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Constellations of Delirium in Contemporary Latin American Fiction
Constellations of Delirium in Contemporary Latin American Fiction* is a meticulous, exhaustive, extensively documented, and theoretically grounded study of the representations of delirium in a corpus of novels from the late 20th and 21st centuries. This book draws an imaginary line between disparate literary texts that, when read through this connection, reveal an unexpected path of light that allows us to hear the voice of unknown galaxies and believe in the power of the imagination.
Copyright (c) 2025 Publications Office https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The assassination attempt on President Jaime Roldós Aguilera
This book provides a comprehensive and well-founded analysis of the complex national and international political context that the country faced at the end of the long dictatorial era. From the outset of his term, President Jaime Roldós positioned himself not only at a distance from, but in direct opposition to, several of the political, economic, and military interests that gained strength in the region following the end of the Carter administration. Aware of the international political positions championed by Roldós, former Senator Robert Kennedy, a senior official in the current U.S. administration, did not rule out CIA involvement in this tragedy during an interview with Ecuadorian media in May 2025. It fell to the multiparty commission established by the National Congress in 1992 to unravel the errors and omissions of the investigations following the tragic accident, which were intended solely to close the case. The author asserts that President Roldós’s death is not a closed case; that the possibility of an assassination cannot be ruled out, as there is evidence pointing to that hypothesis. In doing so, he drives a significant wedge into the conventional interpretation of Ecuador’s contemporary history, particularly regarding the 1980s—a decade that was decisive for several reasons that would shape the entire subsequent period. A country’s history is not built on closed-ended questions, official truths, or unquestionable assumptions that conceal interests and complicities. It is built on academic and political works such as those Víctor Granda offers us in this book. -César Montúfar
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The essays in this book hover somewhere between personal testimony and historical study. This is due, of course, to the fact that the time that has elapsed between the moment of reflection and the moment of action has not been sufficient to allow for the historian’s necessary distance. The history of the Marxist “new left” in Ecuador between the 1960s and the 1990s has yet to be written. This work and its genesis are part of a collective effort to begin filling that void. Its aim is to document the trajectory, doctrine, strategy, and political activities of certain Ecuadorian Marxist political parties or movements that operated between the Cuban Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. It seeks to establish their influence and participation in the trajectory of the country’s social movements, characterize their doctrinal and political differences, and provide an analysis of the type of Marxist left-wing activists of those years and their personal motivations.
Contemporary leadership goes beyond mere technical management to become an exercise in service and social transformation—a premise that underpins the twelfth issue of Andina magazine. In an environment marked by a crisis of institutional trust and the complexity of democratic challenges, this publication proposes a return to ethics and strategic vision as drivers of change. Leadership is not defined here by hierarchy, but by the ability to positively influence reality and others through consistency and responsibility.
This eleventh issue of Andina magazine serves as a forum for critical reflection on the direction of Latin America in a global context marked by uncertainty and technological change. Under the direction of César Montaño Galarza, this issue poses the fundamental question, “Quo vadis, Latin America?”, analyzing whether the region has a strategic direction in the face of the challenges of globalization and competition between powers such as the United States and China.
The tenth issue focuses on ethics as a fundamental pillar of social life and organizational management. The content explores the urgent need for a new paradigm in bioethics that goes beyond the purely biomedical to focus on the protection of life from the perspective of “good living.” The journal also explores the intersection between ethics and literature, pays tribute to academic careers such as that of Carlos Landázuri, and presents new publications from the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar on topics of inclusive entrepreneurship, social cohesion, and health.
Copyright (c) 2024 Publications Office https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This issue of Andina magazine explores the culture of peace in the face of regional crises marked by violence and impunity. It examines education as a catalyst for change and analyzes security policies within the Andean Community in response to organized crime. The content includes reflections on gender, the aesthetics of drug trafficking, and critical discourse, fostering a space for scientific and interdisciplinary debate.
The eighth issue of Andina magazine is structured as a multifaceted space for critical reflection where institutional transformation, urgent debates on the current political and technological landscape, and the artistic expressions that define the region’s identity converge. The starting point for this volume is the need to rethink university and academic structures in the post-pandemic era. Through proposals such as the new model of institutional academic reinvention and the design of a Doctorate in Education with an integrative approach, a commitment is evident to forge a flexible pedagogical paradigm adapted to future scenarios, capable of transcending traditional approaches and establishing self-assessment as a driver of continuous, dialogic, and non-punitive development.
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The need for constant transformation and adaptation shapes the direction of institutions and critical thinking in Latin America, a premise that serves as the central theme of the seventh issue of Andina magazine. This volume offers an in-depth exploration of the region’s academic, social, and legal reinvention, examining how spaces of knowledge and governance respond to the demands of a constantly changing environment. This technological advancement goes beyond the mere digitization of content to become a space for fluid debate, collaboration, and strategic response to the profound lessons in adaptability bequeathed by the pandemic.
