Política y Sociedad
type: channel
description: Política y Sociedad (ISSN-e 1988-3129) is is an interdisciplinary continue periodicity journal, founded in 1988, covering all Social Sciences. It selects its articles based on the strict criteria of quality, novelty and relevance. It contains a section dedicated to a specifc topic and another for miscellaneous issues.
publisher: Ediciones Complutense
language: en
publication name: Política y Sociedad
issn: 1130-8001
copyright: In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Política y Sociedad is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
items: The Mutation of corporatism and the emergence of populist narratives. A comparative study of the processes of protest in Portugal and Spain at the beginning of the Great Recession
items: Spanish Autonomous Governments and Active Transsparency of their Digital Repositories. A Taxonomic Review
items: Public Images: visual Culture and the Redefinition of the Public Sphere
items: The Sociology of Childhood and Bourdieu: Dialogues on the Field in Spanish-Speaking Countries
items: Nature and function of communication in some theoretical reflections on the contemporary sociopolitical world
items: Digital parrhesia in mental health: the care of the self that overflows into the other
items: Political argumentation versus citizens' concerns: which issues did Sánchez and Feijóo cover during the 2023 election debate?
items: Presentist and perennialist perspectives: iranian nationalism as a case of study
items: Democracy-Authoritarianism the fracture axis of Latin American party systems
items: The Paris Commune as a partial and potential dictatorship of the proletariat
items: In with the New and Out with the Old? Competition and Electoral Specialisation among Europe’s Radical Left. The cases of Portugal, Greece, and France
items: Youth involvement in activism: exploring the nexus between political instrumentality and emotional comfort. A study of young Catalan pro-independence supporters
items: Colombian education policies 2007-2023: Coverage, retention, governance and reform proposals
items: La creatividad del imaginario o el imaginario de la creatividad
items: Chega as a case of accelerated convergence with the populist far right ba-sed on polarisation
items: Experiences of trans people in mental health. Encounters, morality and conflicts in the therapeutic device
items: The EU and GAZA: division, relevance and inability to act
items: Sáez del Álamo, J. (2024): Biopolítica del armario, Manresa, Bellaterra Edicions, 259 pp.
items: From permanent exception to genocide: Contextualizing the Israeli regime in Gaza
items: After the genocide: an end of cycle in the Palestinian National Movement?
items: Between the Uprising of 2021 and the Silence of 2023: Rethinking Palestinian Political Mobilization Inside Israel
items: Aira, T. (2025): Mitólogos. El arte de seducir a las masas, Barcelona, Debate, 221, pp.
items: Palestina después de la destrucción de Gaza
items: The The Portuguese paradox: high trust in the news and the perils of social media disinformation in elections
items: Populist-Nationalist Enunciation. A study of two electoral spots by Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump
items: Security and Criminality
items: Towards a democratic equality. A dialogue between Lefort's and Bourdieu's perspectives
items: Clandestine or with rights? The socio-political determinants of sex work legislation in Spain and New Zealand.
items: The AI companion who cares: sociability, affection and unwanted loneliness in the Replika chatbot
items: Affectively polarized audiences? An analysis of Spain between 1993-2023

The Mutation of corporatism and the emergence of populist narratives. A comparative study of the processes of protest in Portugal and Spain at the beginning of the Great Recession
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description: The Spanish indignant movement and the Portuguese geração à rasca were two expressions of the weariness and indignation of society that, in 2011, led the social protest against the effects of the austerity policies being implemented by the governments of both countries as a result of the economic crisis. However, despite the similarity in terms of the contextual framework and methodology used in the protests, the Spanish movement was equipped with a populist narrative that the Portuguese movement lacked. The different union strategies altered the traditional system of representation of interests that existed in both countries, decisively affecting their political processes after the great recession. This article reveals the hidden relationship between the change from social corporatism to segmented neo-corporatism and the increase in populist demands and discourses. In so doing, it shows the importance of causal links that have been traditionally glossed over in the literature on populism.
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creator: German Setien Escamendi
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Política y Sociedad
date: 2021-03-22
publication date: 2021-03-22
starting page: e69139
ending page: e69139
doi: 10.5209/poso.69139

