Soviet Union without any criticism, and carried out the ideological transformation of intellectuals to wipe out the influence of western capitalism. Moreover, Virchow's 'Cellular Pathology' and Mendel's 'Genetics' were denounced as reactionary bourgeoisie theory, and Pavlov's theory became a socialist medical theory based on dialectical materialism. As a result, the Communist Party of China reorganized the medical and scientific knowledge system based on Pavlov's theory, and took it as an important ideological tool to establish the socialist medical system. In the 1950s, Chinese medical workers strengthened ideological education through the "Pavlov's learning movement," applied this theory to clinical practice, and implemented new treatment methods such as "Sleep Therapy" and "PPM(Psychoprophylactic Painless childbirth Method)." In addition, hospitals implemented the "Protective Medical System" and established the socialist medical system. The goal of the protective medical system was to eliminate the negative stimulation which has adverse effects on the treatment of patients and to establish a patient-centered medical system. Therefore, the hospital launched a comprehensive effort to create a clean environment, eliminate all kinds of noise, cultivate a friendly working attitude, and improve nutrition. As a result, the hospital environment and the working attitude of medical staff improved and the treatment rate of diseases also improved, while the mortality rate of patients decreased. At the same time, with the strengthening of political education for doctors, nurses and patients in hospitals, hospitals have become places to educate socialist laws and ideology. In addition, in order to prove the superiority of Pavlov's theory, medical workers carried out unscientific sleep therapy on patients, so people's body became an experimental space for of socialism. Moreover, in the implementation of PPM, women could not tell the pain of childbirth, but under medical control, they were in a contradictory situation of enduring labor pain. The Communist Party of China has established its national identity by promoting its image of "rescuer", which liberates the patients from the pain of disease, and the "welfare" image of taking good care of the people's body. The Communist Party of China has reconstructed the metaphors of "sickness" and "labor pain", making it an indispensable medium for the concepts of socialism, women's Liberation and medical welfare to be engraved on the people's body. Therefore, through the clinical practice of sleep therapy and PPM, we can understand how the Communist Party of China controlled the people's body, and such policies and systems demonstrate the "medical" governance mode of socialist control over the people.

The Consequences of Ageist Language are upon us.

The COVID‒19 pandemic has highlighted the ease in which ageist language is employed and ageist stereotypes are used to characterize older adults. These are harmful and display an impressive lack of future thinking - as younger and middle-aged adults who use this language and forward these concepts also hope to live long lives. The disproportionately negative outcomes for older adults in this pandemic in part, reflect social and economic inequalities that are manifest throughout the life course of marginalized groups including persons of color. They also reflect major problems with institutional living be it in prisons or nursing homes. Social workers and allied professionals can work to address these manifestations of ageism in part by employing inclusive language - as advised by the Reframing Aging Project, working to build and support strong intergenerational relationships, working to eradicate social and economic disparities at all life stages, and advocating for a more critical look at institutionalization of older adults.

La gestión pública Venezolana en tiempos del Covid-19 / Venezuelan governance in times of Covid-19

El presente ensayo pretende exponer una serie de reflexiones sobre la forma cómo se ha gestionado lo público en Venezuela, en medio de una pandemia de carácter mundial que ha forzado una mirada distinta en cuanto a las decisiones políticas y éticas de implicaciones colectivas. Partiendo del concepto mismo de lo público para hacer énfasis en los términos de gestión pública, se analiza el conjunto de medidas tomadas en Venezuela, en los ámbitos económico, social, político e internacional desde el mes de marzo 2020, a fin de conducir el destino de los venezolanos durante la pandemia definida por la Organización Mundial de la Salud. De esta manera se caracteriza una gestión pública fundamentalmente social, orientada al ser humano y garante de derechos; una gestión congruente con un modelo de desarrollo y un modelo político socialista; una gestión basada en valores, todo ello en el contexto propio de un país bloqueado que resiste los embates del capitalismo imperante en otras latitudes. A partir de la revisión y sistematización de los hechos (medidas y contexto), durante estos dos meses de gestión (marzo-abril), se realiza el análisis de cifras y se comentan conclusiones preliminares sobre el impacto de las decisiones tomadas, así como reflexiones sobre el futuro de nuestra sociedad luego de superada la situación de emergencia nacional y mundial(AU)

This essay aims to present a series of reflections on the way in which governance has been exercised in Venezuela, in the midst of a global pan-demic that has forced a different perspective on political and ethical decisions with collective implications. Starting from the very concept of the public to emphasize the terms of governance, the set of measures taken in Venezuela in the economic, social, political and international spheres since March 2020, in order to drive the destiny of Venezuelans during the pandemic defined by the World Health Organization, are analyzed. In this way, a fundamentally social governance is characterized, oriented to the human being and guarantor of rights; governance consistent with a development model and a socialist political model; values - based management, all in the context of a blocked country that resists the onslaught of capitalism prevailing in other latitudes. Based on the review and systematization of the facts (measures and context), during these two months of governance (March-April), the analysis of the figures is carried out and preliminary conclusions are stated on the impact of the decisions made, as well as reflections on the future of our society after overcoming the national and world emergency situation(AU)

"Who generates this city"? Socialist strategy in contemporary London.

This essay, based on a "militant ethnography" of the attempts of the small radical grassroots activist group, Our London (a pseudonym), to mobilize a collective oppositional politics through activities around an election campaign, engages critically with E. Laclau and C. Mouffe's arguments on discourse and collectivity in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (London: Verso, 1985). I argue, on the basis of my findings, that while their model does provide insights that help describe the process of building collectivity from among disparate perspectives and identities, we need to go beyond a focus on discourse alone and consider the ways politics is shaped by material contexts. This is necessary if we are to understand the continued appeal of class politics as well as the difficulties in mobilizing collectivity in highly unequal and fragmented cities. From an activist perspective, the essay also highlights how developing a conception of collective interests and a critique of overarching systems of exploitation can be important in building political unity.