The commemoration of the first three decades of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador Campus, serves as the central theme of the sixth issue of Andina magazine, creating a profound institutional record that intertwines the history and future of higher education in the region. Through the valuable testimony of Enrique Ayala Mora, the origins and consolidation of this academic project are reconstructed, recalling everything from the initial campus agreements and strategic alliances to the complex political and budgetary challenges and institutional evaluations that the university had to navigate over the years to preserve its autonomy and scientific rigor. This chronicle not only pays tribute to the past but also highlights the collective effort of staff, faculty, and workers who, from the most basic tasks of the university’s founding to IT and library support, laid the foundations of a community committed to social development.
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The fifth issue of Andina magazine is a volume of profound institutional significance, commemorating the first three decades of the Simón Bolívar Andean University, Ecuador Campus. Far from being a conventional celebration, this special anniversary issue presents a rigorous collective reflection on the impact of graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, examining how the production of critical knowledge is intertwined with the transformations, crises, and prevailing needs of the Latin American region. The volume’s starting point lies in the reconstruction of historical memory and the defense of institutional autonomy. Through testimonial perspectives, it reviews the challenges, tensions, and unwavering commitment of a community that has had to safeguard its free thought and academic independence in the face of complex political contexts and periods of government harassment.
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The fourth issue of Andina magazine serves as an in-depth exploration of the most pressing socio-environmental, political, and cultural dilemmas facing the Andean region and the Latin American continent. Through a distinctly interdisciplinary lens, this volume seamlessly weaves together a structural analysis of ecological degradation, a rethinking of legal frameworks surrounding nature, and an exploration of the creative spaces of art, translation, and early regional science fiction, thereby establishing a comprehensive platform for critical thinking.
Copyright (c) 2021 Publications Office https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The third issue of Andina magazine offers a sharp interdisciplinary analysis of the biopolitical tensions, sociocultural biases, and institutional challenges that define contemporary Latin America at a time of profound global upheaval. The volume is structured not only as a record of current events but also as a critical manifesto that interweaves a denunciation of social exclusion, a rethinking of the cognitive paradigms of literacy, and a vindication of historical memory, articulating a fluid dialogue between scientific knowledge and the humanities.
Education is undergoing a transformation aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning. Teaching practices are evolving with the integration of technology into educational processes, making teacher training essential to achieving effective educational transformation. This research analyzes training practices that develop teachers’ digital competencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, open education practices emerged through the design of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), virtual seminars, and webinars, among others. These types of pedagogical designs for open education constitute alternative initiatives for teacher training and professional development, in some cases due to their innovative design approach and, in others, due to the development of teaching competencies. This research presents a case study of the MOOCs and webinars implemented during 2020 and 2021 at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador Campus (UASB-E), which were carried out to promote digital literacy and digital education within its educational community.
The first issue of Andina magazine serves as a sharp conceptual and critical map for unraveling the cultural, literary, and sociopolitical crossroads of contemporary Latin America. Far from functioning as a mere institutional newsletter, the volume adopts a distinctly interdisciplinary stance, weaving together fundamental reflections on technological saturation, the precarious state of the regional publishing ecosystem, the urgency of effective gender inclusion, and the role of situated critical thinking in the face of pressures from the global environment.
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The second issue of the journal *Andina* stands as a sharp and rigorous analytical overview of the radical transformations, systemic ruptures, and ethical challenges that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic imposed on global societies, with a special emphasis on the Latin American context. Structured around a distinctly interdisciplinary framework, this volume goes beyond a mere chronicle of the health crisis to delve into the structural roots of inequality, the techno-pedagogical shifts in academia, the social significance of historiography, and the new relational paradigms demanded by bioethics and the transmedia ecosystem.
Copyright (c) 2019 Publications Office https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Local Economies That Drive Change: Cooperatives, Solidarity-Based Trade, and Sustainability
Economic transformations with a social and territorial focus are gaining increasing importance in Latin America, where associative initiatives—such as cooperatives and other forms of solidarity-based organizations—address the structural challenges of inequality, exclusion, and sustainability. In Ecuador, these initiatives have driven processes of inclusion and community participation, and are even recognized in the current Constitution. This book brings together research that explores these dynamics from the perspectives of cooperativism, behavioral economics, sustainable finance, and social capital. Drawing on case studies and contemporary theoretical frameworks, it offers a multifaceted view of economic alternatives in the Ecuadorian context, with insights that engage with similar processes in other countries in the region. This compilation is a contribution by: Verónica Cordero Arroyo, Genoveva Espinoza Santeli, Andrea Carolina Game Trujillo, Andrea Martínez Galarza, Anthony Moyolema-Pilco, Carlos Naranjo Mena, Christopher Esteban Ortiz Acuña, Jairo Rivera Vásquez, Luis Alfonso Segovia Cárdenas, and Boris Vladimir Sempértegui Segura, under the editorial direction of Carlos Oñate-Paredes and Diego Raza-Carrillo.
