Social science perspectives on climate change and development

University of Copenhagen

Xaquín S. Pérez-Sindín López

Category: Politics

  • 🎓 What is university for, really?

    At the start of a course on Social Science Perspectives on Climate Change, I asked students to complete a short questionnaire. The aim was simple: to understand their expectations and, in pedagogical terms, begin establishing a kind of didactic contract for the course. One question was inspired by a debate that has become increasingly visible…

  • Hartmut Rosa’s Lecture: Emotions and Human Agency

    Yesterday I had the chance to attend a lecture by Hartmut Rosa in Copenhagen, invited by the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. The talk was titled The Atrophy of Discretion: A Plea for Human Agency, and it focused on a question that stayed with me long after the lecture ended: what happens…

  • Resource Curse: Why Resource Rich Countries Grow Slowly?

  • “I, Daniel Blake”, a film to reflect on modernity and the disappearance of middle-class jobs

    Brexit, Trump victory, both are fuelled by economic changes, but also the decline of once-cherished institutions, including family, church and labour unions, all contributing to a fear that the world is changing in ways that workers, or else their children, cannot keep up with. “There used to be a lot more middle-class jobs,” said Clyde…

  • Example of using sporadic conversations as a research method

    Great example of how to engage with the target group of your study by sporadic conversations. The original source is an article on Trump victory and the reality of rural areas in US. In it, the political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison  Kathy Cramer speakes about his last book The Politics of Resentment, where…

  • [Spanish politics] Mi participación en el debate sobre las últimas elecciones gallegas

  • [Spanish politics] Galicia non é de dereitas

    Galicia non é de dereitas. Existe unha maior porcentaxe de potenciais votantes de partidos de esquerda ou centro esquerda, arredor do 40%, fronte a un 37% que suman PP e Ciudadanos, a xulgar pola última enquisa CIS. Como moito habería que falar dunha clara fragmentación esquerda-dereita. Outra cousa é que iso se vexa reflexado nos…

  • Primero, el 1%, después el 10-15% de clase media de renta superior

    El mayor obstáculo para resolver el grave problema actual no es económico, sino político, pues el cambio propuesto implica un enfrentamiento con grupos muy poderosos: en primer lugar, nos encontramos con el enorme poder del 1% de la población de más renta (los súper ricos), al cual hay que sumar, en segundo lugar, el 10…

  • Crítica ao pensamento positivo

    Vivimos en sociedade. É posible que o o comportamento individual fose o factor máis determinante do destino das persoas en sociedades primitivas. Pero vivir en sociedade implica está sometidos a unha serie de forzas externas ao individuo e que teñen que ver coas estruturas sociais, políticas e económicas que compoñen dita sociedade. Normas, ao cabo,…

  • “Assembling for Development…” and “Globalization: capitalism and its alternatives”, by Leslie Sklair

    First published in 1989, this book focuses upon the phenomenon of export-led industrialisation fuelled by foreign investment and technology. He concentrates on Mexico, where US companies have been taking advantage of inexpensive labour to establish “maquila” factories that assemble US parts for export. Through this detailed study of the maquila industry, Sklair charts the progress…