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 CONVERGENCIA
orient the design of artifacts of dialogue
Edmundo Leiva-Lobos, Hector Antillaca, Hector Ponce. A systemic framework to
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
A systemic framework to orient the design of
artifacts of dialogue
Edmundo Leiva-Lobos
Universidad de Santiago de Chile / [email protected]
Héctor Antillanca
Universidad de Santiago de Chile / [email protected]
Héctor Ponce
Universidad de Santiago de Chile / [email protected]
Abstract: In this paper we present a conceptual framework, based on a systemic approach, which
informs the design of artifacts to support dialogue among people. The concept of dialogue is highlighted
as a communicative practice which facilitates the creation, examination and circulation of meaning.
We argue that current technology to support communication is insufficient to facilitate dialogue, since
it only allows the management of messages which are simple and difficult to relate. The proposed
conceptual framework introduces several notions, among them, platform, rules, movements, moments,
and breakdowns in a dialogue. From this ontology, a taxonomy is shown, where tangible artifacts are
distinguished, as electronic mail and symbolic artifacts, as problem-solving methodologies. Two cases
of artifacts for dialogue are analyzed: a dialogical meeting record and an electronic forum. The paper
closes reflecting on the scope of this proposal for the design of artifacts for dialogue.
Key words: dialogue, Bohm’s dialogue, meaning, systemic approach, communicative practice.
Resumen: En este artículo proponemos un marco conceptual, basado en un enfoque sistémico, que
orienta el diseño de artefactos para apoyar el diálogo entre personas. Se destaca el concepto de diálogo
como una práctica comunicativa que facilita la creación, el examen y la circulación de significados.
Argumentamos que la tecnología actual de apoyo a la comunicación resulta insuficiente para facilitar
el diálogo, ya que permite sólo el manejo de mensajes simples y difíciles de relacionar. El marco
conceptual propuesto introduce varias nociones, entre ellas, plataforma, reglas, movidas, momentos y
rupturas del diálogo. A partir de esta ontología, se muestra una taxonomía donde se distinguen
artefactos tangibles, como el correo electrónico y artefactos simbólicos, como las metodologías de
resolución de problemas. Dos casos de artefactos del diálogo son analizados: un acta dialógica y un
foro electrónico. El trabajo termina reflexionando sobre los alcances de esta propuesta para el diseño
de artefactos del diálogo.
Palabras clave: diálogo, diálogo de Bohm, significado, enfoque sistémico, práctica
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May – August, 2008; pp. 1-28
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Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Introduction
During the last two decades new inter-disciplinary fields have emerged,
these have researched and developed technologies to support groups’
activities, particularly, the fields known as Computer Supported Cooperative
Work (CSCW) and Computer Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL), related
to technologies of support for collaboration in working and learning,
respectively. Not less important is the field known as Computer Mediated
Communication (CMC), which develops technology to facilitate human
communication through the information technologies. In all of these fields,
human interaction and communication are fundamental aspects of research
that inform on the design of artifacts. Indeed, the first problem appears
here; we support that current artifacts do not assist adequately the higher
layers of human communication, such as making-sense is, in
communicational situations. Even though as from the works by Winograd
and Flores (1986) advancements have been attempted along this line,
progresses in this dimension are still modest; for instance, most of the post
systems offer the concept of simple and isolated messages, the metaphor
of the message sent by letter remains. Support for these systems has been
developed to help the user organize the messages, sort them out and make
their search easy. Recently electronic mails that structure messages and
their responses as conversations have become massive. Although
conversations help locate messages in a context, it is still difficult to follow
the thread of the ideas generated by the participants. Conversely, when we
converse face to face in a group, we can retake the previous idea —which
someone said minutes ago— and go on to elaborate new ideas from it. Here
we already detected a breach between what is possible for us to do in
quotidian life and what communication mediated by computers allows us
to (Suchman, 1987). Another instance is found in technology applied to
support meetings, where cyclic models have been developed under concepts
such as pre-meeting, meeting and post-meeting (Bostrom et al., 1993), where
the partakers maintain a conducting thread of the work by means of
documents in the shape of agendas, acts and work documents. Nonetheless,
in these systems one witnesses the lack of adequate artifacts that allow the
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CONVERGENCIA
Gustavo Garduño Oropeza and María Fernanda Zúñiga Roca, Complex organizations,
Revistasemeiotics
de Ciencias
andSociales
culture
Complex organizations,
semeiotics and culture
Gustavo Garduño Oropeza
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México / [email protected]
María Fernanda Zúñiga Roca
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México / [email protected]
Abstract: the present essay has as an end to provide a perspective to approach and comprehend the
enterprising organizations from the processes of meanings they generate on the base of a complex and
mobile panorama. It will allow understanding, on the one side, the complex frameworks of sense and
relation which appear among the subjects involved in the enterprise and the productive-formal
structures of it, with the options of intervention that the large companies can present by means of
the understanding of the symbolic forms present inside the organization’s different levels.