Identity, community management, and the rights of the Kichwa Natabuela people
This book offers a multifaceted and comprehensive analysis of the strengthening of the identity of the Kichwa Natabuela people in Ecuador. It highlights the importance of community participation, with a special emphasis on the role of women in economic management and development, the assertion of their cultural and linguistic rights, indigenous justice, and empowerment as fundamental pillars for strengthening their identity. Through participatory, horizontal, and interdisciplinary methodologies, the book explores the territory’s ancestral forms of production, which promote and legally consolidate an initiative based on a community-driven and circular economy. All of this is done in synergy with and out of respect for the knowledge, culture, and traditions of the Kichwa Natabuela people, who are active protagonists in their own development.
Bilingual Intercultural Education in Ecuador During the Citizen Revolution Administration (2007–2017): A Study from the Perspective of Critical Pedagogy.
During the so-called Citizen Revolution (2007–2017), significant changes took place in Ecuador’s basic education system, particularly following the passage of the Organic Law on Intercultural Education (LOEI). This law marks a turning point in Ecuadorian basic education and is the source of structural changes in Ecuador’s Intercultural Bilingual Education (EIB). Prior to the LOEI, there were two educational systems: one that organized the education of mestizo and Afro-Ecuadorian children, governed by the Ministry of Education, and the Intercultural Bilingual Education System, which specialized in the education of Ecuador’s indigenous peoples and nationalities and was overseen by the National Directorate of Intercultural Bilingual Education (DINEIB). Each system had its own curriculum, philosophical foundations, methodologies, and areas of specialization. The LOEI mandated a single system under the authority of the Ministry of Education. The elimination of EIB’s administrative autonomy set in motion profound changes.
The book offers a critical engagement with the contemporary field of artificial intelligence, understanding it not as an exclusively technological phenomenon but as an epistemic event that reshapes the production of meaning in today’s societies. Artificial intelligence does not merely introduce or optimize new computing and information-processing tools; its presence redefines the realm of human experience. The algorithm is today the primary operator of meaning in data-saturated societies. Its mode of operation—extracting correlations, optimizing functions, modeling behaviors, generating probabilistic responses—constitutes a new epistemic regime that displaces logos as the primary mediator between language and the world. The algorithm does not appear as a technique for information processing, but as a form of rationalization, as a device for constructing meaning.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jefatura de Publicaciones https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This research acknowledges the importance of listening to everyday sounds in their objective reality. It proposes a “narrative of form” that redefines our relationship with sound. It is not about what sound communicates, but how it does so. The reader is invited to engage in a perceptual experience with sound forms—an immersion in the sensation of sound that leads them to fill in the form with content drawn from their own life story and cultural context. Based on a methodology—which emerged from the research—centered on the experimental design of “literate” sound pieces that are then “deletered” to uncover new meanings, this work offers new tools for experiencing sound and promotes communication grounded in deep bodily listening. It is a nascent field with applications in advertising, education, and art, as well as for the creation of sensory communication content.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jefatura de Publicaciones https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Public Health and the Social Determinants of Health
The doctoral dissertations included in this book address a broad and valuable range of public health issues. One of their central themes is the theory of the social determinants of health. This theory, with a strong national character, has been developed since the 1970s at the intersection of critical theories of space, society, and culture; the application to health of social sciences such as political economy, sociology, anthropology, and critical health communication; and critical sciences concerning the society-nature metabolism and ecosystems. This book synthesizes the rigorous and thought-provoking findings of a distinguished group of scientists who, beyond fully meeting the requirements of doctoral rigor, adhere to the hopeful ethics of intellectuals who see themselves as integral to a science deeply linked to the construction of a healthy and equitable world. Public Health and the Social Determinants of Health is a must-read for those seeking comprehensive and critical thinking, as it offers a broad and powerful panorama of new ideas, reinforced by diverse methodologies and analytical tools.
