Emerging technologies have been analyzed from the innovation systems theoretical approach. This has meant starting from the premise that the development, use, dissemination and exploitation of technology are similar behaviors that exhibit any other traditional economic sector. However, this omits the fact that emerging technologies have particularities that range from the characteristics of the parties involved, the property rights, the social, technological and institutional dynamics in which they are involved; even the methodological definition of the object of study. This without forgetting the difficulties of access and categorization of information, as in all cases discussed here, emerging technologies cut across many different economic sectors and therefore its use and application diversifies into different process, products and services. This article aims to present a reflection on the possible non-exhaustive methodological alternatives for the study of emerging and/or convergent technologies, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technologies and genomics, among others, as well as to discuss the relevance of using the framework for the analysis of innovation systems. Without this means discarding its application, but rather establishing complementary schemes that help us have a better understanding of the dynamics and evolution of these technologies.

This paper presents three analytical perspectives on the relationship between ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) and various social and cultural dimensions. To achieve such aim, the study reconstructs the last three decades of theoretical production on the subject. Firstly, the paper analyzes instrumentalist positions about the impact, application and adoption of these developments in different areas as well as the trends that reveal their complexity. Then, in a second section, attention is turned to the ethical dilemmas and cultural criticisms that arise before pervasive computing. Thirdly, the study focuses on the political tendencies that emerge over ubicomp. Finally, conclusions about the potential of thinking these perspectives as a whole are drawn.

Emerging technologies have been analyzed from the innovation systems theoretical approach. This has meant starting from the premise that the development, use, dissemination and exploitation of technology are similar behaviors that exhibit any other traditional economic sector. However, this omits the fact that emerging technologies have particularities that range from the characteristics of the parties involved, the property rights, the social, technological and institutional dynamics in which they are involved; even the methodological definition of the object of study. This without forgetting the difficulties of access and categorization of information, as in all cases discussed here, emerging technologies cut across many different economic sectors and therefore its use and application diversifies into different process, products and services. This article aims to present a reflection on the possible non-exhaustive methodological alternatives for the study of emerging and/or convergent technologies, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technologies and genomics, among others, as well as to discuss the relevance of using the framework for the analysis of innovation systems. Without this means discarding its application, but rather establishing complementary schemes that help us have a better understanding of the dynamics and evolution of these technologies.

From the perspective of the capacities of Amartya Sen and the autonomy of Doyal and Gough, it is sought to know the productive practices with ICTs in university students because it is assumed that they can expand their capacities to take opportunities and participate in social life. Through a documentary method, a corpus of 59 scientific documents from 20 countries, published between 2010 and 2018, was analyzed to characterized the social practices with ICTs in young university students. Practices for learning, citizenship, communication and prosumerism were found; cellphone and social networks were identified as preferred technologies versus the Internet and the personal computer. In addition, it was possible to define the productive techno-practices on the frame of human development for these young students.

This article introduces an exploratory study on controversies that arose in Mexico since the late seventies till the present time due to the nuclear power production. Contextualized in a scenario characterized by the existence of projects that seek to boost nuclear energy and with it, the appearance of new resistant voices that emerged after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. Reviewing literature on controversies, resistance to technologies and contentious politics, we identify key actors and arguments that conforms processes of public discussion regarding nuclear power. Furthermore, we analyze continuities, breaches and the impacts of the opposition in the last three decades.

E-businesses have a considerable significance in the development of enterprises and their adoption by this sector is growing rapidly. These businesses intervene not only on aspects related to business activities, but also on different spheres of society. Studies about e-businesses are abundant in Latin America, however, in the literature consulted we don’t identify researches that address the impact of these businesses as a holistic phenomenon on society during the period analyzed. This article provides a holistic analysis of the social impact of e-business during the period 2014-2019 in Latin America. Google Scholar, Scielo and ScienceDirect databases were used to search for information and the analytical-synthetic, historical-logical and theoretical triangulation were used as scientific methods. The study found that companies and customers, the population, the legal sector, jobs, governments, the monetary and financial sector and the environment are spheres directly influenced by e-business. Companies and clients were identified as the sectors most influenced by e-businesses.