Key words: complex organization, culture, semeiotics, symbolic forms, meaning.
Resumen: El presente ensayo tiene como fin proporcionar una perspectiva para el abordaje y
comprensión de las organizaciones empresariales, a partir de los procesos de sentido que ellas mismas
generan sobre la base de un panorama complejo y móvil. Permitirá comprender, por un lado, los
marcos de sentido y de relación complejos que surgen entre los sujetos involucrados en la empresa y las
estructuras formales-productivas de la misma con las opciones de intervención que las grandes compañías
pueden presentar, mediante la comprensión de las formas simbólicas presentes al interior de los
diferentes niveles de su organización.
Palabras clave: organización compleja, cultura, semiótica, formas simbólicas, sentido.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May - August 2008, pp. 29-61
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Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Introduction
The state of the topic of enterprising organizations has considered, with
growing interest, the role of the diverse elements, proper to cultural relations,
as key factors to understand the processes of production and management
of human resources. In this theoretical panorama, culture, exposed from
categories of analysis linked to quotidian relations, becomes the support
and axis for the transformation of complex productive organizations.
Based on the existing relation between organization and culture, the
present essay has as an end to provide a tool to approach and understand
the internal relations generated from the processes of meaning, erected upon
the base of a complex and mobile panorama. Some categories of the
semeiotic perspective by Yuri M. Lotman and Charles S. Peirce1 will work
as foundations to explain the nature of said processes, which allow
understanding the process at two levels:
- On the one side, the frameworks of complex comprehension and
relation that appear between the subjects involved in the enterprise and the
formal-productive structures of it.
- And on the other, the options of intervention that large companies
can present by means of appealing to symbolic forms inside the different
levels of its organization.
In the first place, we will outline an approximation to the general concept
of organization considering its nature in terms of its relation in complex
contexts where there are diverse physical, environmental and cultural aspects.
We will conceive, therefore, every organization as a social laboratory that
enables exposing its essence in terms of the application of meaning criteria;
which carry a distinction between order-disorder in terms of purpose, and
thereby, allow understanding the multiple functional relations mediated by
communication between the different cultural frameworks, levels and
conditions of the enterprise.
Authors for whom culture has a fundamental role; not only in the interpretation of the signs
and discourses, but also in the generation of the dynamism that distinguishes every process of
signification.
1
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Novos olhares, novos lugares: por uma política
social de combate à pobreza condizente com a
construção da cidadania
Izildo Corrêa Leite
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brasil / [email protected]
Abstract: Supported on bibliographical research, the present study is intended to show the
importance, for the professionals in the area of Social Policy who are involved in the fight against
poverty, of considering some often neglected aspects of such social condition, among which, the
social representations of poverty and of the poor and the ways in which such subjects’ identity is
constituted. This is essential: poverty, in practice, can be faced as a multi-faceted phenomenon; the
corresponding social policies may be more effective, reject assistencialism, and promote the
protagonism of people assisted; the poor may become subjects entitled to rights; the construction
of effective citizenship may advance.
Key words: social policy, fight against poverty, social representations, identity, citizenship.
Resumen: A partir de una investigación bibliográfica, se intenta demostrar la importancia, a los
profesionales de la política social, que actúan en el combate a la pobreza, para que tengan en
cuenta aspectos a menudo menospreciados de aquella condición social, como son: las
representaciones sociales de la pobreza y de los pobres, y los modos en que se constituye la
identidad de estos sujetos. Esto es indispensable para que la pobreza, en términos prácticos, sea
encarada como fenómeno polifacético; para que las políticas sociales pertinentes puedan volverse
más efectivas, se aparten tenazmente del asistencialismo y fomenten el protagonismo de las
poblaciones atendidas; para que los pobres puedan transformarse en sujetos susceptibles de
derechos; para que se avance en la construcción de una ciudadanía efectiva.
