Editorial

Foundations and Debate

• Elmar Altvater
  

  Capital and the capitalocene Abstract: Facing the challenges raised by the contemporary environmental crisis, first of all by atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases, the author argues with the definition of our era as foundation of the Anthropocene since the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. Instead, builds the definition of our time as Kapitalozän, that is internal phase of capitalist globalization, a phase which is not synonymous of end of history. But which requires the transition to an open energy system, based on solar energy, which can meet the challenges of closed energy system, based on fossil fuel, hitherto predominant.

• Hilda Elena Puerta Rodríquez
  

  The current world scene Abstract: This essay analyses the main changes and dilemmas that have happened in international economy during the last years. The complexity of the situation, and the interests involved, indeed complicate making good decisions in order to improve the international reality, which is very dangerous nowadays, so that, mankind is seriously threated. Perhaps the main feature which characterizes the economic world today is the huge changes that have been aking place during the last years, directly related to the scientific and technical revolution, to which we should adapt, but not in a passive but in an active way, taking into consideration their risks. Inside this complex panorama, the situation of poor countries and people is especially critical, very near to an extreme situation, accompanied by a deep social injustice and an increasing inequity. Facing this reality, and with a strong compromise with the survival of current and future generations, we must implement important transformations, which give adequate answer to these so important requirements, trying to keep conscious all the well intentioned persons and institutions capable of taking effective and realistic actions directed towards the preservation of humanity in respectable conditions.

• José C. Valenzuela Feijóo
  

  Growth and Aggregate Demand: Mexico, Argentina, Brasil Abstract: The paper examines the role of demand factors in the economic growth of three Latin American economies: Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. The first is clearly neoliberal. In Argentina we see a more regulated economy and more important domestic market. Brasil is situated in a intermediate position. The analytical model allows identify the role of domestic demand (consumer spending and investment) and the role of external factors: growth based on domestic markets and export led growth. It is noted that the external sector, in the context of extreme openness, causes negative import substitution and a subsequent strong and negative impact on growth. For the period under study, the best performance corresponds to Argentina (including high export growth), with Brazil in the middle, and Mexico as the country with the worst performance.

• Henry Giroux
  

  The hope in our age Abstract: Exploring the amplitude of the economic and political crisis in American society, this paper discusses how the political culture in the U.S. has fallen into a state of collective amnesia. Consumerism now becomes the only obligation of citizenship. As the worldly space of criticism is undercut by the absence of public pedagogies and spaces that encourage the exchange of information, horizons of an inclusive and substantive democracy appear to disappear against the growing militarization of public space, the attack on the welfare state, the ongoing commercialization of everyday life, and the growing isolation. Drawing upon the work of Zygmunt Bauman, David Harvey and others, the author addresses the current crisis of meaning and its implications for develop of a cultural politics that links utopian thinking not only to the complex nature of social agency and the importance of democratic public spheres, but also to the educational training and socialization in the world of politics.

Articles and Miscellany

• Gabriel Saavedra Ramírez
  

  Environmental sciences and ecology Abstract: The environmental deterioration caused by human beings, by irrational consumption of natural resources and the use of science and technology without an ethical framework governing them, has caused concern in the world community. Documents such as the Kyoto Protocol, the manifesto for life, the Earth Charter, the Charter of nature, the Millennium Declaration and many others have established the urgent need to become aware of the deterioration and goals and strategies have been asked for, on the one hand, counter it and, on the other hand, promote lifestyles less predators, more user friendly with the environment and with a different attitude towards nature and the life. This includes a new perspective when it comes to science and technology. The proposal of this work is to reflect on the perspective of the principle of responsibility of the German philosopher Hans Jonas in response to the impact of science and technology in the environment, without considering the multiple benefits to the technology applied of life has brought with it and, at the same time, review some proposals of solution to the complex problem of building socio-environmental in the present world.

• Rigoberto Arroyo / Rolando V. Jiménez
  

  LED Technology for an Improvement Program of Sustainable Light Abstract: The Mexican Sustainable Light Program (Programa de Luz Sustentable, PLS), started in 2011 as an answer to the need of achieving higher energy efficiencies in the use of electricity and a leveling of the demand curve, must be put in consonance with the new illumination technologies. We analyze the PLS early obsolescence and the risks inherent to it for promoting the use of compact fluorescent lamps without warning the people about the toxic materials they contain and how to dispose the broken or damaged devices. A proposal is made to incorporate the Led technology for improving this program in a second phase. To this end, we present a brief description of the origin and evolution of the electric illumination sources, from their birth as scientific curiosities to the present “state of the art” in which they constitute a basic technological device in modern societies. Using the tools of technological intelligence, a comparative analysis is made between the different luminal technologies available at the market, in order to evaluate the advantages and limitations of each of them in relation to its final application, prices and ecological impacts. As a result we find that Leds (light emitting diodes) technology is the most promising one in what has to do with ecology care, efficient use of energy and, in the medium term, the economy. Some data, numerical estimates and comparative tables are presented to support the given arguments.

• Eduardo Ramírez Cedillo
  

  Elements, Dilemmas and Basic Discussions in Public Finance Debate Abstract: In the current condition of austerity policies that are living around of the world, the public finances have been relegated to a condition in which have become more a business operation, to operate as if the balance or surplus obtaining represent the fundamental objective. Public finances have lost their essence, have ceased to be a means in achieving important goals for the good performance of the economy and perhaps much does the way they are addressed in different centers of study, the contents concerning the discipline. In the present paper attempts to generate a reflection on some basic points that should be valued in the teaching of public finances in order to maintain present an open discussion about the possibilities for the exercise of public finances that goes beyond maintain balanced accounts.