Spanish Autonomous Governments and Active Transsparency of their Digital Repositories. A Taxonomic Review
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description: Public administrations provide data about their performance, implementing the open government principles. With the aim of both quantifying the proactive disclosure of digital information from the Spanish Autonomous Communities in december 2013 and 2017, as well as looking for typologies, we will be using a self verification list inspired on the national law 19/2013 about transparency, access to public information and good government, which will assign a weight according to Tim Berners-Lee’s five star scale, and will allow us to formulate two indicators: open data transparency, which only gathers information from the open data websites, and global transparency, which expands the search to the transparency portals and the institutional web site. The outcome of the investigation shows that the disclosure levels are unsatisfactory overall and, although they have improved lately, they are only relevant for global transparency thanks to the development and contribution of the transparency portals, which overshadow the usefulness of the institutional web site. The typological analysis identifies two balanced conglomerates supporting the postulate of two opposing theories: agency and neo-institutional
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creator: Ricardo Curto-Rodríguez
rights: Copyright (c) 2020 Política y Sociedad
date: 2020-11-06
publication date: 2020-11-06
starting page: 543
ending page: 565
doi: 10.5209/poso.68119

Public Images: visual Culture and the Redefinition of the Public Sphere
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description: The contemporary expansion of images implies dramatic changes in the concept of public sphere. The article starts from the convoluted definition of the object of study of visual culture. The complexity of this definition makes approaches from that field of study remain diluted within mediocentric perspectives that prevent the analysis of the transformations that contemporary images provoke in public sphere. In order to develop a framework for the study of the articulations between image and public sphere, the article pays attention to some significant concepts of contemporary image and visuality, such as ubiquity, circulation, agency, and imagination. Finally, the article proposes to review the concept of public sphere understood as mobile, interconnected, and decentralized.
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creator: Sergio Martínez Luna
rights: Copyright (c) 2019 Política y Sociedad
date: 2019-10-23
publication date: 2019-10-23
starting page: 431
ending page: 450
doi: 10.5209/poso.56892

The Sociology of Childhood and Bourdieu: Dialogues on the Field in Spanish-Speaking Countries
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description: The Sociology of Childhood was the first discipline to focus on children as social actors and to consider childhood as part of the social structure. This sociological perspective requires epistemological, ethical and methodological implications, at the same time as it demands transformations in the way of analyzing childhood and the role of children in society. To consider the Sociology of Childhood as a scientific field that has its own structure within a larger field, such as Sociology, points out the need to explore Bourdieu's work in order to understand how the structuring of a field occurs. In dialogue with this author we analyze the way in which an object of study has come to be conformed as a scientific field, as is the Sociology of Childhood. This has happened especially in the Anglo-Saxon area, but also in Latin America and Spain, whose main productions are identified, classified, analyzed and compared in this article. Some coincidences were found in the main themes in English and Spanish production, such as discussions related to the rights of citizenship of children. At the same time, in Spanish-speaking productions, there are concerns about studying the situation of "childhood at the margin", an interest related to specific research demand in this context.
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creator: Monique Ap. Voltarelli
creator: Lourdes Gaitán Muñoz
creator: Begoña Leyra Fatou
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2018-03-19
publication date: 2018-03-19
starting page: 283
ending page: 309
doi: 10.5209/POSO.56119

Nature and function of communication in some theoretical reflections on the contemporary sociopolitical world
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description: Communication plays a central role in the social and political theory of the contemporary world. Theories cannot be constructed without relying on communication for their development. However, communication serves different functions depending on whether we are dealing with normative or descriptive theories. In the former, communication is an indispensable component to substantiate the principles of a democratic society or establish the ideal horizons to which society should aspire; in the latter, communication is a central element for describing the contemporary social world. Nevertheless, the nature of communication, whether in a normative or descriptive context, will be defined differently by different authors. Thus, for some thinkers, it will fulfill its objective: it will have a communicative nature and, therefore, facilitate understanding among individuals; for others, it may be deemed unsuccessful, appearing as incommunicative, or presenting difficulties in achieving understanding among different perspectives. These different propositions will be observed in the works of the thinkers we will briefly explore here: John Rawls, Richard Rorty, Antonio Negri, Jürgen Habermas, and Byung-Chul Han.
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creator: Israel Arcos Fuentes
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-27
publication date: 2026-04-27
starting page: e94145
ending page: e94145
doi: 10.5209/poso.94145