Palabras clave: política social, combate a la pobreza, representaciones sociales, identidad,
ciudadanía.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 62-89
CONVERGENCIA
Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Media violence: a study case
Natalia Ix-Chel Vázquez González
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México / [email protected]
Abstract: The present work has as objective to state how violence appears in the mass media, for the
effects of it, an analysis of referring journalistic notes to the reality of the State of Mexico is made,
in the months from June to August, 2005 —period of electoral activity— from two newspapers, one
local (Sol de Toluca Newspaper) and another national, in its “Estado” section (Reforma Newspaper).
In order to achieve said objective the methodology of discourse analysis was used, specifically in its
variant of the semantic micro-structures (summary, titular and heading of the journal report) upon
which an analysis of the sort and form of the argumentation is performed; this is to say, the macrostructures understood as that hierarchical set of topics which conform the text’s thematic structure,
allowed centering the analysis on the problem of violence, identifying the dominating elements,
examining the rage of differences and diversity of styles, as well as the diversity of styles, as well as
identifying the diversity of the discourses the printed media construct around violence. Describing
the discourses, generally and those of violence in particular, enable us to understand how the printed
media, as media institution, has an important role in the construction of reality.
Key words: conflict, violence, mass media.
Resumen: El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo plantear cómo se representa la violencia en los
medios de comunicación, para ese efecto se realiza un análisis de notas periodísticas referentes a la
realidad del Estado de México, en los meses de junio a agosto de 2005 —periodo de actividad
electoral—, a partir de dos periódicos, uno netamente local (El Sol de Toluca) y otro de corte nacional,
en su sección “Estado” (Reforma). Para lograr dicho objetivo se ocupó como metodología el análisis del
discurso, específicamente en su variante de las macroestructuras semánticas (resumen, titular y
encabezamiento de la nota periodística), sobre las cuales se efectúa un análisis del tipo y forma de la
argumentación; es decir, las macroestructuras entendidas como ese conjunto jerárquico de temas que
conforman la estructura temática del texto, permitió centrar el análisis en el problema de la violencia,
identificar los elementos dominantes, examinar la gama de diferencias y diversidad de estilos, así como
la diversidad de discursos que la prensa construye en torno a la violencia. Describir los discursos, en
general, y los de la violencia, en particular, nos posibilita comprender de qué manera la prensa, en tanto
institución mediática, tiene un papel importante en la construcción de la realidad.
Palabras clave: conflicto, violencia, medios de comunicación.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May - August 2008, pp. 90-112
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Natalia Ix-Chel Vázquez González. Media violence: a study case
Introduction
The importance of media at this moment lies in two inseparable facts: the
integration that they have in daily life and in the fact that they are important
producers and distributors of meanings and significations about reality.
So important are media in the daily life, that their study and analysis
deserves special attention. This is especially necessary if one considers that
their discourses construct social sense and new social frameworks.
As Van Dijk states, “most of our social and political knowledge, as well
as our beliefs about the world, emanate from the dozens of informations
that we see, read or listen every day. Maybe there is not another discursive
practice, aside from the everyday conversation, that is performed with such
frequency and by so many people as the monitoring of news on the press
and on television” (1997: 29-30). Press is certainly the par excellence medium
to obtain detailed information about daily events.
Discourses and the ways in which they are related privilege what is
supposedly interesting. They determine what can be of public interest with
the help of other narrations.
A narrative can be understood as a way of organizing and knowing the world...
the narrative coincides with the so called “frameworks” that are the platform
where the receiver organizes their experiences within other cognitive structures
[…] the efficacy of the narrative and symbolic structures lies in their function
as instrument to introduce values and norms that assist as basis to the formation
of beliefs and to construct reality. (Mateo and Penalva, 2000: 188)
Therefore, media truth is all what is thought and assumed as real. This
refers especially to everything that has the form a great story. In the end,
this truth conforms the preferential models to comprehend the world, where
undoubtedly, some aspects are boosted according to the way the discourse
is made. Then it is not surprising that through the press, social realities are
constructed discursively, to the extent that language is constitutive of an
institutional reality.
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CONVERGENCIA
Murilo Kuschick, Aplication of the decision theory in the political-electoral field
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Application of the decision theory in the
political-electoral field
Murilo Kuschick Ramos
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana -Azcapotzalco / [email protected]
Abstract: the object of the present article is to discuss from the theory of electoral behavior, which
was originally created and used to explain the behavior of American lectors, its possible application
for the Mexican case, as for long time Mexican electors seemed to behave in an exceptional manner,
since election after election a single party was victorious. After analyzing some answers for the
Mexican case I examine from some surveys’ results, how the behavior of Mexican elector is explained.