Copyright (c) 2023 Jefatura de Publicaciones https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This book examines, within the framework of legal pluralism, the ritual and conflict known as tinku (ritual fights), which is practiced in certain Andean communities in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. These ritual fights are simultaneous events that take place during sacred celebrations held at different times of the year and are associated with religious festivals and the Andean agricultural calendar. Although they are fraught with violence, they constitute effective sacrifices because they embody a normative system and mechanisms for conflict resolution. This normative framework in no way coincides with the provisions of the state legal system or the indigenous justice system. Its primary purpose is to express rejection of the prevailing normative forms that neither regulate nor emancipate. This study aims to show how, through ritual, a valid and legitimate form of conflict resolution can be achieved in the societies where it is practiced. For the proper reconstruction and understanding of ritual fights, this work develops and applies the intercultural method and the literary description of these phenomena. These elements will allow the reader to immerse themselves in a different reality that requires understanding from an intercultural perspective.
“Revisiting Barthes” is the result of reflections from the annual seminar organized by the Communication Department at UASB-E to analyze the work of a thinker whose impact on communication studies remains profound. The study seeks to understand communication from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective to demonstrate that the field is always intersected by other bodies of knowledge—knowledge that is inescapable and ever-present in the events of today’s world. One of the authors of these studies is the French semiologist Roland Barthes, whose work—spanning literary studies, criticism, and semiology—is pivotal for its approaches to cinema, advertising, theater, and art. His perspective on the diverse phenomena of modernity is essential as it also enables an understanding of media culture. This book brings together several texts from the seminar “Revisiting Barthes,” which demonstrate his continued relevance in our field.
Indigenous Women, Armed Conflict, and Sexual Violence
This work explores women and fear: women caught in the midst of war, where love, consent, and rights do not exist… There, violence against women is not limited to the sexual sphere but also serves the purposes of war. Its effects are highly detrimental to their life plans, sexual and reproductive health, and their environment. These effects are perpetuated when they are unable to access justice or receive symbolic reparations. This book explores the social inequalities and the intersection of discriminatory factors affecting Awá indigenous women who have been victims of sexual violence in the Colombian armed conflict.
Global capitalism and the ruling classes have begun to advocate measures to address the climate and eco-social crisis, but under the banner of the ecological transition, these “climate solutions” are leading to new socio-environmental injustices and green colonialism. The Global North’s green growth plans based on “clean” energy require the large-scale extraction of strategic minerals from the Global South. Against this backdrop, this book brings together prominent activists and intellectuals from every continent to examine green colonialism and propose alternatives. It offers an analysis of green extractivism and corporate transitions, examines global interdependencies and interconnections, and presents different paths toward alternatives to development and a socio-ecological transformation grounded in global justice. “This is essential reading for those fighting to create a world where ‘life is at the center.’ Study groups should be organized to spread its proposals and visions of a different, life-affirming future.” Silvia Federici
The Languages of Masculinity: The Novel in Latin America in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century is defined by the way it relates certain languages—which it defines as “genital”—to the flows of power. Throughout its pages, categories such as homosocial space, male qaze, hegemonic masculinity, erectile privilege, power of penetration, the male corporation, and the political economy of the genitals interweave to construct a hermeneutic, a particular reading of canonical works such as *The City and the Dogs*, *The Autumn of the Patriarch*, and *The Great Backlands: Veredas*, among others. This book, therefore, sits at the intersection of literary studies and the study of masculinities.
Environmental Taxation and the “Polluter Pays” Principle
This book examines environmental taxation as a mechanism for ecological protection aligned with public objectives to reduce levels of pollution and environmental degradation. In light of this approach, it explores the connections between tax law and environmental law, grounded in the “polluter pays” principle, through a holistic and cross-cutting framework that reinforces the protective mission of environmental law with tax-related provisions. In this context, the book highlights the ability of taxation to internalize negative environmental externalities, encouraging—through incentives or disincentives—behavioral changes that lead to risk reduction to prevent or minimize environmental impacts, including remediation. The book examines the reality in Ecuador through a study of environmental taxation in the country, noting the advances and setbacks in this area, as well as the challenges posed by its design and proper implementation.
The Restructuring of the State Through Governmental Regimes in Ecuador, 2008–2012
This work examines the process of state formation and reproduction in Ecuador between 2008 and 2012, which was reinforced by a combination of modern techniques of power grounded in a technocratic, knowledge-intensive form of government, and by various disciplinary techniques of governance based on the correction and reform of specific populations. It also analyzes three areas of state formation: the construction of narratives about the state that seek to legitimize its presence in society by incorporating the worldviews of indigenous peoples and the ways in which these come into tension or conflict with the state’s own “developmentalist” narratives; the different ways in which the state apprehends, organizes, distributes, and ultimately creates specific fields of intervention in the area of participatory planning; and the ways in which the state exercises different forms of power in governing the participation of popular movements, specifically the indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian movements. The general argument of this study is that the State reproduces itself through the creation/constitution of ontologies of intervention in society.