Digital parrhesia in mental health: the care of the self that overflows into the other
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description: Throughout its history, madness has been intertwined with a loss of autonomy and a condition of otherness and unreason. Nowadays, since the psychiatric deinstitutionalization and the rise of psycho pharmaceutical drugs, we find ourselves in the midst of those same notions adapted to the xxist century through the idealization of the self, being the fractured self one understood as mad. This leads to those considered as mentally ill being unable to conceive themselves neither as agents of care, nor legitimate actors in their discursive framework. Michel Foucault offers, in this situation, the care of the self (epiméleia heautoû) as a way to recover one’s own sovereignty over the self, exercising a care of the self over the self that, eventually, inevitable overflows towards others. Following these notions, this article seeks delve in the relationship that those considered as mentally ill establish with the care of the others we present a qualitative study in which we apply critical discourse analysis to the life story testimony and the activity in social media of nine participants, all of which with experience in dealing with mental health and its professionals. From the material produced we can draw that those considered as mentally ill extend their care to others through parrhesia —honest speaking— in social media, turning the latter into their main tool of communication in what care in mental health is involved since it allows them a means of communication without them necessarily being presupposed as irrational and incoherent.
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creator: Magdalena Correa Blázquez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e90705
ending page: e90705
doi: 10.5209/poso.90705

Political argumentation versus citizens' concerns: which issues did Sánchez and Feijóo cover during the 2023 election debate?
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description: Decades after the first televised presidential debates, their role and influence on citizens' voting decisions is still under discussion. The rise of different information channels, such as digital media and social networks, took of the role of television as a decisive tool for influencing public opinion. In the case of Spain, and after years of absence, the debates between the main candidates have at least helped to get to know and confront their main political ideas. This research analyses, through quantitative techniques, to what extent the issues addressed in the 2023 presidential debate between Pedro Sánchez, from PSOE, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, from PP, responded to the main concerns of citizens. To this end, it is studied whether there is a correspondence between the issues discussed, and their extension and repetition, with the incidence of the concerns expressed by citizens in the monthly polls carried out by the country's Sociological Research Centre (CIS). Data show that, although the most relevant issues were covered, other less pressing were also introduced by both candidates as a technique for building an argument to mobilising the like-minded voters of each party.
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creator: Borja Ventura-Salom
creator: Casandra López-Marcos
creator: Pablo Hidalgo Cobo
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e91264
ending page: e91264
doi: 10.5209/poso.91264

Presentist and perennialist perspectives: iranian nationalism as a case of study
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description: In this work, we aim to to provide a state-of the-art review of the different theorical perspectives on nationalism, with a specific focus on Iranian nationalism. Firstly, our analysis spans from studies that argue that the concept of nation is an element whose existence predates the Enlightenment and liberal revolutions, generally referred to as perennialists. Secondly, we will examine the viewpoints that consider nationalism to be an ideology implemented as a replacement for ancient forms of government, emerging in contemporary times. Given that this is a nationalism arising in a postcolonial context, we deem the analysis of these theorical approaches essential for our theorical framework. We will then proceed to the core of our work, reviewing these perspectives as they apply to the specific case of Iranian nationalism, from the theoretical perspectives we identify as presentist to those viewpoints we consider aligned with perennialist tendencies. The objective is to demonstrate the surpassing of perennialist approaches to Iranian nationalism by presentist perspectives. We believe that the influence of postcolonial thought has contributed to strengthening presentist arguments, which refute the conception of Iran as a millenial nation and demonstrate its creation for instrumental purposes and as a reaction against colonialism.
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creator: Guillermo Martínez Rabadán
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e95673
ending page: e95673
doi: 10.5209/poso.95673

Democracy-Authoritarianism the fracture axis of Latin American party systems
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description: The research aims to determine whether the democracy-authoritarianism axis has been present in the Latin American political systems from their democratic transition processes. As specific objectives, it is intended to answer three questions: Do left-wing parties place greater relevance on the democratic issue than right-wing parties? do the relevance and positions of parties change as time has elapsed since democratic return? Are the structural conditions of the party system and democratic consolidation a determining factor in this axis of fracture of electoral competition? To do this, the database of electoral programs offered by Manifesto Project -MARPOR- is used. The research concludes that the axis of democracy-authoritarianism competition has remained as an axis of structuring the Latin American party systems, entrenching left-wing parties towards greater democratic openness and right-wing parties in favor of the statu quo, which relates to the democracy consolidation in the region.
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creator: Aldo Adrián Martínez-Hernández
creator: Nicolás Miranda Olivares
creator: Mariana Sendra
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e96496
ending page: e96496
doi: 10.5209/poso.96496