Key words: electoral behavior, vote, opinion, surveys, Mexican elections.
Resumen: El objeto del presente artículo es discutir a partir de la teoría del comportamiento electoral,
la cual originalmente fue creada y empleada para explicar la conducta de los electores estadounidenses,
su posible aplicación para el caso mexicano; pues por mucho tiempo los electores en México parecían
comportarse de una forma excepcional, ya que elección tras elección un partido resultaba victorioso.
Después de analizar algunas respuestas que se han dado al caso mexicano examino, con base en el
resultado de algunas encuestas, cómo se explica la conducta del elector mexicano.
Palabras clave: comportamiento electoral, voto, opinión, encuestas, elecciones mexicanas.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 113-141
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Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Introduction
It could seem a contradiction to talk about vote as an act of election, for
the act of voting is intrinsically linked to a process that we call election.
Despite this, the conditions under which subjects make their elections are
not so redundant, giving place to a set of theories that state that the decision
making process in an individual sense is something totally wrong. And if
the consideration that individuals only respond to determinations that are
beyond their will, in the case of electoral processes there are sets of decisions
which the voter makes in order to chose between candidate “A”, “B” or
“C”. At the same time one individual makes this decision, other millions
make decisions as well. Therefore, the decision of a single person does not
modify at all or does not add anything to the decisions made by a series of
people, which means that individual elections appear to be fatuous.
Despite the previous argument about the uselessness of thinking the
construction of models of ideal subjects that make decisions motivated by
the desire or the need to possess this or that good, it is equally wrong to
think the possibility that the decision of a subject is not biased by a set of
factors either real or fictitious, as well as the possibility that the decisions
voters make, among the other make, may finally trigger any kind of result
in their private sphere or, that such decision may have any consequence in
the society where they live.
Taking into consideration the petty possibilities that individuals have
to modify the sense, the direction of the events in society; the societies and
institutions that shape it are, obviously, constituted by individuals, who
explained through the theory of action, or situated as integrated to a class,
or if we consider them part of a structuring structure, they will finally
perform acts, actions, which may trigger results that might be somehow
explained, and will establish the possibility that something or someone is
responsible for what happened. In this regard, without appealing to a mystic
will, to a supernatural force, it is necessary to look for participants of
processes and establish some reasons that may justify their occurrence.
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CONVERGENCIA
Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Public decision-making in the democratic
governability; the case of the National Action
Party government in Nuevo León
Laura Nelly Medellín Mendoza
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León/ [email protected]
José Luis Prado Maillard
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León/ [email protected]
José María Infante Bonfiglio
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León/ [email protected]
Freddy Mariñez Navarro
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León/ [email protected]
Abstract: during the government of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in Nuevo León (1997-2003)
there were some difficulties to set a space of democratic deliberation, specifically in regard to the
policies of urban development. This caused the activation, in the public sphere, of organizations form
the civil society, such as the Asociación de Vecinos y Comerciantes de la av. Venustiano Carranza and the
Alianza por San Pedro. The cases, in spite of having a different trajectory, show the importance of
conceding a deliberative space in public decisions so as to sustain democratic governance.
Key words: State, civil society, public deliberation, governance.
Resumen: Durante el gobierno del Partido Acción Nacional en Nuevo León (1997-2003), se
presentaron dificultades para fijar un espacio de deliberación democrática específicamente en las
políticas de desarrollo urbano. Esto ocasionó la activación en la esfera pública de organizaciones de la
sociedad civil como la Asociación de Vecinos y Comerciantes de la avenida Venustiano Carranza y la
Alianza por San Pedro. Los casos, aunque tuvieron una trayectoria distinta, muestran la importancia
de conceder un ejercicio deliberativo en las decisiones públicas para la sustentabilidad de una
gobernabilidad democrática.
