Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Human Development For All
Human Development For All
FOR ALL
SOCIAL SCIENCES IN DIALOGUE
FOR AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY
PAOLO PARRA SAIANI
DANAE VIDELA IGOR
EDITORS
Roma
Social-One
2020
Human Development for All.
Roma
Social-One
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for
an Inclusive Society / Paolo PARRA SAIANI and Danae
VIDELA IGOR, editors – Roma: Social-One, 2020
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6
Suggested citation: P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in
Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
Inside the walls, outside the city. The analytical inclusion by categories
in societies of the past
Raffaella Rubino, Paolo Contini and Fabrizio Gentile 61
Felipe Cano Ruiz, estudiante de octavo nivel de la Licenciatura en Educación Básica con
Énfasis en Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Antioquia. Hace parte del semillero de
investigación Unipluriversidad de la Facultad de Educación, que funciona bajo los
principios de la Pedagogía Social desde la perspectiva crítica y teniendo la comida como
eje articulador de las propuestas formativas.
e-mail: felipe.canor@udea.edu.co
Jeyson Fernando Espejo Moya. Licenciado en Filosofía por la Universidad Santo Tomás
de Bogotá. La vocación a la educación le encontró hace unos años y ha permitido que
trabaje en él para la formación desde y para lo comunitario. Hace nueve años que trabaja
en educación básica y media y ha investigado alrededor de problemáticas educativas
relacionadas con la formación en nuevas ciudadanías y la evaluación educativa.
Actualmente se desempeña como coordinador académico de la Escuela Sol Naciente de
Tocancipá (Colombia) y adelanta estudios de Maestría en filosofía contemporánea con
un interés investigativo orientado a la noción de identidad personal desde una revisión
crítica a los estudios de género en clave posestructuralista.
e-mail: fernandoespejo1@gmail.com / joseespejo@ustadistancia.edu.co
Nayssa Alejandra Marín Díaz, Economist from the Universidad Industrial de Santander
(Colombia). Master in Human Development from Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias
Sociales (FLACSO-Argentina). PhD student in Economics at the Universidad de Chile.
With experience in research on gender, poverty, youth and vulnerability and research
interests in political economy. She has worked as a researcher at the Centro de Estudios
Regionales del Magdalena Medio (CER) and at the Universidad Industrial de Santander
on issues related to employment, municipal productive profiles and employment routes
for the population victims of the Colombian armed conflict.
e-mail: nmarind@fen.uchile.cl
Contributors and Editors vii
Fabrizio Martire is Associate Professor of Sociology. His main scientific interests regard:
sociological theory, history of sociology and social researches, methodology of social
researches (with a specific focus on data collection strategies and techniques), public
opinion analysis, evaluation (with a specific focus on quality of social research outputs).
On these issues he has designed and managed various scientific projects and published
almost 70 essays (books as author or editor, articles on Italian and international Journals,
chapters). He gave lectures in several International and Italian conferences, and seminars
in foreign Universities (Spain, Republic of Korea, Chile, Colombia).
e-mail: fabrizio.martire@uniroma1.it
Raffaella Rubino holds the title of PhD in Human Relations Sciences (Curriculum:
History and Social Policies) at the University of Bari Aldo Moro. She dealt with the
history of medicine during the nineteenth century, in particular with the institutional and
asylum one. He has collaborated as a subject expert for the chairs in historical and social
demography, in social history, in general sociology and in health
e-mail: email: rubinoraffaella88@gmail.com
Giovanni Vecchio is assistant professor at the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies,
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is also researcher at the Centre for
Sustainable Urban Development (Cedeus). Urban planner by background, he holds a PhD
in Urban Planning, Design and Policy from Politecnico di Milano. His work focuses on
the implications of urban and transport planning for the human and territorial
development, with reference to issues of justice and social inclusion.
e-mail: giovanni.vecchio@uc.cl
D. Videla Igor and P. Parra Saiani (2020). Some notes for an inclusive human development. In P. Parra Saiani and D.
Videla Igor (eds). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-
One; pp. ix-xii. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
x Videla Igor and Parra Saiani
basic experience of everyday life, the foundation of every relational experience, of every
personal and communitarian behavior. In a world dominated by economic principles, the
lack of mutual recognition has given rise to the emergency of climate change, the
environmental disaster, the waves of mass immigration, the concentration of enormous
wealth in the hands of a few. The widening gap between rich and poor, social inequality
and injustice, and finally, radical individualism destroy the community. The recognition
of the other is more and more difficult, and not only are basic human rights at risk, but
various forms of social ills and psychological difficulties flourish.
Angela Mongelli well illustrates the aspects that exclusion has acquired over last
years, namely its transformation into a phenomenon which, in the face of its diffusion
among increasing layers of the population, lacks recognition as such. Unemployed and
poor people, precarious workers, pensioners, single women, workers who receive a very
low income unsuitable for the cost of living, young people who do not study and work
(the NEET) and migrants-caregivers: this invisible majority is the fruit of the process of
«normalisation of exclusion».
The focus of the next section is the city, from different points of view. Giovanni
Vecchio intends to explore if and how existing mobility practices can suggest policy
solutions that, drawing on community cooperation, can improve access to urban
opportunities. Everyday urban mobility practices (how each person shapes and
appropriates mobility according to his or her characteristics and aims) highlight similar
mobility and accessibility needs, in terms of the places people reach, the activities they
perform and the resources they mobilise to do so. Drawing on this, the Author suggests,
it may be possible to promote new services and behaviours based on resources that
individuals share between themselves, especially in those settings – such as informal
settlements – where providing transport services and infrastructures in traditional ways is
more complicated. Drawing on the result of a qualitative survey in marginal informal
neighbourhoods of Bogotá, the paper outlines possible forms of mobility policy based on
cooperation, focusing on service coproduction and demand matchmaking, and discusses
what elements can motivate the inhabitants to participate in such initiatives.
The next article, by Catalina Marcela Ramírez González, reminds us that since its
creation, cities have attracted capital, information, technology, and human resources. In
particular, in their centers, they have been formed as entrance doors for those who arrive.
The process until finding the first accommodation is gravitational in the social insertion
in the country of destination. If you are a migrant, rent and closeness are identified as
social inclusion/exclusion mechanisms that mark the migration process. In the case of the
settlement process of the Venezuelan community, there is a high residential concentration
in the Metropolitan Region, in the commune of Santiago at the Santa Isabel, San Isidro
pole, and the Bulnes-Almagro axis. The thesis builds - from the experience of living as a
woman-migrant - the path of residential insertion that led them to rent in one of the
communes with the value of the city’s most expensive square meter of rent, in high-rise
buildings located in a neighborhood in full real estate development.
Raffaella Rubino, Paolo Contini, and Fabrizio Gentile focus their attention on the
great socio-economic transformations of the XIX century, brought about by
industrialisation and urbanisation, and how they contributed to the separation of groups
into ideal and real spaces. The articulation of the population by social classes has not only
caused a different logistic organisation of space, but also the concentration of categories
of people within segregation places. The birth of the Italian State finds its acme in the
consolidation of the institutions, which, by designing regulations aimed at defining
Some notes for an inclusive human development xi
criteria for inclusion, do nothing but determine a social exclusion. Mental hospital
internment is a phenomenon that perfectly explains the expulsion of beggars, vagabonds,
and mentally insane people from the community. An expulsion that is even more blatant
if we consider the location of such institutions outside cities. This study aims at
highlighting the “curative” therapy of mental asylums on the internees during the
Nineteenth century. Alienists’ reports of the time witness how much – from a technical
and scientific point of view – the division of the internees into different spaces, according
to the kind of mental illness, constituted an essential pivot for the cure and allowed a
better surveillance system.