The Paris Commune as a partial and potential dictatorship of the proletariat
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description: The objective of this work is to evaluate the degree to which the Paris Commune adjusted to the concept of “dictatorship of the proletariat” (state form) formulated by classical Marxism, taking into account the two criteria that characterize it: 1) Being the political expression of a movement aware of its class interests; 2) Maximum democracy for the revolutionary masses and repression against their enemies. After investigating the nature of the Paris Commune based on works written from different perspectives and disciplines and on some official documents, I come to the conclusion that the Paris Commune can be classified as a partial and potential dictatorship of the proletariat for the following reasons: 1) Regarding the first criterion, because its composition (predominantly working-class) and its democratic structuring would have contributed over time to facilitating the already existing socialist tendencies. However, given that during its 2 months of life the Commune did not have a conscious classist movement underlying it, with the republican identity being the dominant one in Paris, we must add the adjective “potential”; 2) Regarding the second criterion, because its political articulation and its measures aimed at a profound democratization of state structures. However, in addition to the current limitations, the decision not to be articulated on the basis of the National Guard limited the scope of mass democracy: hence the adjective “partial”, which would also be explained by the weakness of the repressive factor.
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creator: Adrián López Bueno
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e98312
ending page: e98312
doi: 10.5209/poso.98312

In with the New and Out with the Old? Competition and Electoral Specialisation among Europe’s Radical Left. The cases of Portugal, Greece, and France
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description: The European radical left is not a homogeneous ideological family. While in most European countries there is a single radical left party with parliamentary representation, in some country’s electoral competition between classical communist parties and new radical left parties is common, with both gaining sustained parliamentary representation. However, how voters behave accordingly has not been studied. This article therefore uses data from the ten rounds of the European Social Survey covering thirteen elections held between 2000 and 2020 in Portugal, Greece and France to study the nature of electoral competition between these formations, as well as voter profiles. Our study reaffirms realignment theories, finding that competition occurs on both socio-demographic and socio-cultural axes. We find that parties specialise in attracting their electorates, avoiding cross-pressures. Thus, the communists attract an older, less educated and more union-affiliated electorate, which is also more Eurosceptic, more critical of immigration and ideologically more left-wing.
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creator: Victor Gago Rivas
creator: Modesto Escobar Mercado
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e98355
ending page: e98355
doi: 10.5209/poso.98355

Youth involvement in activism: exploring the nexus between political instrumentality and emotional comfort. A study of young Catalan pro-independence supporters
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description: This article explores the factors that influence the entry and engagement of young people in social movements or youth political organisations. Focusing on a case study of young activists from the Catalan Left Independence movement —specifically members of Arran in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona— it examines their activist trajectories, including processes of mobilisation, involvement, and, in some cases, disengagement. The research spans the period from 2011 to 2016, with follow-up conducted between 2017 and 2019, amidst politically significant contexts shaped by the 2008 economic crisis and the emergence of a protest cycle marked by the rise of the independence movement, the 15-M movement, and the feminist movement. Using 27 in-depth interviews and over a dozen participant observations, the study identifies various political, psychosocial, and emotional factors influencing activism engagement. The findings propose a novel approach to understanding these dynamics, configured between emotional comfort and political instrumentality during phases of entry, involvement, and subjectivation in activism. This framework offers valuable insights into the processes of mobilisation preceding the emergence of protest cycles, contributing to the broader scholarship on social and political movements.
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creator: Albert Martín-Gómez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e98388
ending page: e98388
doi: 10.5209/poso.98388