Palabras clave: Estado, sociedad civil, deliberación pública, gobernabilidad.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May August 2008, pp. 142-169
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Laura N Medellín, José L. Prado, José M. Infante and Freddy Mariñez. Public decision-making in
democratic govenability,. the case of the National Action Party Government in Nuevo León
Introduction
In the present work we aim to provide study elements to perform the analysis
of the democratic governance from the democratic inclusion of the citizenry
in the public decision-making process. We take up the experience of the
government of the National Action Party (PAN), 1997-2003 in Nuevo Leon,
Monterrey, Mexico, which was elected as government of the State after a
long hegemony of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the political
control of the state. Their government will face political challenges due to
the lack of political spaces of democratic deliberation, especially with two
relevant civil society’s organizations: the Association of Neighbors and
Traders of Venustiano Carranza’s Avenue (Asociación de Vecinos y Comerciantes
de la Avenida Venustiano Carranza) (AVCAVC) and the Alliance for San Pedro
(Alianza por San Pedro)(ApSP)
In terms of methodology, we firstly introduce a brief theoretical
discussion that allows us to set the importance of the access to information
of the citizens in the public deliberation process, which is an important
antecedent in the construction of the democratic governance. After this,
we make a brief review of the process of inter-party replacement in Nuevo
Leon, in which PAN, from its government platform, in order to differentiate
from the past, compromise to govern based on principles of democratic
inclusion of the citizenry. But, as we will see in the rest of the document,
this is precisely the challenge that it will face, especially in terms of urban
development. In the cases of the Alliance for San Pedro and the AVCAVC,
the main indicator to consider will be the access to public information by
these organizations, in regard to the public decisions on urban development.
The stake for the democratic construction of public decisions
Camou proposes the definition of governance as a state of dynamic
equilibrium between social demands and the capacity of the government to
handle them. The government efficacy and the social legitimacy would
combine in a virtuous circle that guarantees the stability of the political
systems (Camou, 1996: 14). This is an important definition for the political
science lexicon; however, it does not include a normative assessment. In
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CONVERGENCIA
Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Mother tongue: more than a metaphor;
a feminine toil on letters
Socorro Corrales Carvajal
Universidad del Cauca, Colombia / [email protected]
Abstract: In line with our internal monologues, which according to Virginia Woolf, are efficient
instruments to transmit the flow of modern consciousness, three recent investigations show that the
school, in its ontological meaning, should not be distant from the new map courses that mark the
word’s world and in it, that of women. A world in which also, we the women, have dreamt of that
if we know how to read and write, the subjugation and exclusion are only legacies from a well-gone
past. One investigation is about the reading and writing behavior of the students who enroll in “La
Universidad de Cauca”; the other is about the impact of war on women, which was carried out by La
Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres de Colombia; and the third one, co-financed by Colciencias, where I work
as a researcher, is called Senses and social uses of reading and writing in Spanish on La Licenciatura de
Etnoeducación de la Universidad del Cauca.
Key words: women, monologue, school, modernity, subjectivity.
Resumen: A la luz de los monólogos interiores que, según Virginia Woolf (1971: 13), son instrumentos
eficaces para transmitir el flujo de la conciencia moderna, tres investigaciones recientes muestran que
la escuela, en su acepción ontológica, no debe estar ajena a los nuevos derroteros que nos marcan el
mundo de las letras y en él, el de las mujeres. Mundo en el que, también, las mujeres hemos soñado que
si sabemos leer y escribir, la sumisión y la exclusión sólo son rezagos de un lejano bien pasado. Una
investigación es sobre el comportamiento lector y escritor de los estudiantes que ingresan a la Universidad
del Cauca; otra, sobre el impacto de la guerra en las mujeres, realizada por la Ruta Pacífica de Mujeres
de Colombia; y la tercera, cofinanciada por Colciencias, en la que fui coinvestigadora: “Sentidos y usos
sociales de la lectura y la escritura en español en la Licenciatura de Etnoeducación de la Universidad
del Cauca”.
Palabras clave: mujeres, monólogo, escuela, modernidad, subjetividad.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 170-194
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CONVERGENCIA
internal displacement in Colombia
Carmen Egea and Javier Iván Soledad Suescún. Migrations and conflicts;
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Migrations and conflicts; internal displacement in
Colombia
Carmen Egea Jiménez
Universidad de Granada, España / [email protected]
Javier Iván Soledad Suescún
Universidad de Pamplona, Colombia / [email protected]
Abstract: One of the most important consequences of the Colombian conflict is the massive internal
displacement. It is contextualized within internal migrations which are interfered by performances
and land use policies. Unfortunately both interventions and policies have been characterized by the
ownership of land and other strategic resources, relegating in a second place the rights of the affected
populations. Thus, in this paper one of the most important topics at present is presented: migrations,
taking into account that in general forced migrations, and in particular internal displacement, have
been “forgotten” in terms of both scientific and academic areas. The main goal is to try to research the
Internal Displacement in Colombia from a macro-scale analysis. From there, a short review about
both the perception of forced migrations within migrations, generally in terms academic-scientific
and the perception of internal displaced people in comparison to refugees is done. Then, the paper
deals with internal displacement in Colombia, explaining the keys to the Colombian armed conflict, to
finally represent in this context the area of Catatumbo. There the conflict is very particular because it
is performed in a border with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Key Words: migrations, forced displacement, return, conflicts, Colombia.
