Documentos de trabajo

Some countries face a national dilemma. Spain has rather a dilemma of nationalities. This is chiefly cultural and political with inter-regional disparities tending also to reinforce internal cleavages. Despite its secular conflicts of internal ethnoterritorial accommodation, Spain is an entity clearly identifiable as a country of countries, or a nation of nations.... Seguir leyendo

In 2002, while half in the way of my PhD studies, I had the chance to have a phone interview with one of the main officers of the UNESCO International Bioethical Committee, whose name, for privacy reasons, I will not mention here. The interview was related to my application for a stage at the IBC. The UNESCO Officer listened to me carefully, while I was trying to explain why my research would... Seguir leyendo

In 2003, Adele Clarke argued that the Western world was facing an increasingly pervasive social, cultural and political phenomenon named biomedicalisation, which was transforming the concept of ‘health’ into an individual responsibility to be fulfilled through improved access to knowledge, self surveillance and the consumption of self help biomedical goods and services. More recently, Petersen... Seguir leyendo

Whilst there is an ever-growing literature on the economic and political aspects of ‘globalization’, at present there are few studies analyzing how intergovernmental organizations have reacted to this phenomenon. This article aims to fill this gap by analyzing the response to globalization of UNESCO, one of the least studied organizations of the UN constellation.... Seguir leyendo

When we come across the word ‘eugenics’ it is impossible to avoid thinking of Hitler’s eugenics and racial project. The latter, however, is hardly representative of eugenics. According to the definition provided by the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, eugenics is ‘a scientific attempt to improve the human gene pool’, which includes not only genetic engineering... Seguir leyendo

Within the framework of the “knowledge society” and the globalized economy, with the consequent processes of rescaling nation-state and improving of more horizontal modes of governance, many European urban areas carry out activation policies through their capacity to mix productive flows, foreign investments, social characteristics and local economic development.... Seguir leyendo