Money can be understood as a disembedding mechanism, detaching social relations from a spatiotemporal context. However, different infrastructural instantiations of money make visible–and invisible–different qualities of money. Through a two-month ethnographic study of El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as a complimentary legal tender, I show how Bitcoin in El Salvador functions as a technology of the imagination that brings future-making and deterritorialization into the forefront of money infrastructure(s).  The thesis is divided into three main parts. First, I briefly introduce how people leverage Bitcoin as a tool for shaping subjective attitudes towards time, and consequently–to inspire hope.  Then, I show how foreigners travelling to El Salvador to use Bitcoin are not doing this out of economic considerations. Rather, this transnational group of Bitcoiners can be characterised as a recursive public that utilises Bitcoin to escape the formation of the nation-state and form a deterritorialized community around shared speculative visions of the future. Bitcoin also allows them to make general infrastructural features of money visible and to contest these. The prime example being money’s disciplinary effects on subjective attitudes towards time. In the last part, I show how deterritorialization and speculative futures also come to the forefront of Salvadoran imaginaries of Bitcoin. We can understand attitudes of fear and attitudes of hope as responses to this imaginary. The thesis concludes by arguing that Bitcoin’s materiality affords imaginaries of disembedded social landscapes, thus rendering visible preexisting infrastructural features of money. However, in the specific context of El Salvador Bitcoin also works as a tool for re-embedding, but only for the Bitcoiners.

Die Beschäftigungsfähigkeit ist einer der größten Anliegen in El Salvador, besonders für Jugendlichen (UNPD, 2008). Außerdem betont die Studie über die Herausforderungen des Bildungssystems in El Salvador die Notwendigkeit, eine Anknüpfung zwischen Akademie und Industrie zu haben (Barraza, 2008). In diesem Kontext begann El Salvador in 2008 die Umsetzung von einigen Elementen des Deutschen Dualsystems (neues System) im Bereich der technologischen Ausbildung, mit der Absicht, einen Versuch zu machen ob dieses System bessere Kompetenzen bei Studenten entwickelt, welche ihnen bessere Arbeitseinsatzmöglichkeiten anbietet. Im Dualsystem wird die Ausbildung von der Akademie und Industriesektor geleistet. Grundsätzliche Ziele waren: (1) Analyse der Einflüsse zur Ansteigung der Beschäftigungsfähigkeit unter Gebrauch einer besseren Kombination von Theorie und Praxis während des Studiums – Möglichkeiten einer Dualerfahrung aus Deutschland unter den Bedingungen in El Salvador (2) Analyse der Möglichkeiten und Probleme unter Berücksichtigung des Kompetenzschwerpunktes für die Entwicklung und Beschäftigungsfähigkeit der Studenten; (3) Festlegung, ob die Studenten mit Studienausgang in 2008-2010, die im Dualsystem teilgenommen haben, bessere berufliche Kompetenzen zur Einsetzung im Produktivprozess erlangt haben im Vergleich zu diejenigen aus dem traditionalem System (ohne Unternehmenserfahrung); (4) Festlegung der Einflussfaktoren die den Industriesektor an der Teilnahme am Dualsystem motivieren; und (5) Darstellung der Folgen aus der Umsetzung dieses Systems unter den salvadorianischen Gegebenheiten und Anregungen zu deren Anpassung zu entwickeln. Bei der Untersuchung ging es um die Erstellung eines Vergleichs zwischen Studenten der Studienrichtung Mechatronik mit Ausgang in 2008 – 2010; ein Student aus dem Dualsystem und einer aus dem traditionellen System. Die angewandte wissenschaftliche Methodologie war eine Verknüpfung von einer quantitativen und qualitativen Methode mit Fragebogen, Interviews und Messungen der Kompetenzen, nötige Zeit zum Erwerben einer Arbeitsstelle und Gehaltsbedingungen. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung waren: (a) Beide Gruppen hatten ähnliche Kompetenzen laut ihrer akademischen Benotung, aber bessere Kompetenzen für die Duale Gruppe wenn Arbeitsbedingungen eingeschlossen sind. In Bezug auf die Motivation der Entscheidungsträgern hat die Untersuchung folgendes erwiesen: (1) Vorherige Kenntnis über das System (2) Personen sind mit bessere Kompetenzen bedarfsgerecht für die Industrie ausgebildet; (3) Minderung des Risikos, falsche Leute aufzunehmen; (4) Optimierung der Ausbildungskosten, (5) Innovation einer neuen Studienrichtung die vom Unternehmen benötigt wird; (6) Soziale Verantwortung; und (7) Verbesserung der Produktivität und Qualität. Schlussfolgerung ist, das Dualsystem könnte eine Möglichkeit für die Verbesserung der Kompetenzniveaus als auch für die Beschäftigungsfähigkeit der Studenten in El Salvador sein, jedoch bringt es neue Herausforderungen für das technologische Ausbildungssystem. / Employability is one of the biggest concerns in El Salvador, especially for young people (UNPD, 2008). Besides, the study about challenges in the educative system in El Salvador, outlines the necessity to have a link between academy and industry (Barraza, 2008). Under this context 2008, El Salvador began the implementation of some elements of the German Dual System (New system) in technological education, with the purpose to experiment if this system developed better competences in students allowing them better job opportunities. In Dual System, the formation is developed between the academy and the enterprise. The main purposes were: (1) To analyze influences to rise employability under using of better combination of theory and practice in studies - possibilities of dual experiences from Germany for El Salvador`s conditions; (2) to analyze possibilities and problems using competences approach for student’s development and employability; (3) to determine if the students of cohort 2008-2010 who study under dual system acquire better professional competences to be inserted in the productive process that those from traditional system (without enterprise curriculum); (4) to determine the factors that motivates industrialists to participate in dual system; and (5) to show consequences of implement this system under the Salvadoran reality and develop suggestions its adaptation. The research was comparing students from cohort 2008 – 2010 in Mechatronic career; one in dual and other in traditional system. The scientific methodology to apply were a combination of quantitative and qualitative method with questionnaires, interviews and measurements about competences, time to get a job and the salary conditions. Results of the research are: (a) both groups had similar competences according academics grades, but better competences for Dual group when jobs conditions are included. About decision makers motivations, findings were: (1) Previous knowledge about the system; (2) People with better competences according the needs of the company; (3) to reduce the risk to hire wrong people; (4) Optimize training costs, (5) the innovation of a new career that enterprise needs; (6) social responsibility; and (7) to improve the productivity and quality. In conclusion, Dual system could be an opportunity in El Salvador for improving the level of competences, and the employability of the students, but it means new challenges in technological educational system.