Resumen: Una de las consecuencias más importantes del conflicto colombiano es el masivo
desplazamiento interno. Este se contextualiza dentro las migraciones internas, marcadas por actuaciones
y políticas de ordenamiento territorial donde la apropiación de la tierra y otros recursos estratégicos
han sido una constante, quedando los derechos de las poblaciones originarias relegados a un segundo
plano. Así, el presente trabajo trata uno de los temas de mayor atención en la actualidad: las migraciones,
con la particularidad de que las migraciones forzadas en general y el desplazamiento interno en
particular han estado “olvidadas” desde el punto de vista científico y académico. Se trata, como
objetivo principal, de investigar el Desplazamiento Interno en Colombia partiendo de una escala
macro de análisis desde donde se realiza un breve repaso acerca de la consideración de las migraciones
forzadas dentro de las migraciones en general, desde el punto de vista académico-científico; y la
consideración prestada en aquéllas a los desplazados internos en comparación con los refugiados. El
resto del trabajo aborda el desplazamiento interno en Colombia, explicando las claves del conflicto
armado colombiano; finalmente se escenifica este contexto en la zona del Catatumbo, que por su
delimitación fronteriza con la República Bolivariana de Venezuela adquiere rasgos muy concretos.
Palabras clave: migraciones, desplazados internos, retorno, conflictos, Colombia.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 195-223
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Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Introduction
There is no doubt about the importance of the scientific production that,
especially since the second half of the 20th century and currently, has
emerged around the migration phenomenon as for theoretical interpretations,
empirical analysis and to scale studies with temporal and/or spatial details
(Egea et al., 2005). This huge production contrasts in the opposite direction
with the lower attention given to forced migration. Studies about migrations
continue the tradition of focusing almost exclusively on the exit movements
and not on those regarding the entry (emigration and migration), and among
them those that are related to economic causes.
In this line, Bonilla (2004) summarizes in a good manner the treatment
provided to this other kind of migration:
Despite the importance and frequency of the displacement, it has not been a
central topic for the social and economic sciences. Studies about migrations
are focused in those originated by economic expectations, yet migrations
produced by armed conflicts, especially internal ones, have received little
attention. In recent decades, forced displacement has started to be considered
as a modality of migration, and some of the causes that are attached to it are
violence, persecution and repression. (Bonilla, 2004: 1).
Nevertheless, forced migrations have been present in the context of
the migrations in general when, from the theoretical point of view, typologies
of migratory movements have been established. Thus, Petersen (1958),
almost by the end of the 50s, mentions a kind of forced migration that is
related to the migratory policy. More recent studies such as that by Abellán,
Fernández-Mayoralas, Rodríguez and Rojo (1998) distinguish clearly two
kinds of movements as for the reasons that cause them: free, identified with
economic causes, and forced, linked with hazardous situations and caused
by conflicts, political and social instability, natural events, and so on. By
their side, Hugo and Bun (1990, in Perez, 2001) differentiate between “free
migration”, identified with a free decision and “obliged migration”, in which
affected people are not fully free to make the decision, and “forced migration”
where the lack of freedom to decide is the first defining characteristic.
A fourth typology is mentioned by Blanco (2000), in it, forced migrations are precisely the most prominent. Thus, when referring to the migrat-
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Convergencia, num. 47, May-August 2008, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Rural tourism and peasantry, a social approach
from ecology, culture and economy
Humberto Thomé Ortiz
Colegio de Postgraduados, México / thomeortiz @colpos.mx
Abstract: As a specific category, a definition of Rural Tourism should take place within a special
dimension where it works directly with differential proceedings. The sprouting of this phenomenon
can be explained as a conjunction of the severe crisis of the countryside. Post-materialism of the
advanced societies within industry reacts in a new order for the Rural Field. In spite of the great
potential in this particular type of tourism and due to its growth in the tourist markets, it can not be
taken as the panacea to rural problems. Because of that we find it opportune to make a reflection
upon the relation between peasantry, seen as an object of tourism. It is established with this relatively
new and nontraditional activity as well as its shades in the economic, ecological and cultural spheres
of the rural surroundings
Key Words: Intercultural, pluri-activity, rural space, farming economy
Resumen: La definición de turismo rural es una categoría específica centrada en el campo como
dimensión espacial y como lugar social, que afecta directamente a ciertos actores diferenciados. El
surgimiento de este fenómeno puede explicarse como una conjunción de la severa crisis del campo, los
nuevos usos del espacio rural y el reacomodo posmaterialista de las sociedades industriales avanzadas.