Gender is at the center of the next two essays. Nayssa Alejandra Marín Díaz addresses
gender inequality in the Colombian labor market and takes into account two moments of
the life cycle of women. In the short term – referring to people linked (or could be linked)
to the labor market – she identifies inequalities in participation, inactivity, education,
salary, and discrimination. In the long term – relating to the situation of people who are
now retired – she found that there are fewer women who receive old-age pensions. The
Author then emphasises the consequences of disparities in the market, as well as the low
valuation of care in the old age of Colombian women.
Giuseppe Pellegrini reminds us that in recent years there has been a growth in the
presence of women who assume scientific roles in the public space. The ever-increasing
presence of women who follow scientific careers and progress in their acquisition of
important positions in the dimensions of scientific knowledge and the world of production
has led to greater visibility for women. In this paper, he analyses the development of
female careers, and particular attention is paid to the European context, identifying trends
and drawbacks that still exist. He proposes analyses of media narratives in which women
are seen as protagonists and presented in a manner that differs considerably from that
adopted when they are more strongly associated with their traditional roles. Consideration
of these new models and roles assumed by women in the media allows identifying
important improvements and the modern challenges we have to face to facilitate the
enhancement of gender equity.
The next section considers some methodological issues. Fabrizio Martire describes
the cognitive interview as a pretest technique for survey questionnaires, assessing its
potentials and its limits. The paper begins with a general discussion about pretest as a
specific research phase in survey designs, with a focus on the main scopes of making a
pretest. Then, he describes the main approaches to pretest, illustrating some specific
pretest techniques. The second part of the paper deals with cognitive interview, one of the
most used pretest techniques by academic and non-academic researchers. After an in-
depth description of the main strategies for conducting a cognitive interview, the Author
discusses some issues about the design of cognitive interview sessions, with particular
reference on how to choose interviewees and interviewers.
Jeyson Fernando Espejo Moya presents his research with the educational community
of the Escuela Sol Naciente de Tocancipá; he started from the criteria used in the
evaluation process of the Institutional Educational Project. Criteria’s choice shows the
institutional philosophy and perspectives of the educational community; these inputs will
contribute to a future consolidation of the internal system of institutional evaluation. For
his exercise, he used content analysis as a type of research. This experience wants to
empower the educational community as a manager and responsible for its educational
project; its implementation improves the quality of education and implies a concrete
contribution to human development; furthermore, it is an exercise of the right to self-
D. Videla Igor and P. Parra Saiani (2020). Some notes for an inclusive human development. In P. Parra Saiani and D.
Videla Igor (eds). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-
One; pp. ix-xii. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
xii Videla Igor and Parra Saiani
References
UNDP (2016). Human Development Report 2016. Human Development for Everyone. New York:
Human Nations Development Programme.
Ecology and social relations 1
1. Overthrowing anthropocentrism
In recent years, climate has come to play an important role in the international agenda.
The current debate highlights that sustainability is not just about the ecological dimension,
but it is closely linked to lifestyles and allocation of social resources (Ludwig et al., 2001).
In other words, a holistic approach the emerges as the most suitable to interpret and act
in the contemporary situation.
One expression of holism is the thought of social ecology, which has some illustrious
predecessors. The first one is Kropotkin (1901/1955), an eclectic Russian anarchist, who
overcomes the dualism between humans and nature. According to the Russian scholar,
nature is not something extraneous to be dominated and exploited, it is rather something
intrinsically linked to the way human beings live in society. Through the rediscovery of
cooperation and mutual support, humans cannot only survive and develop in evolutionary
terms but also be entirely fulfilled by re-establishing a non-hierarchical society.
Another important predecessor of social ecology is the French scholar Reclus. In his
thought the relationship between humans and nature is based on harmony and it can be
summarized in the famous image of the preface of L’Homme et la Terre combined with
the epigraph: “Man is nature becoming self-conscious”. On this basis, Reclus has
redesigned the social geography, supporting the ideal of universal brotherhood until the
foundation of multilateral socio-ecological communities.
Starting from these predecessors, Bookchin founded the social ecology. The starting
point of this school of thought is a holistic view of the universe and an overcoming of the
anthropocentric approach. Bookchin (1982) argues that nature can be considered as a
creative and fruitful biotic community, leading to a social, libertarian, ecological,
decentralized perspective. On this basis, Bookchin underpins that ecology can only be
social.
Today social ecology is a reference point for a critique of capitalism; while, another
current of thought focuses on integral ecology. The merit of these schools is the fact they
have stressed the need to overcome the dualism between nature and society, opening the
reflection on what type of social bond can invert an individualistic and acquisitive way
of living in society.
1
Gennaro Iorio is author of paragraph 2 and the first half of paragraph 3. Silvia Cataldi is author of
paragraph 1 and the second half of paragraph 3.
G. Iorio and S. Cataldi (2020). Ecology and social relations: the challenge in a global perspective. In P. Parra Saiani
and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome:
Social-One; pp. 1-3. ISBN 978-88-95697-08-6.
2 Iorio and Cataldi
3. Conclusions
In conclusion it can be stated that the ecological challenge can never be separated
from the search for a just society, which makes people happy. But then what does make
people happy? The above-mentioned studies show that social relations based on empathy
and recognition make individual’s happiness. This statement calls into question basic
assumptions of capitalist economy. In fact, it emerges that, even if resources are scarce,
human needs for resources are not unlimited. Indeed, what people desire mostly is not
scarce but infinitely abundant: it is recognition of one’s singularity.
The concept of social love, recently rediscovered in the sociological literature, can be
relevant in this context, as a social bond capable of recognizing the differences and
overcoming the inequalities. As Simmel (1921) stated, in fact, love plays a fundamental
role in sociality. Similarly, Sorokin (1954) attributed to altruistic love the ability to
unleash social energies of creative relationship.
Indeed, in contemporary critical literature love can be recognized suitable for
contemporary ecological challenges. In this frame, the French sociologist Boltanski
proposes the concept of agape, defining it as a practice that allows one to experience the
Ecology and social relations 3
other and which “ignoring equivalence, is unmindful of the calculation” (Boltanski, 1990:
123), making it possible to enter a regime of peace. A similar proposal comes from the
philosopher Honneth (1992), who, starting from the Hegelian conception of love as being
oneself in a stranger, states that love represents the first stage in the theory of recognition.
In other words, literature recognizes the necessity of a social bond for an egalitarian
and inclusive society. This bond can be social love “in which the subjects exceed all its
antecedents and, therefore, offers more than the situation requires in order to produce
benefits” (Iorio, 2014: 25; Araújo et al., 2016).
This form of social bond based on overabounding and exceeding can therefore be
recognized as a driver not only for global social justice, but also for the need for
recognition intrinsic in humans. In this sense social love can play a key role in today’s
ecological challenges.
References
Araújo, V., Cataldi, S. & Iorio, G. (2016). Culture of Peace. The Social Dimension of Love.
Torino/Paris: Harmattan.
Boltanski, L. (1990). L’Amour et la justice comme compétences. Trois essais de sociologie de
l’action. Paris: Métailié.
Bookchin, M. (1982). The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy.
Palo Alto, CA: Cheshire Books.
Brickman P. & D. T. Campbell (1971). Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society. In
M. H. Appely (ed.), Adaptation Level Theory: A Symposium (pp. 287-304). New York:
Academic Press.
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO (2017). The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
2017. Building Resilience for Peace and Food Security. Rome: FAO.
Honneth, A. (1992). Kampf um Anerkennung. Grammatik sozialer Konflikte. Suhrkamp:
Frankfurt am Main.
Iorio, G. (2014). Sociology of Love. The Agapic dimension of Societal Life. Wilmington: Vernon
Press.
Kasser, T. (2002). The High Price of Materialism. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kropotkin, P. (1955). Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution. Boston: Extending Horizons Books
(first ed. 1901).