Colombian education policies 2007-2023: Coverage, retention, governance and reform proposals
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description: This article aims to analyze the evolution of public policies for basic and secondary education in Colombia (2007–2023) and their effects on local governance, social cohesion, and the indicators of coverage, retention, dropout, and graduation. A qualitative methodology is applied through documentary analysis of official sources, development plans, public policies, and academic literature. The study examines decentralization dynamics, territorial management of educational services, and the impact of policies on key education system indicators. The findings show improvements in coverage and retention in certain regions, but also persistent inequalities linked to municipal certification levels, urban–rural segmentation, and lack of coordination between government levels. Gaps in the implementation of retention policies, weak monitoring tools, and institutional fragmentation are identified. The discussion leads to reform proposals, including early warning systems, unified data platforms, performance- and equity-based funding models, and intersectoral territorial governance strategies. The article concludes that achieving equitable and quality education requires normative reform, the strengthening of local social capital, and sustained, results-oriented investment.
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creator: Sandra Patricia Barragán Moreno
creator: Oscar Leonardo Lozano Galindo
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e98440
ending page: e98440
doi: 10.5209/poso.98440

La creatividad del imaginario o el imaginario de la creatividad
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description: Castoriadis thought creativity as a fundamental attribute of society. Modernity, heir of the inherited thought centered on the idea of determined (and deterministic) being, omitted its protagonism in favor of a closed dialectic alien to the human will to intervene in the historical course. This creativity, always according to Castoriadis, refers to the being-for-being that announces a potential reality in which the imagination awakens social action from a narrative, spatial and temporal symbolism with which social life identifies itself. The creative dimension of the imaginary corresponds to an ontology of indeterminacy in which being-for-being does not correspond either to determinism or to mere randomness. Today we do not live in times of determinism, but of planned and organized randomness in which a notion of normalized creativity matures, adapted to a gaseous and innocuous aestheticism and to a way of life subjected to urgency and acceleration. Singularity has become a new imperative that breaks and fragments the social will into a myriad of unconnected biographies. The creativity of the imaginary has been inverted into the imaginary of creativity.
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creator: Ángel Enrique Carretero
creator: Celso Sánchez Capdequí
creator: Pablo Echeverría Esparza
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e98816
ending page: e98816
doi: 10.5209/poso.98816

Chega as a case of accelerated convergence with the populist far right ba-sed on polarisation
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description: Nowadays the idea of an Iberian excepcionalism in relation to the presence of the institutional presence and political weight of extreme right-wing formations results far away. In the case of Chega, it has emerged as a leading actor after the early elections of 2024. It is thus a case of accelerated convergence with current European party systems. In the Portuguese case, the formation has converged both in terms of party format: leadership and communication, and in its polarising impact on the party system and the dynamics of party competition in the country. The article seeks to provide a general interpretative framework for such parties as well as to illustrate the Chega case both organisationally and in terms of its impact on the party system and electoral competition. In both cases polarisation is a common nexus and has a key role.
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creator: Alfonso Antonio López Rodríguez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e98961
ending page: e98961
doi: 10.5209/poso.98961

Experiences of trans people in mental health. Encounters, morality and conflicts in the therapeutic device
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description: Since the international struggle for depathologization, in Spain trans identities have been dissociated from the paradigm of “mental illness” eliminating the requirement to be evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist to access the bodily changes. However, to ensure adequate healthcare, some psychologists consider it necessary to accompany the person, especially when they have mental health background. Based on the assumption that the relationship with the professional is part of what we call here the ‘therapeutic device’, we seek to understand how the subjects themselves, considered ‘patients/users’, experience the therapeutic encounter. This article collects the experiences of six trans people who have sought mental health services for some reason. As part of ongoing ethnographic research, six participants (three men, two women and one non-binary transgender person) were selected, and one interview was conducted with a clinical psychologist in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona between January and June 2024. Three locations stand out in the subjectivity of the actors: places of adherence, places of accommodation and places of contestation with regard to this services. What is at stake are the encounters, disagreements and struggles of the subjects in the ‘therapeutic device’ within a broader change in morality and legitimacy on the part of its elements and functions.
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creator: Édel Granda Viñuelas
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e99192
ending page: e99192
doi: 10.5209/poso.99192

The EU and GAZA: division, relevance and inability to act
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description: This article analyses the European Union’s (EU) response to the Gaza war, with particular attention to the paradox of a Union that is relevant yet unable to translate its potential into effective influence. It starts from a central question: why the perception of this conflict as a critical juncture —something that in other instances has served as an integrative impulse— has not led to a more ambitious foreign policy. To address this question, the article examines three key dimensions: (1) the behaviour of the Member States in United Nations votes between October 2023 and June 2025; (2) the divergent positions regarding relations with Israel; and (3) the debate on the recognition of Palestinian statehood and cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. The analysis suggests that traditional divisions among Member States have been compounded by tensions both between and within EU institutions. Furthermore, it argues that the EU’s very relevance as an actor has led one of the parties —Israel— to seek to widen divisions among European partners, and it links these challenges to broader processes of fragmentation, both of the European integration project and of the international order.
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creator: Eduard Soler i Lecha
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e100839
ending page: e100839
doi: 10.5209/poso.100839

