This book uses the reflection of academics specialized in the urban area of ​​Latin America, Europe and the United States, to initiate a comparative debate of the different dynamics in which Urbicidio expresses itself. The field or focal point of analysis that this publication approaches is the city, but under a new critical perspective of inverse methodology to that has been traditional used. It is about understanding the structural causes of self-destruction to finally thinking better and then going from pessimism to optimism. It is a deep look at the city from an unconventional entrance, because it is about knowing and analyzing what the city loses by the action deployed by own urbanites, both in the field of its production and in the field of its consumption. This suppose that the city does not have an ascending linear sequential evolution in its development but neither in each of its parts in the improvement process, showing the face that commonly not seen but others live. The category used for this purpose is that of Urbicidio or the death of the city, which contributes theoretically and methodologically to the knowledge of the city, as well as to the design of urban policies that neutralize it. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the book has an inclusive view of the authors. For this reason, gender parity, territorial representation and the presence of age groups have been sought.

Cutting-edge critical and theoretical studies of the impact of globalization on Latin American literary production, by first-rate interdisciplinary scholars working in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Recent years have witnessed a true technological revolution with a global impact upon all areas of society, from entertainment to education. Technology, changing and evolving at increasing speed, undoubtedly shapes ways of seeing the world, something which requires profound reflection in terms of how reality is understood. It is undeniable that in this audiovisual world music plays a leading and prominent role. This is particularly notable when considering the importance of music in relation to the way it is featured on mobile devices and as manifested in terms of other communication technologies, its impact on new narrative forms and the prominence of audiovisual fiction in advertising, and the new ways of creating, receiving and disseminating music on the Internet. This book is divided into two sections, “New Media, New Audiences” and “Music, Cinema and Audiovisual Practices: New Approaches”, and the sixteen essays brought together here are the work of an international group of scholars who deal with different geographical and cultural contexts. One of the highlights of this volume is its interdisciplinary re-reading of a complex phenomenon that is undoubtedly a fundamental part of contemporary culture. As such, this collection will be of particular interest to both scholars and non-specialist readers.

Se propone continuar el legado conformado por otra obra previa, Las consecuencias perversas de la modernidad, que en 1996 vio la luz presentando trabajos de Bauman, Luhmann, Giddens y Beck. Tal aportación, realizada hace diez años, sirvió de importante muestrario de conceptos que han configurado el marco de referencia semántico para el análisis de las sociedades modernas avanzadas. Así, Las contradicciones culturales de la modernidad pretende proseguir y ampliar ese tipo de análisis sociológico ya existente, pero haciéndolo extensivo a otros ámbitos, desde el propio concepto de modernidad (Bell, Eisenstadt, Wittrock, Bauman), en sus diversas configuraciones sociales (Bellah, Walzer, Ikegami), revisitando la re-estructuración institucional de la religión en las sociedades modernas (Schluchter) y volviendo a tematizar el significado de conceptos como el riesgo (Luhmann), el progreso y su mitología (Blumenberg), la aceleración social (Koselleck) y el miedo (J. Reemtsma).

Este libro quiere sumarse al coro de voces que tratan de buscar salida conceptual a las perplejidades del fin de milenio. En el período comprendido entre las dos guerras mundiales, Freud acuñó el concepto de "malestar en la cultura" que se refería a una insoportable situación generalizada de disciplina que de hecho impregnaba entonces la cultura de las sociedades occidentales. Los asuntos planetarios se hallan en un estadio de incertidumbre y "nuevo malestar". No es el viejo "malestar en la cultura". Estaríamos más bien ante un malestar atenuado que afecta a la ciudadanía de los países desarrollados. Más allá de los calificativos, existe acuerdo generalizado en torno a la idea de que la "vieja modernidad" ha entrado en crisis y que lo que venga a continuación -llámese "post", "neo", "hiper" o como se quiera -ya no será- o, más bien, ya no es -igual.

The universality of the problematics with urban education, together with the importance of understanding the context of improvement interventions, brings into sharp focus the importance of an undertaking like the International Handbook of Urban Education. An important focus of this book is the interrogation of both the social and political factors that lead to different problem posing and subsequent solutions within each region.