Layard, R. (2006). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. London: Penguin Books.
Ludwig, D., Mangel, M. & Haddad, B. (2001). Ecology, conservation and public policy. Annual
Review of Ecology and Systematics, 32, 481–517.
Simmel, G. (1908). Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung.
Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.
Simmel, G. (1921). Fragment über die Liebe aus dem Nachlass George Simmels. Logos, 9, 1-54.
Sorokin, P. A. (1954). The Ways and the Power of Love. Boston: The Beacon Press.
World Bank (2018). Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle.
Washington, DC: World Bank.
WWF (2018). Living Planet Report 2018: Aiming Higher. M. Grooten, R.E.A. Almond (Eds).
Gland, Switzerland: WWF.
G. Iorio and S. Cataldi (2020). Ecology and social relations: the challenge in a global perspective. In P. Parra Saiani
and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome:
Social-One; pp. 1-3. ISBN 978-88-95697-08-6.
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The definition of the situation 5
1
The article is a common work. Nevertheless, first and second paragraph were written by Paolo Parra
Saiani; third paragraph by Lucia Di Stefano and conclusions by both.
2
“Die Wandlungen in den psychologischen Bedürfnissen der Menschen sind fast noch größer als die
Umgestaltungen der materiellen Lebensbedingungen, und es würde wissenschaftlich unzulässig sein, sie
zu ignorieren” (Weber, 1892, p. 920).
P. Parra Saiani and L. Di Stefano (2020). The definition of the situation. What kind of development, for whom?. In P.
Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive
Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 5-14. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
6 Parra Saiani and Di Stefano
but also on the social conditions in which it is performed; and therefore the cause of a
social change must include both individual and social elements. By ignoring this, social
theory faces an infinite task whenever it wants to explain the simplest social change”
(1918, p. 42). “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”: back
to the famous Thomas Theorem3 (Thomas & Thomas, 1928, p. 572), Merton reminded
us that people react not only to objective elements of a situation but also – and sometimes
especially – to the meaning this situation has for them (1949, p. 421). When we give sense
to a situation, this becomes the engine of the action.
We may say that “individuals, also groups, occupying or living in the same spatial
location may have, accordingly, very different environments; as we say, people may be
living side by side yet be living in different words” (Blumer, 1969, p. 11, italics mine). If
we may find traces of the relevance of subjective meaning back to the ancient Greek –
Epictetus in his Enchiridion stated that “men are disturbed not by the things which
happen, but by the opinions about the things” –, we have to wait for the Sixties for seeing
‘subjective indicators’ used extensively in international quality of life surveys – such as
in the studies by Hadley Cantril (1965) and Andrews and Withey (1976).
The increased visibility of the quality of life studies based on individual’s perceptions
has not, however, met with the favour of the many international organizations for a long
time. They preferred to expand the range of collective indicators (presenting information
on pollution, crimes, etc.) instead of integrating the available data by changing the unit of
analysis (from the State to the individual). Among international agencies, the OECD
(1999) explicitly excluded individual indicators, while the UNDP’s Human Development
Index (HDI) ignores them.
Only in recent years, attention to individual opinions has begun to be present in
national reporting systems, as in Germany (Zapf, 1984; Noll, 2002), in the UK with the
General Household Survey, and in France with Isee. In the 2013 Eurostat implemented
an ad hoc module on subjective well-being in the EU-SILC (2015): for the first time,
objective indicators are integrated by subjective evaluations, thus providing relevant
information for multiple aspects of the quality of life. Eurostat, since 2015, publishes a
first set of quality of life indicators, built mostly on the already existing data of the ESD.
The first dimension, “life experience in general”, with its dimensions (degree of
satisfaction, emotions, meaning, and purpose of life), refers to the subjective perception.
CNEL and Istat have launched the Bes project for the definition of the indicators of fair
and sustainable well-being, in the belief that the parameters on which to evaluate the
progress of a company must not only be of an economic nature, but also social and
environmental, accompanied by measures of inequality and sustainability. Following the
recommendations of the OECD and Eurostat, Istat has started to survey the opinions on
“overall life satisfaction”, accompanied by satisfaction indicators for specific aspects of
life (economic condition, work, social relations, etc.) (Istat & Cnel, 2013, p. 12).
3
This passage – quoted in The Child in America, is signed by William I. Thomas and Dorothy Swaine
Thomas in 1928 – but it has to be attributed only to William Thomas. Dorothy Thomas, in a letter
reproduced in Merton (1995, p. 401), claims to have been used only as an assistant in statistical tasks. Very
interesting is the application of what is called ‘Thomas theorem’: it had not been considered in the book
reviews that appeared in the most important journals of the time (American Journal of Sociology, Social
Forces and Sociology and Social Research), and Howard P. Becker places it – erroneously - in the work
The Polish Peasant of Thomas and Znaniecki, and attributed – once again, erroneously – only to Znaniecki
(Merton, 1995, p. 383). The expression ‘Thomas theorem’ – to be more precise, ‘W.I. Thomas’ sociological
theorem’ – appears for the first time in Merton (1938, p. 331). On these aspects, see Merton (1995).
The definition of the situation 7
2. Points of view
It is often remembered that the attack rate has little relation to perceived security, that
income is not very correlated with the declared satisfaction, that the perception of foreign
presence is always greater than the “real” figure. To focus on the theme of well-being, in
countries with diachronic series, perception of well-being is constant over time despite
significant increases in average incomes (Easterlin, 1995, 2005; Diener & Suh, 1997;
Oswald, 1997; Kahneman & Krueger, 2006, p. 15)4. Furthermore, in a research conducted
in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Parra Saiani & Perino, 2009), were asked a series of
questions aimed at gathering information on the possession or not of some objects: car,
computer, freezer, washing machine, telephone, and television. Tab. 1 shows the answers,
ordered on the basis of the percentage of how many would have liked to own the object
in question, but they could not have afforded it.
Tab. 1 – Possession of particular goods and how many people lack them (%)
Don’t have, Don’t have, I would
Yes (%) Tot (n)
don’t want (%) like, can’t afford (%)
Home computer 18,7 30,0 51,3 100,0 (150)
Car 42,0 14,0 44,0 100,0 (150)
Washing machine 74,7 0,7 24,7 100,0 (150)
Telephone 84,7 1,3 14,0 100,0 (150)
Freezer 90,0 -- 10,0 100,0 (150)
Television 92,7 1,3 6,0 100,0 (150)
Source: Parra Saiani & Perino (2009, p. 67).
It should be noted that these objects are usually considered to be in common use, and
that often in studies on poverty carried out in other contexts, they are even expunged from
the analysis because they are considered non-discriminating items. To this can be added
the high percentage of those who said they had economic problems to buy clothes
(58.6%), to pay medical costs (57.3%), transport costs (56.4 %) or school fees (44.5%);
33.3% had problems purchasing the necessary food (Tab. 2).
4
There is no consensus on that point: see Parra Saiani (2009, Ch. 8).
P. Parra Saiani and L. Di Stefano (2020). The definition of the situation. What kind of development, for whom?. In P.
Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive
Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 5-14. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
8 Parra Saiani and Di Stefano
Tab. 2 – Last year, there were times when you didn’t have money to buy or pay:
Often, Don’t No
Never Total (n)
sometimes know answer
Appropriate clothes 58,6 38,0 0,7 2,7 100,0 (150)
Expenses incurred for visits,
57,3 42,0 0,7 0,0 100,0 (150)
specialist exams, etc.
Transport costs (train, bus, fuel, etc.) 56,4 43,6 0,0 0,0 100,0 (149)
School fees, taxes, etc. 44,5 54,2 1,2 0,0 100,0 (83)
The necessary food 33,3 66,7 0,0 0,0 100,0 (150)
Debts (except the mortgages) 24,4 75,5 0,0 0,0 100,0 (139)
Expenses for electricity, gas,
13,3 40,0 0,0 0,0 100,0 (150)
telephone, etc.