Pese al potencial de este tipo específico de turismo y a su acusado crecimiento dentro de los mercados
turísticos, no se puede plantear como la panacea a los problemas rurales, por lo cual resulta oportuno
reflexionar acerca de la relación que el campesinado como objeto del turismo establece con esta
actividad relativamente nueva y no tradicional, así como sus matices en las esferas económica, ecológica
y cultural de los entornos rurales.
Palabras clave: interculturalidad, pluriactividad, espacio rural, economía campesina.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 224-249
224
Humberto Thomé Ortiz, Rural tourism and peasantry,
a social approach from ecology, culture and economy
Introduction
The present essay begins with a theoretical discussion on the interconnection
between the image of peasantry as a distinctive class of society, and rural
tourism as a possible strategy for development; for said end, we undertake
the social analysis of the relationship between both concepts, from the
perspective of the ecological, cultural and economic analysis.
The first part is a sociologic approach to the concept of rural tourism;
there, the center-periphery interrelations that give as a result the use of the
rural space destined for touristic leisure are articulated. Likewise, a
theoretical discussion on the appropriateness of the rural tourism term to
define such a practice from the spatial delimitation from a broad concept is
carried out.
Secondly, we approach the importance of the relation between the
concept of rural tourism and peasantry as an organic and inseparable
relationship, as for the former refers to real strategies of sustainable rural
development. This perspective starts from the supposition of analyzing
tourism as a social phenomenon, of which peasantry becomes a central
object and its end as a development proposal.
Then, the ecologic relation the peasantry establishes with its environment
is stated, from traditional energy-transfer systems, analysis wherefrom this
organic and biological relationship aims for a new use of the rural space of
social determination and rational use of natural resources, through its
destination for touristic leisure ends.
Later on, the relation of rural tourism with peasant culture is approached;
in this sense peasant culture is defined from the perspective of traditions
and customs in order to later confront that partial cultural system with a
broad concept of culture, sketched from anthropology, with which the
cultural interrelation between the countryside and city and the hegemony
of the culture radiated from urban centers toward rural peripheries is
established. This places the intercultural clash of these to two poles that
occurs before the touristic phenomenon on the center of discussion.
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CONVERGENCIA
Convergencia, num. 48, May-August 2007, ISSN 1405-1435, UAEM, Mexico
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Traditional agricultural knowledge as
an academic program
J. Antonio Gómez Espinoza
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos /[email protected]
Liberio Victorino Ramírez
Universidad Autónoma Chapingo /liberio_v @ hotmail.com.mx
Abstract: in the framework of the social and environmental crises of the third millennium it is
necessary to rethink university, its paradigms, the concept of education and its educational model to
impact on the construction of the new society. Traditional agricultural knowledge (saberes agrícolas
tradicionales, SAT), contribute with basic conceptual elements to implement and develop a sustainable
society. From this rescue th systematization of SAT and the SAT-science intercultural dialogue, it is
proposed to incorporate traditional agricultural knowledge as academic program in the Institutions of
agricultural Teaching and Learning in the Superior Level.
Key words: education, agriculture, knowledge, rescue.
Resumen: En el marco de las crisis social y ambiental del tercer milenio, se hace necesario repensar la
universidad, sus paradigmas, el concepto de educación y su modelo educativo para impactar en la
construcción de la nueva sociedad. Los Saberes Agrícolas Tradicionales (SAT) aportan elementos
conceptuales básicos para la implementación y desarrollo de una sociedad sustentable. A partir del
rescate, la sistematización de los SAT y el diálogo intercultural SAT-ciencia, se propone incorporar los
Saberes Agrícolas Tradicionales como programa académico en las Instituciones de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje
Agrícola del nivel Superior (IEAS).