Sáez del Álamo, J. (2024): Biopolítica del armario, Manresa, Bellaterra Edicions, 259 pp.
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subject: Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Iván Gallardo Esclapez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e103496
ending page: e103496
doi: 10.5209/poso.103496

From permanent exception to genocide: Contextualizing the Israeli regime in Gaza
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description: This article interrogates the Israeli regime’s approach to Palestinians –particularly in Gaza– through the lens of permanent exception, arguing that a triadic system of governance comprising normative, discursive, and performative dimensions of exception has created the structural preconditions for genocidal violence. Far from representing temporary responses to crisis, exceptional measures have become embedded within ordinary governance, enabling the systematic erosion of legal protections, the securitized construction of Palestinians as existential threats, and the routinized deployment of surveillance, bureaucratic arbitrariness and demographic engineering. Situating this analysis within critical legal theory, the paper proposes a shift from intent-based approaches to genocide toward a context-based and socio-legal understanding that emphasizes cumulative state practices aimed at dismantling the conditions necessary for group life. Gaza, under prolonged siege and recurrent military assault, exemplifies how exceptionality transforms into an infrastructure of elimination –where legal norms are weaponized, rights systematically denied, and Palestinian existence rendered disposable. Through detailed examination of Israeli legal history, political discourse, and daily practices of control, the article argues that genocide emerges not as an isolated rupture but as the culmination of normalized and prolongued state violence. In doing so, it reclaims genocide as a processual, socio-political and historicaly embedded phenomenon –one that demands urgent reconsideration within both international legal doctrine and global political consciousness.
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creator: Pilar Eirene de Prada
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e103908
ending page: e103908
doi: 10.5209/poso.103908

After the genocide: an end of cycle in the Palestinian National Movement?
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description: The Palestinian National Movement (PNM) faces one of the most challenging junctures in its history following the genocide in Gaza, changes in the regional balance of power, and new trends in global politics. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) made significant advances on the regional and international political and diplomatic scene. However, after signing the Oslo Accords in 1993, it began a rapid decline by linking its fate to this frustrated process. Since then, the division within the PNM has increased, with two self-governing entities (Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip), both of which have proven equally dependent and weak. Their respective strategic approaches were at odds with and neutralized each other. Both have failed equally, mainly due to the balance of power favoring Israel and the unconditional support of the United States. All trends indicate that the current situation will not change and could even worsen. This is evident from the growing Israeli offensive in the West Bank, parallel to the human and material devastation in Gaza. At this crucial moment in its history, the PNM is entering a new and uncertain political cycle, which requires a critical review of its trajectory, with a renewal and unification of its strategic repertoire.
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creator: José Abu-Tarbush
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e104229
ending page: e104229
doi: 10.5209/poso.104229

Between the Uprising of 2021 and the Silence of 2023: Rethinking Palestinian Political Mobilization Inside Israel
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description: This article examines the relative absence of large-scale Palestinian political mobilization inside Israel following October 7, 2023, situating it within broader historical, political, and structural transformations rather than treating it as an isolated moment. It asks how the interplay between intensified political control and conditional economic integration under Israeli settler colonialism and neoliberalism over the past two decades has reshaped the conditions of political action for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of policy documents, public discourse, and socio-economic data, the article adopts a dialectical approach to examine five interrelated processes: a persistent condition of “in-betweenness” shaping the lived experience of Palestinians in Israel; macro-level shifts in Israeli policy marked by intensified political repression alongside expanding economic containment; the resulting fragility of the national political center and erosion of political agency, intersecting with political fragmentation and the rise of organized crime; the recalibration of Israeli policy following the May 2021 uprising, including expanded punitive measures; and the further escalation of these dynamics after October 7, generating a climate of heightened political intimidation and fear. By foregrounding these interconnected processes, the article explores how changing perceptions of political opportunity emerge, highlighting the ways in which political action is shaped by shifting constraints, structural tensions, and evolving forms of state-society relations.
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creator: Khaled Anabtawi
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e104691
ending page: e104691
doi: 10.5209/poso.104691