El distrito de Villa El Salvador cuenta con la mayor cantidad de colectivos artísticos al sur de Lima y a pesar de su representatividad, es el distrito menos equipado para desarrollar espectáculos escénicos. Como inmediata solución, los integrantes de los colectivos artísticos toman el espacio público como escenario temporal del espectáculo y transforman los extensos arenales de cada grupo residencial en una experiencia de aprendizaje y comunidad. Los colectivos llegan a los parques, que desde un principio carecen de mobiliario, sombra y servicios, para proceder a instalar sus propias estructuras de andamiaje, que resultan insuficientes para las distintas expresiones artísticas. Tras la activación efímera, las piezas utilizadas se desmantelan y almacenan hasta una próxima ocasión, dejando el parque en el mismo estado de abandono en el que se encontró. En base al espíritu de itinerancia, la búsqueda de una mejor relación con el espacio público y el escenario del espectáculo dentro de una pandemia sanitaria, se propone la re estructuración de los sistemas itinerantes existentes para generar múltiples configuraciones en el espacio público a través de un kit de elementos móviles y modulares, complementado de una intervención permanente de borde equipado, mobiliario y servicios comunales como parte del proceso de revalorización de parques. De esta forma el sistema itinerante y permanente se complementan para equipar el parque en un escenario cotidiano y al mismo tiempo dar la posibilidad de desplazar cada kit a modo de pasacalles para re escalar el escenario original. La propuesta engloba todas las fases del espectáculo, se adaptan a las pre existencias y utiliza los mismos elementos como huella de la intervención cultural. De esta forma, el proyecto busca ampliase en el tiempo a otros espacios públicos para configurar una red de cultural autogestionada a partir de micro infraestructura que nace como semilla en Villa El Salvador y busca su propagación.

