Editorial

Fundamentos y Debate

• Peter Townsend
  

  El Significado de la Pobreza Abstract: Mundo Siglo XXI is proud to translate into spanish, because it is virtually unknown in Latin America, this essay foundational of perspective with which Peter Townsend became one of the most important authors of the global debate on poverty. Here born the perspective that will develop in discussion with the Nobel Prize in Economics, Amartya Sen, the debate between the relative conception and absolute conception of poverty, which became the axis of controversy of its study worldwide in the last half century.

• Homenaje a Townsend
• Julio Boltvinik
  

  Collage impresionista de contribuciones de Townsend Abstract: Due to the importance of dissemination in Mexico the work of most important intellectual in the global debate on poverty, this collage presents an overview of the major books and essays of the enormous literature produced by Peter Townsend.

• Araceli Damián
  

  A dónde nos ha llevado el enfoque relativo de la pobreza de Peter Townsend Abstract: The article critically discusses Peter Townsend’s methodological contributions to measure poverty and social deprivation. Based on some of Townsend’s masterpieces of work, the main breakthrough and weakness of the author proposals are presented, as well as the methods to measure poverty and social deprivation that have been derived from Townsend’s work. The article highlights Townsend’s critical position regarding conventional methods to measure poverty and the social policies derived from them to reduce it. It also presents Townsend critical standing over the fact that the left had incorporated in its agenda and political action the right win minimalist approach to poverty and social exclusion.

• Luis Arizmendi
  

  Townsend: la máxima frontera del liberalismo Abstract: To prove that Peter Townsend led liberalism to its highest historical frontier, this paper shows the achievements in the international discussion of his concept of relative poverty, child poverty with the turn of the century and his project of decommodifi cation.

• Pablo Yanes
  

  La lucha contra la pobreza como acción política internacional Abstract: This paper comments Townsend´s proposal about Universal Child Income in response to touching scenario generated by contemporary international child poverty, also underscores the best contributions contained in the Manifesto for International Action Against Poverty, which is signed by Peter Townsend and David Gordon at 2002.

• Julio Boltvinik
  

  Peter Townsend y el rumbo de la investigación sobre pobreza en Gran Bretaña Abstract: After paying homage to Townsend in section 1, the next two sections broach his most important contribution: the conception of relative poverty. In section 2 his role in the resistance against the idea that poverty had been eradicated in postwar Britain (associated with his lifetime fi ght against minimalism) is described. Section 3 narrates the Townsend-Sen polemic on absolute/relative poverty. In sections 4-5 the Townsend-Piachaud polemic and its consequences are analysed. Piachaud argued that some deprivation indicators used by Townsend were rather tasted related and rejected Townsend’s aspiration to scientific objectivity. This debate stimulated the development, by Mack & Lansley, of the concept of enforced lack of socially perceived necessities which separates tastes from deprivation and which has become a central element in British research on poverty. These authors rejected Townsend’s derivation of an objective poverty line from deprivation data, but were unable to establish an alternative, non-arbitrary, poverty criterion, leaving thus the door opened for the development by Nolan/Whelan and Gordon et al., of the truly poor approach which defifi nes as poor only those which are identififi ed as such both by income and by deprivation (sets intersection), and which implies that for not being poor it is enough not to be identifi ed as poor in one of the two partial approaches (sets union). This is an asymmetric position which underestimates poverty. In section 6, fi nally, it is stated that Townsend’s followers, by adopting the intersection criterion, abandoned his fi ght against minimalism. It is also stated that Townsend’s operationalisation of his relative poverty conception, consisting of increasing the poverty line in the same proportion as the average/median household income, is ill-defi ned, as income increase do not refl ect changes in accustomed patterns of life. An alternative operationalisation, based on the family budget methodology approach incorporating to it the social perceptions on necessities, is proposed. And going beyond this, a proposal is raised to develop a generalised budgeting approach which adds to the monetary family budget, a time budget, the knowledge/skills requirements and the public social budget.

Artículos y Miscelánea

• Jorge Silva
  

  La situación de las Siefores Abstract: By fi rst time, in a decade of existente, the pension system produced loss for the investors. Fundamentally this ocurred for three reasons: national and international economic and fi nancial conditions, an ineffi ciency in the portfolio management and the highest comissions that managers apply. First two reasons are closest related and must impose condition the third. By this reason, Congress and regulator authorities should impose determined conditions in produced return matter to the managers. Whit that intention three purposes are made.

• Héctor Allier/Raúl Porras
  

  Mercados y crisis fi nancieras globales Abstract: Argument’s research is supporting by the performance’s enterprises in Mexico, that they was be affected by macroeconomics and fi nancial acts in the country, and we analyze the own options of the fi rms to make face his problems; the period analyzed was 1996 to 2006 which just beginning before the strong fi nancial liquidity shock of the fi nancial system to face the resources demand’s by the investors agents during 1995, and it’s precise how the items macroeconomics impacts in specifi c aspects that they infl uences the investments decisions and consequently in the fi nancial structure of the Mexican fi rms. Specifi cally it was analyze the fi nancial markets aperture like infl uence in their investments decisions of enterprises in the period. Likewise we studied the causes about global fi nancial crisis of 2008. For this object this work is focused to develop a relatively basic framework that consists: (i) one analysis point it’s take it about the behaviour of the economics aggregates that be infl uents in the investment process by the total economics, but they have a fi nancial incident in the enterprises of Mexico during 1996 to 2006 period, specifi cally owns capital structure; (ii) for this the evolution of the theory developed it’s studying about their capital structure determinants relations and the importance for their performance by the enterprises and the country; (iii) This proposition is supporting by the Koenker-Basset empirical analysis method that permit identifi er specifi c behaviour between macro aggregates and the enterprises during time period specifi ed; (v) The analyze about fi nancial resources enterprises is supporting in the fl ows fi nancial markets.

• Luis Mauricio Rodríguez-Salazar/Carmen Patricia Rosas-Colín/Silverio Gerardo Armijo-Mena
  

  La historia de la ciencia como laboratorio epistemológico Abstract: We propose a new epistemological framework for the study of science-technology-society relationship in the History of Science as a laboratory. This relationship is refl ected in what we suggest as a thinking triad of the cognitive subject and the epistemic subject. This triad is conformed by practical reasoning, symbolic-imaginative thinking and rational thinking. Throughout human history, each one of these elements has had different relevance in the science-technology-society relationship. From an epistemology of imagination in the Middle Age the thinking triad we propose had been refl ected in the relationship between artisans, magicians and nature philosophers. Actually in knowledge society it is refl ected in the relationship between technicians, engineers and scientists. While in knowledge economy the triad thinking is conformed by industrialists, engineers and scientists. The link among the triad thinking elements is the symbolic-imaginative thinking, which at the same time is the ground of our epistemology of imagination proposal.