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This paper carries out a socio-anthropological analysis of Tem Açúcar?, a mobile application created in the name of collaborative consumption, intended for objects loans, donations and exchanges between neighbors of large cities. Placing the discussion in the context of the new collective mobilizations organized in the name of solidarity, it adheres to the interpretative framework of the gift, inherited from the French socio-anthropological school, for a better understanding of the phenomenon. It seeks to understand the experiences and perceptions of its users and reflects on the aspects that enhance and limit the purpose of this socio-technical network in Rio de Janeiro. Interpretative phenomenology is adopted, including observation, interaction and interviews with users to describe and analyze the adherence to the app values, the types of objects that circulate, the way in which encounters occur and the role of trust in the viability of reciprocity relationships. In addition to a strong commitment to the cause of reducing the consumption and the promotion of collaboration and trust among neighbors, the principle of the gift was verified in this sociotechnical network in practices that can only be understood under an anti-utilitarian approach. At the same time, trust is an essential factor for the materialization of exchanges and its construction depends on the reputation of the user, as well as the comments of third parties on their profile.

In this article, we will investigate how intentionality in the biological world happens, what conditions are necessary for its manifestation, how the upper animals objectively deal with it in their structural couplings with the environment, correlating it (intentionality), as a genuinely biological phenomenon, with the difficulty of instantiating conscious and intentional intelligences in complex and artificial cybernetic-informational systems. More specifically, we refer to trying to do so –as it defends orthodox cognitivism– in computers, androids and robots, through AI arrangements (artificial intelligences). It is noteworthy that this problem of intentionality is closely related to problems we have already discussed in previous works (artificial intelligences and the problem of consciousness; Artificial intelligences and the Limits of computation), in the sense that, only a system or being a living biological is able to possess these three faculties-important properties at the same time; namely: consciousness, intentionality and emotion.

La realidad pone de manifiesto que los recientes y disruptivos avances que acontecen en las nuevas tecnologías –que evolucionan cada vez a un ritmo más acusado– están incidiendo, de manera notable, en la forma en la que nos comunicamos, trabajamos o efectuamos actos propios del consumo. Asistimos, en estos escenarios y en otros muchos, a un cambio social sin precedentes. La sociedad –y, con ello, el sector público y el sector privado– se ve más influenciada por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC). En este orden de cuestiones, podemos concluir que la digitalización que está protagonizando la sociedad está llamada a la consolidación de un nuevo orden en el que nos encontramos inmersos. Nos referimos a la sugerente estructura que se inicia con la cadena de bloques. El Blockchain, en efecto, se erige en una tecnología susceptible de impactar, de manera relevante, sobre los consumidores, o usuarios, y los empresarios.

Cuando en un dispositivo electrónico (computadora, smartphone, tablet, entre otros) tecleamos las habituales siglas www y, a continuación, la dirección de una página web, accedemos en cuestión segundos a toda la información que, sin la revolución de la tecnología, nos llevaría días, semanas o meses encontrar. No cabe duda que internet nos ha hecho la vida más cómoda y accesible al cambiar de manera abrupta las formas de interacción de la existencia cotidiana pero, de manera simultánea, también nos ha expuesto a riesgos que hace solo algunas décadas eran plenamente inimaginables. De nuevo, en el ámbito que comentamos, al ser testigos y protagonistas, la realidad supera a la ficción.

Obra reseñada: Jimeno Muñoz, Jesús. (2019). Derecho de daños tecnológicos, ciberseguridad e Insurtech. Madrid, España: Dykinson.

Emerging technologies have been analyzed from the innovation systems theoretical approach. This has meant starting from the premise that the development, use, dissemination and exploitation of technology are similar behaviors that exhibit any other traditional economic sector. However, this omits the fact that emerging technologies have particularities that range from the characteristics of the parties involved, the property rights, the social, technological and institutional dynamics in which they are involved; even the methodological definition of the object of study. This without forgetting the difficulties of access and categorization of information, as in all cases discussed here, emerging technologies cut across many different economic sectors and therefore its use and application diversifies into different process, products and services. This article aims to present a reflection on the possible non-exhaustive methodological alternatives for the study of emerging and/or convergent technologies, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technologies and genomics, among others, as well as to discuss the relevance of using the framework for the analysis of innovation systems. Without this means discarding its application, but rather establishing complementary schemes that help us have a better understanding of the dynamics and evolution of these technologies.

Most efforts to promote human development through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have focused on increasing infrastructure and digital literacy among vulnerable sectors of the population. This article proposes to expand the scope through a methodology for an organizational level. The objective is to share the theoretical principles, the design and the results of the implementation of a participatory communication methodology for the appropriation of ICTs in organizations with social purposes. The theoretical framework was based on Amartya Sens human development perspective regarding ICTs for development and social change. The methodology was generated through a collaborative workshop between the academy and organizations dedicated to youth development in different regions of Mexico. The results show that the appropriation of ICTs must transcend its instrumental use and be based on a reflection on its social mission, its context and the needs of the population they serve, to solve their communication problems, but above all to strengthen their capacity to support human and social development.