Rent or mortgage of your family’s
9,1 81,8 9,1 0,0 100,0 (11)
house
Source: Parra Saiani & Perino (2009, p. 68).
Despite everything, 92% of the sample defined their family as neither rich nor poor,
62% considered their economic conditions adequate, and 43.3% were satisfied with the
quality of life on average (Parra Saiani & Perino, 2009, p. 69, Tabs. 39 and 40, Fig. 7).
The result is in line with many other results, among which we can mention those of
Bradburn (1969). At the request of his act-balance scale, the interviewee lists the negative
and positive events of his recent existence, to come to the identification of two states:
positive affect and negative affect. The result is then compared to the general opinions
expressed by the interviewee about his well-being: in most cases there is no relevant
relationship between the structural conditions and the opinions expressed, which would
confirm Bradburn’s assumption of departure, and that is the well-being concept of each
individual is not related to his material conditions of life5. As stated by (Erikson, 1993, p.
77), “people’s own assessment of their degree of satisfaction […] is partly determined by
their level of aspiration”.
“The battered slave, the broken unemployed, the hopeless destitute, the tamed
housewife, may have the courage to desire little, but the fulfilment of those disciplined
desires is not a sign of great success and cannot be treated in the same way as the
fulfilment of the confident and demanding desires of the better placed” (Sen, 1987, p.
11).
These elements would argue in favour of those who say that individual levels of life
satisfaction are only weakly connected to changes in structural conditions, and that
personality and genetic factors are more important than social circumstances in
influencing individual well-being (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996). Should all this make
research based on individual indicators useless because the opinions of the subjects do
not coincide with the “objective” situation? Certainly not: this type of investigation was
born precisely to highlight any differences; instead, one must ask oneself what the causes
of the gap are: precisely this type of analysis will provide useful information (Allardt,
1993, p. 93).
5
On this point, see Graziosi (1979, p. 91) and Di Franco (1989, p. 73).
The definition of the situation 9
The divergence between objective conditions and individual perceptions has been
systematised in the sociological debate by The American Soldier research. There, we find
the elaboration of the concept of ‘relative deprivation’, used “to help account for feelings
of dissatisfaction, particularly in cases where the objective situation would at first glance
not seem likely to provoke such feelings” (Merton, 1949, p. 235). And yet, “it is not
enough to mention these ‘definitions of the situation’; it is necessary to account for them”
(Merton, 1949, p. 237). The initial aspirations and conditions influence judgment: those
who have lived in poor conditions for a long time could be satisfied following even a
slight improvement, as well as a person accustomed to high living standards, he may be
unsatisfied following a small deterioration.
Stouffer and his collaborators recognized the affinity of the concept of relative
deprivation with other sociological concepts, such as “the social frame of reference,
expectation models or definitions of the situation” (Stouffer, Suchman, DeVinney, Star,
& Williams Jr., 1949, p. 125). Cantril also stressed the role of experience and socio-
cultural contexts in the formation of expectations:
“There are wide variations in the total volume and range of the hopes and fears people
in different countries express both for themselves and for their nations and, of course,
great differences in the range of hopes mentioned by educated people and people living
in cities as compared with the range of hopes of less educated people and those in rural
areas. It is clear that people must learn what to want the way they learn anything else;
they must learn the range and quality of experience that should be theirs if things are to
be different. Among the people of India, for example, less than 10 per cent are worried
about their health while in health-conscious America and West Germany this figure
rises to 40 per cent” (Cantril, 1967, p. 146; italics mine).
Campbell and Converse also wanted to understand how social conditions are
perceived and evaluated:
Recent studies confirm that the relative position in income distribution or in a peer
group is more important than the absolute level of income (Clark & Oswald, 1996; Ferrer-
i-Carbonell, 2005; Luttmer, 2005; and also see Runciman, 1966). But all these don’t speak
against the necessity of studying individual assessment of their situation; we can only say
that when we are talking about individual needs and development, we need to
contextualize them: which needs? Whose development?
P. Parra Saiani and L. Di Stefano (2020). The definition of the situation. What kind of development, for whom?. In P.
Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive
Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 5-14. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
10 Parra Saiani and Di Stefano
“first, ‘need’ is used to refer to a particular category of goals which in common parlance
are believed to apply to all people. These are often referred to as human needs, or basic
needs. Examples would be ‘this person needs more protein’ or ‘this child needs more
physical contact’. Such needs are commonly contrasted with ‘wants’ which are goals
or desires derived from an individual’s preferences or her/his social and cultural
environment. The contrast between need as goal and want as goal is often recognized
in everyday discourse as in, for example, ‘I want a cigarette but I really need to stop
smoking’. Secondly, ‘need’ can refer to strategies which are believed to provide
successful routes for the achievement of any goal – whether these goals are regarded
as needs or wants in the first sense. Examples of this usage would be ‘This person needs
to see a doctor’ or ‘I need a new hi-fi’ or even ‘This car needs a new brake system’ and
‘Britain needs to spend more on defence’” (Doyal & Gough, 1984, p. 11).
Needs and wants avoid serious harm. Every human being wants to satisfy his or her
needs, which are the same for all (such as shelter, clothes or food), “because those are the
intermediate goals which are necessary to achieve the general one” (Doyal & Gough,
1984, p. 12). Instead, “when goals are described as ‘wants’, it is precisely because they
are not regarded as universalisable in the way we have just described. That is to say, they
are not linked directly to the achievement or maintenance of some aspect of the human
condition which is accepted as normal and necessary for everyone. Of course, the human
capacity to conceptualise goals in unlimited ways means that the range of what are seen
as ‘wants’ far exceeds that of ‘needs’. Wants in this sense fall into two categories: those
which are satisfiers of accepted needs and those which are not” (Ibidem).
The authors divide basic human needs into two categories: physical and mental health
and personal autonomy (this one does not presuppose an individualistic conception) and
“a wide range of concepts concerning the evaluation of the human condition seems
inextricably linked to the view that universal and objective human needs do exist. For
example, it is difficult to see how political movements which espouse the improvement
of human welfare can fail to endorse the following related beliefs:
1. Humans can be seriously harmed by alterable social circumstances, which
can give rise to profound suffering.
2. Social justice exists in inverse proportion to serious harm and suffering.
3. When social change designed to minimise serious harm is accomplished in
a sustained way then social progress can be said to have occurred.
4. When the minimisation of serious harm is not achieved then the resulting
social circumstances are in conflict with the objective interests of those
harmed” (Doyal & Gough, 1991, p. 2).
To explain the objectivity of needs, they say that “of course it is possible that wants
and needs can coincide. There are wants which are satisfiers of generally accepted needs
and others which are not. So you can need what you want, and want or not want what you
need. What you cannot consistently do is not need what is required in order to avoid
The definition of the situation 11
serious harm – whatever you may want” (Doyal & Gough, 1991, p. 42). Doyal and Gough
underline the objectivity of needs in relation to the objective world states.
The human needs theory is necessary “to resurrect an acceptable vision of social
progress and to provide a credible alternative to the neo-liberalism and political
conservativism which have caused serious harm to so many within the capitalist world”
(Doyal & Gough, 1991, p. 3). Human needs indicate “what persons must achieve if they
are to avoid sustained and serious harm in these terms” (Doyal & Gough, 1991, p. 50).
They study individual and societal needs, because both must depend on each other to
be satisfied. Every human being who live in society cannot be considered only in his or
her singularity, but in relation to others, taking into consideration social groups and their
needs. “Thus far in our consideration of individual needs, we have simply assumed that
it was possible for health and autonomy through education to be achieved. However, since
learning is a social process, it necessarily involves individuals interacting in social groups.
