No. 13 (2026)

Although academic institutions have sought to contribute to the global circulation of knowledge, they do not always do so under the spirit of open science. Some institutions, in their pursuit of rigor, adopt exclusionary models based on closed science, often drawing on medical/clinical systems of knowledge production and the hegemonic use of technical English as reference points. Within this framework of expanded possibilities for accessing global knowledge, a series of challenges emerge: the distribution of research resources, the concentration of intellectual capital, the reach of university-generated knowledge, the openness and perceived “free” nature of information, and the questions of who grants recognition and validity in knowledge production, as well as how and why. In this issue, we present two articles that contribute to this discussion. The article “The Commodification of Higher Education and the Reconfiguration of Educational Value: A Reading from Service-Dominant Logic,” by Moisés Rubén Zamora Ramos, Irma Hernández Aranda, Suemi Lima Vargas, and Norma Arely Zúñiga Espinosa, argues that the reformulation of marketing through Service-Dominant Logic (S-D logic) enables a reconfiguration of educational value in the twenty-first-century university, conceived not as a market but as a service ecosystem. The authors maintain that organizational efficiency can be reconciled with ethical and relational commitments in higher education, suggesting that universities may use marketing tools without submitting to a purely mercantilist logic. The final article in the Research and Debate section, “Social Suffering in Teaching Work: Dynamics of Recognition and Disrespect in Secondary Education,” by Manuel Alejandro Muñoz Jazo, analyzes experiences of disrespect in teaching practice. Drawing on recognition theory as a normative framework, the author presents findings from a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with secondary school teachers, highlighting underexplored experiences of disrespect that reveal profound normative conflicts affecting self-respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence. In the Border Writings section, Odet Lorena Alvarado Rodríguez, Adriana Rodríguez Barraza, and Lorenzo Mariano Juárez present “Gender Roles in the Family Food Practices of Rural University Women,” a study showing that after the initial months of COVID-19 confinement, the dietary habits of rural students in Veracruz improved once they returned to living with their families. According to the authors, the pandemic fostered changes not only in nutritional practices but also in a more equitable distribution of household responsibilities. This section concludes with Coral Berenice Martínez Pantoja’s article, “Recycling in the San José Río Verde Neighborhood in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico: A Sustainable Economic Activity,” which explores the experiences of families engaged in waste recovery and recycling practices. Erman Iván Carrazco Núñez contributes to the Readings section with his essay “Islam and Democracy: Beyond Compatibility.” The work addresses the question of why democracy is absent in much of the Muslim world and proposes a necessary detour to understand the historical, political, economic, epistemic, and geopolitical factors shaping this phenomenon. The author argues that overcoming the dichotomy between Islam and democracy requires questioning epistemic constructions shaped by Eurocentrism, Orientalism, and the coloniality of knowledge that have permeated the social sciences, particularly political science. Finally, the Reviews section features Emiliano Espinosa Martínez’s insightful reading of the book edited by José Guadalupe Gandarilla Salgado, From Monroe to Trump: From U.S. Expansionism to Late Imperialism. This closing piece resonates with the themes of the previous section and offers readers of Vínculos. Sociology, Analysis, and Opinion a cultural reflection on the forms of knowledge necessary to understand our contemporary moment.