Power elites

This treatise conflates cultural sociology, media theory, and Japanese philology in order to better understand the way media scandals are produced in contemporary Japan. In cultural sociology, scandal is understood as a social performance between ritual and strategy. In my previous research I focused on the ritual aspect, analyzing Japanese scandals as dramatic public performances of confession, exclusion, and reintegration. In this treatise, I focus on the strategy aspect, approaching scandals as symbolic products of media routines and journalistic practices. The former part of this treatise examines how the actor-network of power circles co-defines the way scandals emerge and unfold in Japan. The latter part focuses on the role of Japanese media organizations in the process of transforming leaks into scandals.

Neste livro procede-se a um exaustivo trabalho de análise histórica do Tombo de propriedades da capela de D. Branca de Vilhena. O estudo parte da edição da fonte composta por dois documentos distintos: o tombo de propriedades adstritas à capela instituída no Convento de S. Domingos de Guimarães, e o testamento mandado executar em 24 de Junho de 1438.

Abstract
This article provides a descriptive and analytical approach to elite studies, trying to arrange the most important classic and contemporary theories on elitism. The purpose of this work is to provide an overview on how elites have been theoretically conceived, focusing on the works of authors who have approached elites as a sociological object of study. This way, the social researcher will have a useful theoretical tool to develop his object of study fromsociology's standpoint, as he will get to know the main sociological characteristics of both classical and contemporary elitists thought, as well as the differences between the diverse theories while understanding the limits within each thought system.
Key words:
capital, power, elite, social reproduction, structuration

El campo de los estudios teóricos de las élites: Notas de investigación en torno a la noción de élite en las escuelas elitistas del siglo XX The theoretical studies of elites field: research notes around elite concept in the elitist schools of the xx century. Resumen: El presente artículo realiza un recorrido descriptivo y analítico sobre los estudios de las élites, sistematizando críticamente las principales teorías sociales clásicas y contemporáneas del elitismo. El objetivo es proporcionar un balance sobre cómo han sido concebidas teoréticamente las élites revisando el pensamiento de los autores que han analizado la élite como " objeto de estudio sociológico ". Así, el investigador social podrá tener una herramienta teórica útil, en la medida en que podrá conocer cuáles son las características sociológicas del pensamiento elitista clásico y contemporáneo, cuáles son las diferencias entre las distintas teorías, además de comprender los límites de cada sistema de pensamiento.

This article begins to address why cities continue to use public participation-based planning processes to shape their public spaces, notwithstanding three decades of criticisms of such approaches. Based on ethnographic, activist participant research into Seattle Washington's planning for public skateboard parks, I argue that the mobilization of two ostensibly incompatible paradigms for planning—one vesting discretionary authority in experts, the other using the planner to develop consensus through inclusive public input processes—are popular precisely because they can be used together to frustrate truly democratic urban planning. This case study demonstrates how elites used the public input garnered by planners as a form of "shadow referendum," determining in advance whether there were any powerful actors that might oppose proposed policies. And by shifting between or combining the two planning models these elites could justify adhering to the demands of powerful neighborhoods, while discarding input from less powerful neighborhoods as politically irrelevant.

Resumen Hoy, 27 de abril, se cumplen 80 años de la muerte de Antonio Gramsci el gran teórico marxista italiano con aportes fundamentales referidos a la ideología, al bloque histórico, la hegemonía, la sociedad civil o la revolución pasiva. Ha quedado sin analizar en los estudios gramscianos su aporte a la teoría de las élites, en varios de sus aspectos: su condición de intelectuales orgánicos de las clases sociales, el papel de las instituciones en el proceso de su selección y reclutamiento, su rol de dirigentes políticos, sus actitudes psicológicas, jerarquías al interior de las élites, la relación entre estas con las masas y los partidos políticos, sus funciones de educadores, organizadores, dirigentes y constructores de ideologías. Este artículo, en su homenaje, trata de llenar ese vacío. Abstract Today, April 27, marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Antonio Gramsci the great Italian Marxist theoretician with fundamental contributions referred to ideology, historical block, hegemony, civil society or passive revolution. In the Gramscian studies, his contribution to the theory of elites has not been analyzed in several aspects: their status as organic intellectuals of the social classes, the role of institutions in the process of their selection and recruitment, their role of political leaders, their psychological attitudes, hierarchies within the elites, the relationship between them with the masses and political parties, their role as educators, organizers, leaders and builders of ideologies. This article, in its homage, tries to fill that emptiness.