This means that certain pre-requisites must be met for any such groups or for society as a
whole to function with any degree of long-term success. Individuals therefore have basic
societal needs – those social preconditions for the achievement of the individual needs
we have just described” (Doyal & Gough, 1984, p. 18). For this reason, in their article
they “reject individualist conceptions of human need which abstract people from their
social and historical location and impose upon them a static conception of ‘human
essence’. At the same time, [they] attack functionalist accounts which reify arbitrary
moments of history and result in relativistic conceptions of need” (Doyal & Gough, 1984,
p. 10).
The debate between absolutists and relativists continues with Johan Galtung’s Basic
Needs Approach. Differently from Doyal and Gough, Galtung speaks about the
importance of satisfying individual needs to reach human development, because
“development is development of human beings, because ‘human beings are the measure
of all things’” (Galtung, 1978, p. 2). Therefore, “development, then would be seen as a
process progressively satisfying basic human needs” (Galtung, 1978, p. 4).
Need has to be distinguished from a desire, a request and a wish. Human needs are
rooted in individuals. It is well known that individuals always want or desire something
that is not strictly necessary, that is not a need, but that is understood as a need; but
“necessary for what? For the person to be a human person, and this is, of course, where
the difficulties start” (Galtung, 1978, p. 5). Johan Galtung exalts subjectivity, human
being as a unique individual. Nevertheless, he affirms the existence of “universal” needs,
which are not the same for everyone, but he found four typical classes of needs: the needs
for security, well-being, identity and freedom.
The expression basic human needs for Galtung is very important. The subject of need
is the individual, the human. “The term ‘need’ will only be used with reference to need-
subjects, and the only subjects we know of in human affairs are individual human beings”
(Galtung, 1978, p. 7). Moreover, “need-subject is an individual, but that does not mean
that the satisfier, the ‘things’ necessary in order to meet or satisfy the needs, are in the
individual or can be met by the individual alone, without a social context” (Ibidem).
Instead, the basic term “serves to qualify further the notion of a need as a necessary
condition, as something that has to be satisfied at least to some extent in order for the
need-subject to function as a human being” (Ibidem). He stresses the importance of
subjectivity. The BNA serves to determine priorities, focusing on what is essential and
basic, emphasizing the individual, which is the basis of the present and future history.
Galtung supports the importance of human needs, because they define what may be a
P. Parra Saiani and L. Di Stefano (2020). The definition of the situation. What kind of development, for whom?. In P.
Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive
Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 5-14. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
12 Parra Saiani and Di Stefano
4. Final remarks
Our aim is to propose a starting point for the study of human development in relation
to human needs, which leads to an improvement of people’s conditions and of places
where they live. “The well-being of a person can be seen as an evaluation of the
functionings achieved by that person” (Sen, 1988, p. 15). Functionings are what people
may decide to be or do for the achievement of their well-being. The most important
functioning in assessing the nature of development is freedom of choice (Sen, 1988, p.
17). People are active agents of their own change because they decide which opportunities
can choose (Sen, 1985).
Development should not be understood only in economic terms but related to human
progress and living conditions, which will be fulfilled on the basis of freedom, choice of
action, and material and immaterial well-being. “The individuals’ (or groups’) capacity
to make effective choices and transform these choices into desired actions and outcome
is identified as ‘empowerment’ […]. This definition is consistent with the perspective
offered by the capability approach, according to which individual agency enables
individuals to be empowered by the realization of their own life plans” (von Jacobi &
Chiappero-Martinetti, 2017, p. 3).
Luciano Gallino’s admonition is still valid, when he wrote that “homogeneity of
needs, which presupposes a natural and permanent identity of interests in the social body,
together with the suppression of any form of stratification, appears to be a fiction of the
totalitarian imagination” (1978, p. 78). As we have seen, it is the joint consideration of
actors’ internal processes, social interactions, and structural conditions that can provide
elements of understanding. The various models of development often promote it as a
process, a growth rather than a condition. The analysis of human needs at the local level
is a starting point to define an imminent change. The satisfaction of human needs has to
start from people in order to understand which problems exist and where they are. Needs
are desires, problems, objectives, attempts to change, which will lead to development.
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The relational mind 15
S. Magari and P.A. Cavaleri (2020). The Relational Mind and environments that foster human development. In P. Parra
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16 Magari and Cavaleri
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The ability to recognize another person is strongly linked to the experience of having
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contributions coming from the neurosciences and from theories of infant social
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Immediate action is needed, therefore, to strengthen the primary relational
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the younger generations. Concretely, this entails supporting family life and assisting
parents in their role as educators, as well as promoting respect for nature and teaching
prosocial skills in schools. Young people need to be encouraged to find ways to serve
society and the bonds of community life need to be fortified to promote social cohesion
and solidarity. It is also necessary to advance civil economy placing the human person at
the center of any manufacturing enterprise. In order to be effective and incisive, these
pursuits need to take place in dialogue among the different generations and among various
disciplines.
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The normalisation of exclusion 19
1. Foreword
According to Dahrendorf (1989) the current one is the last phase of globalisation:
things have become more difficult, problems have become more serious. Since
globalisation is, first and foremost, an economic phenomenon, and the pace of economic
growth has slowed down considerably, more difficult conditions have arisen for workers
(unemployment, precariousness, insecurity) and along with such difficulties, the diffusion
of well-being has disappeared (Saraceno, 2015). This trend has generated an
unprecedented distance, first of all economic and then social and cultural among social
groups: namely, it created social inequality. Since speaking about inequality means
speaking about exclusion, as A. Sen pointed out, the distance between society and
marginalised people increased. On the topic of exclusion sociology has settled, over time,
theoretical reflections and empirical evidences on the causal determinants of the
phenomenon, on the systems of relationships within which social actors are involved and
that, in turn, structure and define (La Rosa & Kieselbach 1999, Lodigiani 2008, Caritas
& Fondazione Zancan 2002, Quaranta & Quinti 2005, Pellegrino et al. 2011, Forgacs
2015). In recognising that the use of generalisations provided by theories could divert the
reflections, we reiterate the need to relate theories to the distinctive diversity of the
1
The paradigm of social inclusion was born in France around the 1970s, when people perceived that social
exclusion is a process characterised “by the breakdown of social and symbolic ties that should anchor
individuals to society”. The main source of concern was not the negative consequence that exclusion could
exert on individuals, but rather the effects of the loosening of the bond between the individual and society
and the consequent depletion of the cultural and moral foundations, with which the national community
was identified.
As well as Bill Clinton, even the British reformist left led by Tony Blair adopted a moralistic vision of the
problems that lead to social exclusion. The characteristic of this conception of social inclusion consists in
the attempt to combine the two different visions and strategies to fight social inequalities.
On the one hand, the role of structural components (economy, characteristics of the labour market, social
and educational policies, etc.) in the transmission of social exclusion emerges. On the other hand, it comes
out that the problems of the weaker part of society have an individual root and should be corrected through
a path of moral regeneration, which is based, mainly, on work. Nevertheless, this vision requires an
evaluation of the extent to which the educational and training processes operate in the absence of moral
prejudices and in compliance with those goals of human formation with which the educational programmes
and pedagogy dealt. What are the channels through which the individual’s “generation” or moral
“regeneration” should pass? Are these channels free of instruments of control of the individual? Is the
individual free to construct-seek, through relational experience and cognitive free experience, a morality,
or is the latter presupposed, established a priori by the productive and social system?
A. Mongelli (2020). The normalisation of exclusion. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development
for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 19-28. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-
6.