Palabras clave: educación, agricultura, saberes, rescate.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 250-272
250
J. Antonio Gómez Espinoza and Liberio Victorino Ramírez, Traditional agricultural
knowledge as an academic program
Introduction
The planet faces an environmental crisis, product of economic and
technologic policies under a mechanistic vision, which finds in the machine
its best metaphor (De Souza, 2002: 6), and that is expressed in a productionmarket-based logic; this is because in universities and, especially, in higher
agricultural educational institutions, it is necessary to rethink university,
educational models, redefine the conception of education, its mission and
vision, so as to build a new society: the sustainable society.
The dawn of third millennium is characterized by frantic changes in all
of the spheres of human activity; by the crisis and vulnerability of the
prevailing ideas and paradigms in the industrialism era; by the struggle of
the three visions of the world (industrial, economic and holistic) that seek
to prevail in the new epoch, and which have their genesis in the technologic,
economic and socio-cultural revolutions generated in the 1960’s decade
(De Souza, 2002: 6-8).
In the early third millennium, characterized by a social and environmental
crisis, sustainability is build as a paradigm, opposed to the predatory model
ruling in the industrial age, nowadays in complete decline (Torres, 2003:
23-28). In this context, Traditional Agricultural Knowledge (TAK) becomes
a protagonist in the construction of sustainable agriculture because of its
alternative approach, focused on the care and preservation of natural
resources.
It is presumed that the new millennium agriculture will have two
approaches: that of the high-precision agriculture supported upon biotechnology
and cybernetics, and that of the sustainable agriculture under a conservationbased model, originated from the awareness of a species that promotes
coexistence and solidarity with the similar (living and non-living) under a
planetary survival ethics (Toledo, 2003).
On the other side, pertinence becomes a criterion of quality of the programs
of study to train professionals in agricultural sciences, so incorporating TAK
into the curricula of the Institutions of Advanced Agricultural Teaching
and Learning (IAATL) will contribute to the social and environmental
pertinence of agricultural education.
251
CONVERGENCIA
Mercedes Alcañis Moscardó. Local development in the context of globalization
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
Local development in the context of
globalization
Mercedes Alcañiz Moscardó
Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain/ [email protected]
Abstract: The main objective of this article is to expound the links between the globalisation process
– the present and multidimensional characterisation of the capitalist system expansion worldwide –
and local development. The latter is a perspective that emerged in the 80s of the 20th Century as a
response to the inadequacies of the macroeconomic policies of development with a view to solving
the problems related with job creation and improved social welfare from local and regional domains
of development planning. To this end, agents, sectors and powers that interact within the limits of a
given territory are involved.
Without losing sight of the global perspective, even though it may seem contradictory, local development
in the era of globalisation is considered a fundamental tool to achieve a more human, sustainable
development with equity that lasts and is based on a given territory.
Key words: Globalisation, development, human development, local development, new sources of
employment.
Resumen: El presente artículo tiene como objetivo principal exponer las articulaciones entre el
proceso de globalización, caracterización actual y multidimensional de la expansión del sistema capitalista
en el planeta, y el desarrollo local, perspectiva surgida en la década de 1980 ante la insuficiencia de las
políticas macroeconómicas de desarrollo para resolver problemas asociados con la creación de empleo
y la mejora del bienestar social desde los ámbitos locales y regionales de la planificación del desarrollo,
contando para ello con la participación de los agentes, sectores y fuerzas que interactúan dentro de los
límites de un territorio determinado.
El desarrollo local, sin perder de vista la perspectiva global, se considera una herramienta fundamental
para conseguir, en la era de la globalización, y pese a lo contradictorio que pueda parecer, un desarrollo
más humano, sostenible, con equidad, duradero y asentado en un territorio.
Palabras clave: globalización, desarrollo, desarrollo humano, desarrollo local, nuevos yacimientos
de empleo.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 273-302
273
Diego Sánchez González. New challenges of territorial planning and sustainable development in
CONVERGENCIA
Mexico: a compared perspective
Revista de Ciencias Sociales
New challenges for territorial planning
and sustainable development:
a compared perspective
Diego Sánchez González
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, México /[email protected]
Boville Luca de Tena, Belén and Diego Sánchez González (2007),
Planificación territorial y desarrollo sostenible en México:
perspectiva comparada,
Madrid, 463 pp., ISBN 978-84-611-9500-8.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, num. 47, May-August 2008, pp. 303-309
303