La distribución de la población en el territorio ha variado durante el último siglo debido al acelerado proceso de urbanización resultando en un mayor porcentaje de población viviendo en zonas urbanas. Sin embargo, la manera cómo se han conformado los espacios urbanos en muchos casos ha sido sin un proceso de planificación que además de tener un diseño urbano adecuado sea sostenible. En este sentido, es de utilidad evaluar en qué medida el desarrollo urbano refleja un modelo de una ciudad sostenible, siendo este caracterizado por ser compacto, de alta densidad, con áreas verdes y acceso a transporte público masivo. El objetivo de esta investigación es emplear indicadores cuantitativos de sostenibilidad urbana para analizar la situación del distrito Villa El Salvador mediante un análisis espacial utilizando Sistemas de Información Geográfica. Considerando que este fue un distrito inicialmente planificado, se espera que las ocupaciones más antiguas presenten un mayor grado de sostenibilidad respecto a la ocupación del suelo, áreas verdes, espacios abiertos y movilidad, ofreciendo así una mejor calidad de vida para la población en comparación con etapas de ocupación más recientes. A partir del análisis de los indicadores urbanos seleccionados se puede afirmar que la etapa de ocupación inicial es la que más se aproxima a un modelo sostenible, mientras que las ocupaciones más recientes son dispersas y no cuentan con acceso a servicios como movilidad y espacios de recreación de buena calidad. A nivel general, el distrito presenta desafíos para un desarrollo sostenible, con mayor densidad residencial, mayor cantidad de áreas verdes, acceso a movilidad sostenible y espacios de recreación para todos los habitantes. La evaluación mediante estos indicadores permite tener una mirada de la situación actual del distrito, de tal forma que se puedan orientar estrategias e iniciativas hacia una ciudad más sostenible. / The distribution of population has changed during the last century due to the accelerated urbanization process resulting in a higher percentage of the population living in urban areas. However, the way urban spaces have been formed in many cases has not been accompanied by planning that, in addition to having an adequate urban design, is sustainable. In this sense, it is useful to evaluate to what extent the urban development reflects a sustainable urban model, which would be compact, high-density, with green areas and access to public transportation. The objective of this research is to use quantitative indicators to measure urban sustainability in order to analyze the Villa El Salvador district through spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems. Considering that part of this district was planned, it is expected that the first group of settlements are more sustainable regarding land occupation, green areas, open spaces and mobility, thus offering a better quality of life for its population compared to more recent settlements. The results from the selected urban indicators confirm that the initial stage of settlements is the one that is closest to a sustainable model, while the most recent settlements are dispersed and do not have access to services such as transportation networks and recreational spaces with quality infrastructure. At a general level, the district presents challenges to achieve sustainable development, such as a higher density, broad coverage of public transportation, an adequate amount of green spaces and access to recreational areas for all inhabitants. The use of these indicators provides a glance at the current situation of the district, so that strategies and modifications can be reoriented towards achieving a sustainable city

El concepto de ciudad como tal, tradicionalmente no incluía la actividad agrícola como parte de ella; es más, se llegó a considerar que lo no agrícola es lo urbano. Concepto que llega a nosotros gracias a la revolución industrial, época en que la especialización del trabajo genera la concentración de cierto tipo de familias a estar unidos y donde la actividad agrícola se deja únicamente para el procesamiento de alimentos, quedando de esta manera excluidas una de la otra. Sin embargo, se hace necesaria una reformulación del concepto de ciudad para nuestra actualidad, un concepto en el que se engranen ambos conceptos lo urbano – agrícola como complementarios entre sí. La agricultura urbana surge debido a factores económicos y al grado de desarrollo del país en el que se encuentra dicha agricultura. Por ejemplo, en el caso de la migración rural a la ciudad, y la urbanización en países en vía de desarrollo generan una presión que aumenta el nivel de pobreza y la desnutrición. Siendo la agricultura urbana una respuesta a dicha situación. Se vuelve fuente generadora de empleo, de alimentos, y otorga un beneficio ambiental a la zona. En países más desarrollados, surge producto de una preocupación sobre el cómo obtienen sus alimentos y para un mejor control de la calidad de los mismos. En casos de coyuntura política extrema, caso de situación de guerra o bloqueos económicos, también surge como fuente de recursos alimentarios cercana y así evitar la dependencia con mercados externos o lejanos.