20 Mongelli
multiple territorial realities: what is valid and right for a context, can be less
commensurate with another. The aim of this paper is not to establish who is the “most
excluded” among the excluded, as the causes of this phenomenon have already been
explored, but rather to reflect on the on-going restructuring of the phenomenon. In a first
approximation, exclusion represents an unfavourable condition that generates forms of
discrimination, though these traits have been redefined in terms of emergence, complexity
and multidimensionality. In the classical sense, the excluded is the poor, the one who
lives outside the labour market and experiences spatial and social segregation. With post-
modernity, the forms of exclusion multiplied and alongside traditional poverty, caused by
minimal material conditions of survival (economic = income, work, health), new forms
of poverty that cannot be immediately characterised in a materialistic sense have been
identified. We are no longer poor just because we do not own something, but also because
we are socially excluded (Mongelli 1994): these are the so-called new forms of poverty,
that refer to the lack or poor quality of interpersonal relationships, the decline or absence
of channels of social participation, the disappearance of the sense of belonging and the
crisis of identification models (individual and collective).
The impoverishment of relational systems/networks weakened personal biographies,
which have been depleted of resources and a drive for participation. There has been,
consequently, an inability to participate in a common project, a feeling of exclusion from
a common history, shared uses and customs and the loss of one’s rights to have a social
life. A further contribution to the redefinition of the terms of exclusion was provided by
A. Ardigò (1984, 17) with the identification of other areas of exclusion belonging to the
so-called “post-materialistic poverty”, which identify the needs of self-fulfilment,
autonomy, search for expressiveness more than material standards of life2. The main
characteristic of the new poverty is its difficulty to be quantified in concrete/economic
terms (Mongelli 1994, 47; 2004): this is the reason why we still refer to poverty in
material/economic terms (Pellegrino et al. 2011), as they are technically measurable and
can be subject to radical complaints, being quantifiable. In this transformation process,
by the turn of the millennium, the advent of informationalism generated new forms of
inequality (Castells, 2003, 75) bringing out a further partiality of the characters of
exclusion so far detected. This means that, beyond the economic and social participation
deficiencies –as traditionally understood- and the weakening of cooperation, we should
also consider deficiencies related to the access -the digital divide- and fruition to the
information, whose retroactive negative effects involve both the individual and the social
levels (Mongelli, 2016). Dahrendorf (1994)3 captures the complexity of this phenomenon
by pointing out that exclusion is economically harmful, socially corrosive and politically
explosive and that the fundamental issue of our times is not justice, in the traditional sense
of redistribution, but inclusion. We need a detailed programme for the re-inclusion of
people who have been temporarily or permanently excluded: this goal is as necessary as
possible.
2
The quality of material life is just a secondary objective.
3
Those who remain outside the labour market, the participation and the community of citizens (the
excluded) “usually threaten the moral fabric of our societies”, states Dahrendorf (1994).
The normalisation of exclusion 21
A. Mongelli (2020). The normalisation of exclusion. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development
for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 19-28. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-
6.
22 Mongelli
question of not being able to find a job because of the crisis in the labour market, but also
to build up knowledge and skills for a future job. The impression that one gets is that
these young people experience a sort of “addiction to the context”, live in a condition of
expectation, without a family that helps them growing, developing a sense of
responsibility and improving self-esteem. In the current context being a NEET becomes
the outcome of a process of devaluation of the school system of which the family seems
to be the primary responsible, being unable to transmit the value of education to its
children. A family stuck in an attitude of de-responsibility with respect to its role can be
a source of deep insecurity. A poor family and social network makes the situation even
more complex, leading to a greater risk of marginalisation: therefore, emotional distress
and depression, whose corrosive effect inhibit the ability to react, are added to the material
deprivation and lack of prospects. These are the situations in which the risk of social
exclusion and isolation take root (Rosina 2015); these dangerous circumstances are
difficult to recognise as they are covered by the veil of normality of everyday life. The
NEETs, disappointed by educational failures and unrewarding work experiences, develop
a mistrust towards institutions and lose their sense of social belonging, a phenomenon
that is softened by the family cage that hides and protects them. With his reflections,
Bauman offers a further key to understand the behaviour of young people: he argues that
we are facing a self-marginalisation, determined by the fact that young people are
becoming aware of the impossibility of pursuing their desires, and that such desires are
induced by capitalism and consumerism. The sociologist, recalling the thought of H. A.
Giroud, refers to young people as the waste bin of the consumer industry: “being
considered more and more as a social burden, young people were no longer included in
the promise of a better future. Instead, they are considered part of a disposable population
whose presence threatens to recall collective memories of adult responsibility”4. The self-
marginalisation of these young people does not seem to constitute a serious danger for
society and for politics, which underestimates the consequences in terms of social and
economic costs, despite the recommendation of the European Community to keep this
phenomenon into consideration.
A. Mongelli (2020). The normalisation of exclusion. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development
for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 19-28. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-
6.
24 Mongelli
climate change, the effects of which, however, heavily penalise the poorest workers living
in the French suburbs (the banlieus), such as truck drivers, young people etc., namely
people who share a working and existential precariousness. The protagonists of this
movement are excluded people belonging to the impoverished popular classes, which are
subjected to economic and social policies that have been implemented by the various
French governments over last years, which have eroded the purchasing power against
which they protest. According to E. Plenel, a distinctive element of this movement is the
reassertion of the idea that the history of emancipation, freedom and rights is going further
thanks to the losers. A story that keeps on being renewed thanks to those who, in some
way, bear the baton for the future. History taught how, from the time of Spartacus to our
days, the losers are those who fight for freedoms and rights, those who come from below
and who, thanks to their claims, allow society to transform5. S. Halimi (2019) analyses
the dynamics of the demonstration by writing: in less than a month, the anger aroused by
a fuel tax has led to a general diagnosis, both social and democratic; movements that
gather together unorganised categories favour their rapid politicisation. In addition,
people find themselves deprived of their future and become spokespeople of diametrically
opposed claims with respect to the economic/social policies that destroyed their
previously recognised social rights in the name of the free market. On the other hand,
Edwy Plenel carries out an analysis of this movement in his book “The revolt of the
yellow vests”, where he claims that the danger lies in trivialisation, in the simplification
of a very complex reality. He argues that this is a pure event, with new, creative and
uncontrollable characteristics, as the movement -like any spontaneous rising of people-
goes further than the established organisations and upsets the incumbent rulers.
According to his analysis, the movement, as in every collective social struggle, transforms
itself daily into a political creation that has no structured agenda and where self-
organisation is the only measure to play the game. He concludes his reflections by
pointing out that it is worth making an effort to understand the irruption on the public
scene of the “invisible” people, who claim their right to be visible and live with dignity.
The yellow vests, still active, with their formidable wave of demonstrations and the way
they gathered together schools, public sector, transports and universities gave visibility to
the fact that everyone is exposed to the contagion of the normalisation of exclusion,
produced by the accumulation of an unfulfilled demand for fiscal justice and not only, a
phenomenon that cuts across pensioners, workers and poor people, putting equality back
on the socio-political agenda.6 It is an interesting phenomenon also because it focuses on
the process of the contemporary dispersion, which is a prerogative of the social suburbs,
a dynamic that begins with a promise of liberation from the ties of work (employment
change over the course of life), family (separations, that are the new forms of conjugality),
community (virtual communities), etc. and ends up transforming the dispersion into
exclusion.
5
The yellow vests managed to affect the French public political agenda, something that traditional parties,
associations and trade unions had failed to do: a need for equality in the face of injustice (taxes but also
distribution of wealth) and also to obtain measures that were contrary to the objectives of Macron.
6
It is interesting that, at least so far, the protest of the “gilet jaunes” is closed in its culture, focusing only
on the issue of the cost of living.
The normalisation of exclusion 25
A. Mongelli (2020). The normalisation of exclusion. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development
for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 19-28. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-
6.