This paper presents three analytical perspectives on the relationship between ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) and various social and cultural dimensions. To achieve such aim, the study reconstructs the last three decades of theoretical production on the subject. Firstly, the paper analyzes instrumentalist positions about the impact, application and adoption of these developments in different areas as well as the trends that reveal their complexity. Then, in a second section, attention is turned to the ethical dilemmas and cultural criticisms that arise before pervasive computing. Thirdly, the study focuses on the political tendencies that emerge over ubicomp. Finally, conclusions about the potential of thinking these perspectives as a whole are drawn.

From the perspective of the capacities of Amartya Sen and the autonomy of Doyal and Gough, it is sought to know the productive practices with ICTs in university students because it is assumed that they can expand their capacities to take opportunities and participate in social life. Through a documentary method, a corpus of 59 scientific documents from 20 countries, published between 2010 and 2018, was analyzed to characterized the social practices with ICTs in young university students. Practices for learning, citizenship, communication and prosumerism were found; cellphone and social networks were identified as preferred technologies versus the Internet and the personal computer. In addition, it was possible to define the productive techno-practices on the frame of human development for these young students.

This article introduces an exploratory study on controversies that arose in Mexico since the late seventies till the present time due to the nuclear power production. Contextualized in a scenario characterized by the existence of projects that seek to boost nuclear energy and with it, the appearance of new resistant voices that emerged after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. Reviewing literature on controversies, resistance to technologies and contentious politics, we identify key actors and arguments that conforms processes of public discussion regarding nuclear power. Furthermore, we analyze continuities, breaches and the impacts of the opposition in the last three decades.

E-businesses have a considerable significance in the development of enterprises and their adoption by this sector is growing rapidly. These businesses intervene not only on aspects related to business activities, but also on different spheres of society. Studies about e-businesses are abundant in Latin America, however, in the literature consulted we don’t identify researches that address the impact of these businesses as a holistic phenomenon on society during the period analyzed. This article provides a holistic analysis of the social impact of e-business during the period 2014-2019 in Latin America. Google Scholar, Scielo and ScienceDirect databases were used to search for information and the analytical-synthetic, historical-logical and theoretical triangulation were used as scientific methods. The study found that companies and customers, the population, the legal sector, jobs, governments, the monetary and financial sector and the environment are spheres directly influenced by e-business. Companies and clients were identified as the sectors most influenced by e-businesses.

This article analyzes public policies and networks for the development of 4.0 technologies in Chile, based on the study of the FONDEF-IDEA project portfolio, from 2012 to 2017. Through a syntactic analysis of the titles, objectives and summaries, they selected the specific initiatives that have direct or indirect application of 4.0 technologies, on an initial basis of 530 public initiatives. The different specializations and the social network were analyzed. Our conclusion is that we do not observe at the public policy level in Chile a strategy that stimulates the decentralized development of these new technologies. There is a high centrality in the network of sensor applications in copper mining, monitoring and the conversion of data to information, there is still an important gap to be covered by public policies. In our opinion, it is urgent to have a technological development strategy that narrows the gap with the countries that are already in the lead.

This paper carries out a socio-anthropological analysis of Tem Açúcar?, a mobile application created in the name of collaborative consumption, intended for objects loans, donations and exchanges between neighbors of large cities. Placing the discussion in the context of the new collective mobilizations organized in the name of solidarity, it adheres to the interpretative framework of the gift, inherited from the French socio-anthropological school, for a better understanding of the phenomenon. It seeks to understand the experiences and perceptions of its users and reflects on the aspects that enhance and limit the purpose of this socio-technical network in Rio de Janeiro. Interpretative phenomenology is adopted, including observation, interaction and interviews with users to describe and analyze the adherence to the app values, the types of objects that circulate, the way in which encounters occur and the role of trust in the viability of reciprocity relationships. In addition to a strong commitment to the cause of reducing the consumption and the promotion of collaboration and trust among neighbors, the principle of the gift was verified in this sociotechnical network in practices that can only be understood under an anti-utilitarian approach. At the same time, trust is an essential factor for the materialization of exchanges and its construction depends on the reputation of the user, as well as the comments of third parties on their profile.