Aira, T. (2025): Mitólogos. El arte de seducir a las masas, Barcelona, Debate, 221, pp.
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subject: Reviews
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creator: David del Pino Díaz
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e106709
ending page: e106709
doi: 10.5209/poso.106709

Palestina después de la destrucción de Gaza
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description: Palestina después de la destrucción de Gaza
subject: Monographic
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creator: Sonia Boulos
creator: Isaías Barreñada Bajo
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: e109004
ending page: e109004
doi: 10.5209/poso.109004

The The Portuguese paradox: high trust in the news and the perils of social media disinformation in elections
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description: . Portugal's political landscape is usually regarded by scholars as resilient to disinformation, largely due to its population’s high trust in news. However, this resilience is increasingly challenged by rising political polarisation and a growing reliance on digital platforms for news consumption. This study examines how these dynamics interact, questioning Portugal’s reputation in resisting the influence of disinformation. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we triangulate quantitative data from the Digital News Report with a qualitative analysis of social media posts by the leader of Chega, a radical right-wing party. Findings reveal that individuals who primarily rely on social media for news display distinct sociodemographic characteristics —they tend to be younger, less educated, and more politically undecided—, making them more vulnerable to disinformation. As the shift toward social media coincides with declining trust in news and less worry about disinformation among these groups, populist parties, such as Chega, exploit these vulnerabilities by leveraging social media to extend their reach and legitimacy. The analysis of Chega's social media tactics, such as the use of news-style aesthetics and polling data manipulation, reveals a recognition of news as a source of political credibility. The findings suggest that Portugal’s resilience to disinformation is being eroded by structural changes in the media environment, and that high public trust in news must be matched by institutional responses and rising media literacy to prevent potential backfire effects at a societal level.
subject: Miscelaneus
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creator: Paulo Couraceiro
creator: Miguel Paisana
creator: Caterina Foà
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Política y Sociedad
date: 2026-07-24
publication date: 2026-07-24
starting page: e99518
ending page: e99518
doi: 10.5209/poso.99518

Populist-Nationalist Enunciation. A study of two electoral spots by Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump
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description: At a historical moment in which Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump, two of the most representative political actors of right-wing nationalist populism, reappeared on the scene, this article proposes a study of two spots from their 2016 and 2017 election campaigns from a semiotic perspective, with a focus on enunciation. The aim of the study is to identify the strategies of enunciation common to both spots, in order to postulate a discursive matrix that can be used as a tool to study right-wing nationalist populism as a discursive genre that political actors use to perform in the political field. The article studies the use that Le Pen and Trump make of a set of semiotic resources (words, images, music, tone, gestures) to convey these enunciation strategies and achieve certain effects of sense in the electorate. The results of the analysis allow us to identify a common matrix in the discursive production, which enables us to postulate some distinctive and characteristic features of populist-nationalist enunciation.
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creator: Sebastián Moreno Barreneche
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Política y Sociedad
date: 2025-12-10
publication date: 2025-12-10
starting page: e97408
ending page: e97408
doi: 10.5209/poso.97408

Security and Criminality
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description: The relationship between security, criminality and human mobility has been present in human life for many decades. The aim of this paper is to use the lens of securitization theory to address the possible relationship between the Maghrebi migration phenomenon to Europe and its relationship with crime statistics in two countries: Spain and Italy. As will be developed later, this is a theory of international relations that establishes how previously securitized subjects, such as migrations in this case study, can end up becoming palpable threats to national security when they are introduced into the agenda of actors such as the media. Therefore, the methodology will combine qualitative and quantitative methods to elucidate this question: is there really a factual relationship between the two variables from the perspective of securitization theory? The results elucidated in the present study establish that the percentage of Maghrebi inmates in Spain stood at 30% in 2021, while in the transalpine country the figures are similar. Thus, throughout the conclusions, answers are given to questions underlying migration and its intrinsic relationship with security and criminality.
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creator: Ricardo Gómez Laorga
creator: Miguel Ángel Martínez Andreu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Política y Sociedad
date: 2025-12-09
publication date: 2025-12-09
starting page: e92435
ending page: e92435
doi: 10.5209/poso.92435