26 Mongelli
In addition to the change in the function of knowledge, its effective distribution is also
changing among those who have intellectual autonomy and those who have not developed
it, a topic that refers to the chances available both for its acquisition and for its concrete
exercise. Therefore, equality is not only realised in the access to information, but also in
the development of meta-skills (see learning to learn), which are functional for the
acquisition and re-elaboration of knowledge and, therefore, for the freedom of the social
actor from the conditioning of technological information.
Knowledge, which has become the backbone of societal structures, is no longer mere
knowledge, but reflective knowledge (second level), the one that Morin calls “knowledge
of knowledge”. This redefines the status of knowledge that turns into an open process of
discovery or rediscovery of data and information, or even goods, whose effect
(commodification) has been reported, in particular, by the supporters of degeneration (see
Latouche 2011; Latouche and Pepino, 2013), who identify a possible way out of this drift
in the construction of social actors endowed with reflexive action and self-interpreting
abilities, that is to say competences to control, filter and interpret rationally electronic
communications7. These are transformations that require a review of the conditions that
allow the acquisition of knowledge, the clarification of the constraints and opportunities
underlying the organisation of learning skills, as well as learning to learn (Bauman, 2004
Morin 2001, 2012), a critical review of knowledge and the conditions that allow its
acquisition, contextualised through observation of the constraints and opportunities
offered by the social context. This knowledge is to be understood as knowing-how-to-
live or living-knowledge, a knowledge that accompanies life: it is referred both to a space
and to boundaries of relationships and qualities of the same ones; to a space for
transforming relationships and emergence of ways of being; to a space where individual
(personal) and collective (community) subjectiveness processes are reunited.
The reference is to a knowledge that enables to move within a complex context that
requires solid inter-relational methods, which already characterised the previous
structures, whose stability was put into fluctuation by the immediate and spontaneous
interactions, typical of fluid relational pragmatics. Therefore, the current one is a process
that takes information as a common good, (see Levy 1994, Negroponte 2004), which
makes viable the participation of an ever increasing number of actors in the social
construction of reality. Nevertheless, in the face of such positivity, the loss of the
knowledge unit, the disjunction between knowledge as science and knowledge as culture,
the approximation of information in the network, the obsessiveness and the poverty of
digital content, to which to impute the birth of a new incivility, are the perverse effects
generated by the information-technology interconnection.
In this scenario, cognitive autonomy8 represents the essence of a knowledge that
unfolds the ability of the individual to control, filter and interpret through reasoning the
communications he/she receives from the outside world, which grants individual
freedom. This is not to be confused with a purely instrumental exercise of reasoning, but
it is rather its unfolding that allows us to emancipate ourselves by overcoming the state
7
Information is whatever circulates online: information and misinformation, either true or false. This means
that the network vaporises the notion of information and solves it in a communication that is merely a
“contact” (Sartori, 1999, 67).
8
It presents numerous forms: we already know that with primary socialisation we wear lenses that guide
us and condition us in our relationships with reality, as our knowledge is always mediated, both relational
and emotional; therefore, we are well-aware that our judgment autonomy and our interaction with reality
must pass through our physicality and through the cultural paradigms that preceded us.
The normalisation of exclusion 27
of cognitive impotence, in order to be able to use our own intelligence without having to
resort to the guidance of others to choose how to act and above all how to do it with
conviction and awareness. Cognitive autonomy is representative of a mind which is able
to judge independently what is good and what is evil in the era of the triumph of
technology, the hegemony of electronic media and the contemporary loosening of organic
bonds, typical of twentieth-century society and its institutions.
Since the protection of civil rights belongs now to the physiological normality of the
rule of law, an effective claim to rights, which is not limited to the pure electoral ritual or
to those social rights that guarantee the effective fulfilment of the expectations of justice
and equality, must be continuously claimed through an active participation and informed
choices of the citizen in both political and cultural life within the communities. In
conclusion, in the information society, saturated with complexity, characterised by the
continuous production of information and new knowledge, in which citizens are
continuously connected to each other and with the rest of the world, the legal guarantee
of the rights to freedom and political rights could be useless if it does not include
functional cognitive autonomy, in order to develop a new reflexivity on the contents of
communication and the media, which convey such contents, to form an independent
opinion with respect to the processes of self-legitimisation of the elites (economic and
political). In conclusion, if it is true that “men are suddenly nomadic gatherers of
knowledge, nomadic as never before, informed as never before, but also involved the total
social process as never before; since with electricity we extend our central nervous system
globally, instantly interrelating every human experience” (McLuhan 1992, 382), this
population of electric/electronic gatherers needs new capacities to construct a knowledge
that acquired the status of a new human right, and cognitive autonomy is both crucial and
functional for this new condition.
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A. Mongelli (2020). The normalisation of exclusion. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development
for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 19-28. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-
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28 Mongelli
Giovanni VECCHIO
1. Introduction: marginal mobility needs and the potential for cooperative answers
Everyday urban mobility practices, intended as the way in which each person shapes
and appropriates mobility according to his or her personal characteristics and aims, are
relevant to understand how people differently move in a territory and access its
opportunities. Depending on his or her features, each person has a different capacity to
move, and uses it to reach different places. This possibility to move is fundamental to
overcome spatial friction, access important destinations and participate in different kinds
of activities (Kaufmann, Bergmann, & Joye, 2004; Larsen, Axhausen, & Urry, 2006;
Urry, 2007). Mobility is thus an enabling activity, that contributes to one’s overall
opportunities (Pucci & Vecchio, 2019). Within this framework, mobility practices are
important as a tool for knowing and addressing mobility needs. On the one hand, practices
show how each person moves in different ways to achieve different aims, allowing more
precise descriptions if compared with the traditional tools of transport engineering. On
the other hand, practices show how people make use of existing services in unforeseen
ways and create innovative solutions that reflect individual mobility needs and mobilize
unprecedented resources, providing thus significant inputs for mobility policy (Pucci,
2016).
Using mobility practices for policy aims can be even more relevant in informal
settings, whose unplanned nature hinders public interventions on spaces and
infrastructures. Informal settlements are often the result of intense urbanisation processes,
such as those that have affected Latin America in the second half of the XXth century
(López-Morales, Shin, & Lees, 2016). The migratory flows headed to the city fostered
the growth of spontaneous settlements, which could offer affordable housing, easy access
to basic provisions and proximity to some job occasions (Torres Tovar, 2009). At the
same time, these unplanned neighbourhoods are often illegal or semi-legal, and are
located in marginal or impervious zones where the State is often absent. Their condition
allows to satisfy basic needs such as housing and basic provisions but does not permit the
public interventions that guarantee equally basic services such as electricity, water or
transport. Consequently, the areas that respond to the basic needs of a relevant share of
1
The paper draws on and expands Vecchio (2018a).
G. Vecchio (2020). Cooperation and mobility policy in marginal settlements: an exploration in Bogotá. In P. Parra
Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society.
Rome: Social-One; pp. 29-40. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
30 Vecchio
the urban population also generate needs that are more difficult to address, in comparison
with the formal areas of the city.
In marginal settlements it is difficult to address mobility needs in traditional ways
and the specific features of these suggest exploring alternative forms of intervention, such
as those that may originate from existing mobility practices. Therefore, the paper intends
to explore if and how existing mobility practices can suggest policy solutions that,
drawing on community cooperation, can improve the access to urban opportunities.
Practices in fact may highlight similar mobility and accessibility needs, in terms of the
places people reach, the activities they perform and the resources they mobilise to do so.