This work makes a systematic classification and description of digital techniques applied to the study of data produced by users in social media. The institutional actors that produce and promote them are identified, the available tools and their scope are evaluated, and examples of studies that use them are presented. It Classifies the techniques according to the place they occupy in a research sequence formed by four stages: data collection, cleaning, processing and visualization. It focuses on both textual and image processing techniques. In the first case it addresses textual analytics, network analysis and sentiment analysis, while in the second case it focuses on the visual analysis of photographs and online video. The quantitative analysis of reactions, such as likes and shares, is also addressed. In the conclusions a critical evaluation of its scopes is carried out, among which are its effectiveness for the appreciation of extensive data sets produced in the dynamic and fluid context of social media, and the possibility of identifying patterns and recurrences in them.

This article analyzes the characteristics of the digital connections made by the youth of an indigenous village, specifically their digital practices and the contents they share in social networks. These contents are related to local references, and it is argued that they are elements that allow young people to dimension their identities and sense of belonging. The research work followed an ethnographic approach to an indigenous village, and instruments related to the access and uses of digital technologies were applied. As described in the article, smartphones are the main portable devices to connect to the internet and access social networks. Precisely because of their characteristics, they allow young people to make different records of their daily activities and those related to community life. Although these records only involve reactions and interactions in social networks, their contents are latent resources in the processes of social change that are lived by indigenous peoples and that are carried out by the young population.

The objective of the article is to analyze the barriers to access and use of Information and Communication Technologies in rural and urban areas of Mexico. The data come from the National Survey on Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Households 2018. The empirical analysis consists of explaining the non-access and non-use of the internet, conditioned on a set of demographic and socio-economic characteristics, through of multinomial logistic regressions. The results reflect the cost, age, low levels of education and lack of digital skills are related to non-connectivity and non-use of the internet in rural and urban contexts, although with different magnitudes. Hence, the need to implement public policies aimed at promoting access and fostering the efficient use of cyberspace in both contexts.

This essay seeks to contribute to the emerging discussion in Latin America on the relationship between aging and digital technologies, problematizing deterministic ideas about older people and their digital inclusion. Older adults’ agency about use of technology is discussed, and then this humanistic position is contrasted with post-humanist approaches related to the so-called ‘material turn’. These approaches have underlined the co-construction or mutual constitution of older people and technology, where aging is not only produced jointly with different devices, but also with discourses, policies, norms, etc. Thus, it is proposed that, rather than focusing solely on appropriation, the study of older people and digital technology should also focus on their co-construction.

The objective of this essay is to reflect critically on the condition of our most modern artificial intelligence systems, their latent potentials, their technical possibilities useful to society, and also on their intrinsic structural limitations, extrapolating hypotheses about the hard problem of consciousness and its dreamed of overcoming, speculating also about the possible interactions of these supposedly conscious and superintelligent systems with contemporary societies of today and tomorrow, and their possible undesirable consequences for the very social bodies involved in these to a large extent disruptive relationships. To do so, we will use Isaac Asimovs infamous three laws of robotics as a theoretical object, in order to demonstrate the unlikely fragility of such a fictional hypothesis, when confronted with factual reality and also with the current state of the art in artificial intelligence and systems computational. Furthermore, even though the hard problem of consciousness in cyber-informational systems remains unchanged in its persistent insolubility, it is not difficult to imagine robots with different levels and degrees of intelligence interacting with humans in the most diverse sectors and environments of everyday social life, as it actually begins to happen, and the subsequent consequences and social developments. That is why it is very difficult to believe that mere playful three laws, originating from science fiction, could be a sufficient and satisfactory instrument to face issues involving human beings and inorganic systems endowed with artificial intelligence (AI).

The article addresses government communication strategies on transparency in Argentina. For this, it examines two Open Government portals in sub-national areas of the province of Córdoba implemented during the period 2016-2020. The argument states that these modern technological repertoires operate as devices that can be interpreted from two perspectives: on the one hand, as an intermediate zone between what in the field of political communication differs as government communication and political marketing; and, on the other, as a result of the state promotion of technologies and transparency portals per se rather than processes that expand digital democratization practices. Methodologically, the corpus is made up of the two Open Government portals launched in the period in question, political discourses and news in the local press about these initiatives. The article presents the first results within an exploratory analysis scheme that tests dimensions on the Open Government devices, within a critical problematization of the social and political processes in which these valued devices emerge.