Subdesarrollo y ética económica. La mirada de un científico social alemán a la España de entreguerras

Abstract

Since the end of the 19th century, the imperative of explaining the complex processes of the transformation of the societies drove the new social sciences to take on the scientist description of the characters and the National minds. This worry was according the nationalist and imperialist interests of the great powers as it gave them enough arguments to recognize their supremacy over other people and countries. Theories founded on fundamental and vitalistic principles were developed in order to explain the decline of the Nations and the Latin races and the superiority of some others. As far as Spain is concerned, the disaster which took place in 1898 had a transcendental impact in its international perception and reinforces the image of an important decline. In the country this situation drove a meditation about the own Spanish identity and several proposals on the rebuilding and the Europeanization of the country. In the article we show a further analyze of the work El espíritu económico en España (1922), written by the well-known social scientist of the University of Berlin, Mr. Alfred Rühl, who was the person who introduced a new conception of the economical geography as a social science in Germany. His theories linked the people idiosyncrasy, not to primordial features but to economical customs and practices. One year after the publishing of the book in Germany this work was translated into Spanish. This article wonders about Rühl's motivations as he had centered his study precisely in the Spanish case. The article also explains the reasons of the great deal of interest of the work in Spain. The article characterizes Rühl's particular interpretation looking for references and countering other analysis made during the same period in Spain and in Europe.