In 2008, El Salvador registered the world's highest mortality rate from kidney failure, with more than 2500 deaths annually in Central America's smallest country. El Salvador is the ground zero of a new form of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) that has become an epidemic among otherwise healthy agricultural workers and rural residents in lowland Central America in the past three decades. While the epidemic is believed to stem from some combination of agro- chemical exposure and/or dehydration, research on the disease remains embroiled in controversy, policy changes few, and medical support for affected individuals challenging. Foucaultian theorizations of 'discursive materiality' provide insights into the ways in which–even as the science remains inconclusive–understandings, discussions, and research on CKD in El Salvador are having material effects on individuals' bodies and health statuses. Based on fieldwork in El Salvador in summer 2014, this thesis uses the lens of Salvadorian CKD to explore the workings of biopower in settings of industrial agricultural production. Focusing on the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador, in particular, the thesis examines the discourses, materialities, and practices through which CKD has "come to matter" as a medical and political phenomenon in relation to the agriculture through which affected Salvadorians make their living. Thinking through the discursive materialities of CKD alongside the production of spaces of health and agriculture, this thesis provides insights for the growing field of the political ecology of health by investigating the wider socio-political and environmental processes that make CKD management such a challenge in a Central America.

Youth gangs, so-called Maras, in Central America have for a long time been one of the major factors contributing to the great amount of organized crime and violence in the Central American countries. The citizens in this region are exposed to violence and other crimes from the gangs on a daily basis. The vast amount of teens joining but also being forced to join the gangs is due to the high levels of poverty in the countries. Becoming a member in a gang is often seen as the only option to make a living. The study focuses on three countries in Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The reason why the author chose these three countries is because they are the ones with the highest youth gang activity in the region as well as the ones who have faced and still are facing high levels of violence and corruption. They have all faced political, economic, and social challenges after civil wars and increasing drug trafficking in the region. The method used in the study is qualitative through an analysis of secondary sources on young women in youth gangs. The material is analyzed from a gender perspective and also power and social control theory. The maras mainly recruit teen boys, but also young girls and women. Teen girls are in some cases forced to join the gangs but many times they join the gangs as self- protection from other local maras. The young girls are used for different tasks and duties while in the gang, but also face abuse by being taken advantage of in a male dominated environment. The essay focuses on the role of young women in gangs. The research questions are: why the young girls join the gangs? What are their roles in the gangs? Are their roles differentiate to the mens?  It is important to observe how the youth gangs function, reflect the patriarchal structures of society in general which has created differences between the sexes where males are seen as superior to females, which also is evident in criminal youth gangs. The essay shows that the main reasons why young women join gangs are because they are looking for a safe environment due to lacking support and safety at home. The young women’s roles in the gang differentiate from the men in the way that they are assigned tasks according to traditional gender roles where the women are expected to do domestic tasks and excluded from some of the gang activities because of their gender.

Los indicadores antropométricos, entre los cuales tenemos al índice de masa corporal (IMC), es un indicador simple entre la relación de peso y talla. Constituye una medida poblacional útil de sobrepeso y obesidad, pues el resultado no depende ni de la edad ni del género de las personas, depende del exceso de tejido adiposo como una acumulación anormal o excesiva de grasa y siendo perjudicial para la salud1, 2. La circunferencia de la cintura (CC) viene a ser el perímetro del mismo tomado a nivel del abdomen. Llamado también perímetro abdominal, es una medida que se usa para valorar la grasa corporal y su distribución, siendo además un indicador de riesgo cardiovascular. Ahora si bien el IMC este elevado, este no determina si es un predominio de la masa magra y/o grasa, por ello se usa los indicadores antropométricos que identifiquen los depósitos grasos y la medida de la circunferencia de la cintura fue elegido, puesto que se asoció que la grasa visceral se encontraba significativamente relacionado con el colesterol y los trigliceridos3, 4, 5, 6. La circunferencia del brazo (CB) es tomada a nivel mesobraquial, es decir el punto medio entre el acromion y el olecranon. Es un indicador de depósito proteico y es utilizado para explicar si el exceso o déficit encontrado es a expensas de la masa grasa, proteica o de ambos e indica el grado de desarrollo braquial7, 8. El colesterol, como parámetro bioquímico, es un lípido del grupo de los esteroles. A partir de este compuesto, derivan todos los esteroides del organismo, como son las hormonas esteroideas y en la vesícula biliar, formando ácidos biliares. El compuesto anteriormente mencionado, lo encontramos en las membranas celulares en donde su función es regular la fluidez de las mismas8, 9. El otro parámetro bioquímico, triglicéridos, es una clase específica de lípidos cuyo nombre proviene de tres ácidos grasos ligados a un alcohol glicerol