Towards a democratic equality. A dialogue between Lefort's and Bourdieu's perspectives
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description: The central aim of this work is to problematize the question about equality, for which Claude Lefort's and Pierre Bourdieu's perspectives will be put into dialogue. This will allow the paper to point out the productivity and interest of the little-explored relationship between these two thinkers, who present many points of contact. Also, it enables an approach to equality that shows its intertwining with the concern for freedom and sorofraternity. In this way, this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion about democracy, with the goal of strengthening and expanding it. In pursuit of this objective, the text begins by tracing two parallel paths, which cover how each of these authors treats the question of equality. Then draw bridges between the two, especially around their approaches to the symbolic and the place they give to the “revolution”. Through these materials, this paper advocates for a Realpolitik of equality – which is also of freedom and sorofraternity – that democratizes our society, which demands revolutionizing our here and now.
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creator: Emiliano Gambarotta
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Política y Sociedad
date: 2025-12-09
publication date: 2025-12-09
starting page: e94557
ending page: e94557
doi: 10.5209/poso.94557

Clandestine or with rights? The socio-political determinants of sex work legislation in Spain and New Zealand.
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description: The aim of this article has been to carry out a comprehensive study of the conditioning factors that have (or have not) enabled the construction of a pro-rights majority in New Zealand and Spain. It analyses, from a comparative, historical and philosophical perspective, two different social and legal scenarios related to sex work, based on a bibliographical review of different sources, in particular, academic articles and books, laws and judgments. Throughout these pages, the differences between the two contexts are noted, as well as the existence of particular socio-political determinants that have made the decriminalisation of sex work in New Zealand possible. These include the historical evolution of the territory, its size, the electoral system, and the cross-cutting alliance-building strategy of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC). After explaining the situation in Spain with reference to prostitution, the NZPC campaign finally draws lessons for the construction of a decriminalising majority in the Spanish context, concluding that in Spain, pro-rights initiatives should come from the social sphere.
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creator: Marta Roman
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Política y Sociedad
date: 2025-12-09
publication date: 2025-12-09
starting page: e95020
ending page: e95020
doi: 10.5209/poso.95020

The AI companion who cares: sociability, affection and unwanted loneliness in the Replika chatbot
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description: This article examines the relationship between unwanted loneliness and sociability with non-human virtual companions through a case study of the Replika chatbot, designed to replicate human interactions. The methodology combines a digital ethnography on the Replika forum on Reddit, analysis of interviews of Replika's founder, and an autoethnography of the author´s experience using the app. The results highlight aspects of the app's design that favor the creation of emotional bonds with virtual agents, as well as ways by which such bonds can be undone. In addition, some users seek to expand the relationship with their agents outside the application through the creation of profiles in social networks or by using digital tools to give them a more realist human appearance. Finally, the findings allow us to reflect on the tensions in sociability with virtual non-human agents, oscillating between the temporary relief of loneliness and the reinforcement of individualistic logics.
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creator: Jacinto G. Lorca
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Política y Sociedad
date: 2025-12-09
publication date: 2025-12-09
starting page: e95897
ending page: e95897
doi: 10.5209/poso.95897

Affectively polarized audiences? An analysis of Spain between 1993-2023
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description: The study of the causes and consequences of affective polarization in Spain has been underway for almost five years. Until now, previous research has pointed to a symbiotic relationship with ideological polarization, electoral contexts and national identities nested in the Spanish centre-periphery cleavage as the causes. With few exceptions, the role of information consumption and media has been little addressed in Spain. Hence the need for further exploration of an audiences-based approach to analyse their affective polarization in terms of which media they prefer to use to inform themselves about politics. The Spanish media system expresses a high degree of political parallelism - media clearly representing partisan and ideological tendencies in politics - so that, theoretically, it is possible to think that there is a relationship between individuals' information consumption and affective polarization. This article aims to explore and describe how affectively polarized Spanish audiences are. The results indicate a distribution of average affections generally coherent with the ideological diversity of the Spanish media, as well as a progressive affective polarization of audiences.
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creator: Rubén Cuéllar Rivero
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Política y Sociedad
date: 2025-12-09
publication date: 2025-12-09
starting page: e96233
ending page: e96233
doi: 10.5209/poso.96233