<p>This study approaches Óscar Romero by attending to his intimate involvement in and concern for the problematic surrounding the reform of Salvadoran agriculture and the conflict over property and possession underlying it. In this study, I situate Romero in relation to the concentration of landholding and the production of landlessness in El Salvador over the course of the twentieth century, and I examine his participation in the longstanding societal and ecclesial debate about agrarian reform provoked by these realities. I try to show how close attention to agrarian reform and what was at stake in it can illumine not only the conflict that occasioned Romero’s martyrdom but the meaning of the martyrdom itself. </p><p>Understanding Romero’s involvement in the debate about agrarian reform requires sustained attention to how it takes its bearings from the line of thinking about property and possession for which Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum stands as a new beginning. The enclyclical tradition developing out of Leo’s pontificate is commonly referred to as Catholic social doctrine or Catholic social teaching. Romero’s and the Church’s participation in the debate about agrarian reform in El Salvador is unintelligible apart from it. </p><p>What Romero and the encyclical tradition share, I argue, is an understanding of creation as a common gift, from which follows a distinctive construal of property and the demands of justice with respect to possessing it. On this view, property does not name, as it is often taken to mean, the enclosure of what is common for the exclusive use of its possessors—something to be held by them over and against others. Rather, property and everything related to its holding derive from the claim that creation is a gift given to human creatures in common. The acknowledgement of creation as a common gift gives rise to what I describe in this study as a politics of common use, of which agrarian reform is one expression. </p><p>In Romero’s El Salvador, those who took the truth of creation as common gift seriously—those who spoke out against or opposed the ubiquity of the concentration of land and who clamored for agrarian reform so that the landless and land-poor could have access to land to cultivate for subsistence—suffered greatly as a consequence. I argue that, among other things, their suffering shows how, under the conditions of sin and violence, those who work to ensure that others have access to what is theirs in justice often risk laying down their lives in charity. In other words, they witness to the way that God’s work to restore creation has a cruciform shape. Therefore, while the advocacy for agrarian reform begins with the understanding of creation as common gift, the testimony to this truth in word and in deed points to the telos of the gift and the common life in the crucified and risen Lord in which it participates</p> / Dissertation

The foreign policy decisions of small, weak states often go overlooked in the international system. Most understandings of small states emphasize their limited foreign policy choices under the influence of larger, global powers. Yet, there are numerous examples of small states selecting their own foreign policies unencumbered by the international system. This study seeks out those examples and argues that weak states often have the freedom to form their own policies and positions uninfluenced by global powers. To explain the foreign policy decision-making process of small, weak states and explore the relationship between small and large powers, this paper asks when and how do small, weak client states choose to not comply with the demands of large patron states in patron-client relationships? The use of the patron-client framework is a valuable tool for analyzing the foreign policy selection process of small and large states interacting in dyadic relationships. To answer the question, the study examines three separate cases involving patron-client relationships. In each case, the United States serves as the patron state while El Salvador, Pakistan, and Thailand represent the separate client states. The case studies examine moments of client-driven noncompliance to reveal how small states form foreign policy decisions. Ultimately, small states not only wield significant control of their own foreign policy decisions, choosing not to comply with the demands of a stronger patron state, but they also form policy based off diverse considerations—including domestic factors, self-interest, and capacity to comply. Findings suggest that clients in international patron-client relationship have more influence over stronger states than current theories would suggest.