Drawing on this, it may be possible to promote new services and behaviours based on
resources that individuals share between themselves, especially in settings such as
informal settlements. In fact, individuals may share material and immaterial assets (such
as vehicles or money, but also individual skills, free time slots) and put them at disposal
of the local community they belong to, facilitating unprecedented forms of mobility that
may facilitate the access to relevant placed and opportunities. Considering possible policy
measures based on cooperation, in the paper I consider two suitable operational avenues,
to be further explored: the coproduction of mobility services, which may address the lack
of required connections, and demand matchmaking, to coordinate similar mobility needs.
Coproduction refers to “the process through which inputs used to produce a good or
service are contributed by individuals who are not ‘in’ the same organization” (Ostrom,
1996, p. 1073). In settings characterised by the absence of needed services and scarce
available resources to provide them, alternative forms of provision could be significant.
Coproduction provides an examples in this sense, since its central idea “is that people
who use services are hidden resources, not drains on the system, and that no service that
ignores this resource can be efficient” (Boyle & Harris, 2009, p. 11). The value provided
by individuals consists of the manifold resources they may share for coproducing
services, from monetary resources to the human resources necessary for running a service.
The involvement of people better conveys individual needs and includes the eventual
resources, both material and immaterial, available to them. In this way, equivalent
services—i.e., services that meet the same goals, but in a more efficient way (Diamond
& Shove, 2015)—can be provided with alternative production processes. While these
initiatives can be useful to overcome those limitations that may impede the traditional
provision of services (Kudo, 2016), these initiatives are not devoid of the risk that
communities living in informal settlements should create for themselves those services
that the State already provides to other citizens (Amin, 2013; Bovaird, 2007).
Matchmaking refers to the possibility of facilitating that two or more categories of
customers find each other and engage in mutually beneficial interactions (Evans &
Schmalensee, 2016). In relation to mobility, these matches could be favoured considering
similar mobility profiles, depending on modal choices, reached places and valued
activities (Vecchio & Tricarico, 2018). Matchmaking examples may include private
ridesharing circuits, involving neighbours or colleagues heading to nearby destinations.
Another example is that of time banks, definable as time-based exchange systems
between individuals accomplishing tasks on behalf of someone else. However, also
behavioural approaches are subject to criticism. First, behaviour-based approaches must
deal with established habits, which make difficult to promote alternative choices
(Hirschman, 1984; te Brömmelstroet, 2014). Second, a behavioural perspective may
simply consider citizens as passive users or consumers, who simply maximise their utility,
ignoring thus their self-realization as human beings (Berndt & Boeckler, 2016). This is
Cooperation and mobility policy in marginal settlements 31
especially critical in the case of urban South contexts, where behavioural approaches may
lead to assume that “it is the behavioural weakness of the poor that has to be corrected”
(Berndt, 2015, p. 580).
G. Vecchio (2020). Cooperation and mobility policy in marginal settlements: an exploration in Bogotá. In P. Parra
Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society.
Rome: Social-One; pp. 29-40. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
32 Vecchio
features of mobility in these areas. The interviews focused on three elements: 1. subjects
(considering their social, economic, gender and age features); 2. valued activities
(classified them according to activity typology and frequency) and places (where
activities occur); and 3. mobility practices (what are the modal options, services, travel
times, costs and experiences that are necessary to reach places). The answers were
transcribed and mapped.
In the chosen areas, interviewees highlight many opportunities significant for them
and their beloved ones. Apart from jobs, these mainly include activities necessary for the
fulfilment of everyday needs, such as shopping and relational activities. Other relevant
typologies are instead differentiated according to the neighbourhood, with a prevalence
of education-related activities in La Merced and care-related activities in La Torre. Most
respondents move by public transport, despite highlighting the scarce quality of the
available services. A good explanation is provided by one respondent, who mentions that
“the public transport is the only alternative. The only skill you need is to plan the travel
in advance, so that you can reach the hospital on time for your appointment” (D., La
Torre). Only few respondents cannot afford to pay the bus fare or, on the contrary, they
could move by using private vehicles. Instead, the resulting geography of accessible areas
and available opportunities is quite different (see Figure 2): while people in La Merced
del Sur were able to reach a few surrounding neighbourhoods and even some central
areas, the inhabitants of La Torre mainly remained confined to a portion of southern
Bogotá.
as stated by one of them, “I can reach all the places I need for me and my family” (M.,
La Torre). They also recognize overall mobility issues, as in the case of V. (La Merced
del Sur) who states: “For me it is quite difficult [to move], because I only walk to the
places I need; often there is no transport, or it is too expensive for me and my children”.
In particular, some common features emerge. First, a recurrence of needs, places and
mobility practices emerge: many subjects need to accomplish similar tasks with similar
frequencies, but they do so individually, even if the places to reach and the activities to
realize are often the same for different people. Such recurrence is particularly visible at
the local scale, where local polarities emerge in relation to basic needs such as shopping,
care and relational activities (for example, schools attended by children or health care
facilities needed by elderlies). Second, public transport prevails but respondents also
extensively mention the low quality of the existing services: the scarcity of routes, their
low frequencies, and their limited ability to reach desired places are recurrent elements in
the interviews.
In relation to possible cooperation-based mobility measures, this short insight on the
two neighbourhoods already offers some elements of interest. The interviewees express
similar needs that they currently achieve despite the poor modal alternatives available to
them. However, to do so they must invest significant personal resources, coping with
huge efforts, monetary expenses, and temporal costs. As G. (La Merced del Sur) admits,
“I can reach most of the places I need, but if transport was better (more routes, better
travel conditions), for sure I would be able to move more and do more activities in
different places”. Given that institutions in Bogotá struggle to provide infrastructures or
services in traditional forms (Vecchio, 2017, pp. 11–12), policy measures based on
cooperation could prove a viable alternative for enhancing the accessibility available in
marginal areas.
G. Vecchio (2020). Cooperation and mobility policy in marginal settlements: an exploration in Bogotá. In P. Parra
Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society.
Rome: Social-One; pp. 29-40. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
34 Vecchio
Figure 3. A suitable matchmaking example: Functioning of a local time bank for the
La Torre neighbourhood
G. Vecchio (2020). Cooperation and mobility policy in marginal settlements: an exploration in Bogotá. In P. Parra
Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society.
Rome: Social-One; pp. 29-40. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
36 Vecchio
Nonetheless, I think that the situation will improve, especially if the TransMiCable (e.g.,
a cableway connecting to the nearest us terminal) will be built” (L., La Torre).
Furthermore, significant conditions for the development of the discussed options
must face unwelcoming local conditions. For example, subjects other than public
institutions have consistent power on the peripheral settlements and often exercise it with
violence, while public institutions still rely on the construction of new infrastructures as
their main strategy and the public transport system is suffering severe financial
restrictions. The approaches previously discussed may thus contribute to the economic
sustainability of the existing (public) transport system of Bogotá, mobilizing additional
resources to provide needed services and increasing their use by nudging individual travel
choices.
way (that is, in line with their preferences) but rather knowing that the individual
rationality is limited, due to a number of factors such as instinctive decisions, scarcity of
attention or contextual features (Kahneman, 2011). The criticism can go even beyond,
since an exclusively behavioural focus may simply consider that individual make wrong
choices. On the one hand, it is relevant to consider dimensions of political economy,
which determine the wider setting to which an individual belongs and condition the
complex interplay of individual capabilities, freedoms and agency (as for example
Amartya Sen widely investigated; see for example Sen, 1992, 1999, 2009). On the other
hand, it is crucial not to consider the individual as a ‘black box’, whose behaviour is
unknowledgeable if it escapes from utilitarian simplifications. In this sense, a crucial
contribution can come from studies that consider what motivates individual to participate
in forms of collective engagement, that are somehow close to the cooperation-based
policy measures here explored.
A possible reference in this sense is probably the concept of prosociality. Prosocial
behaviours involve those “voluntary actions undertaken to benefit others, such as sharing,
donating, caring, comforting, and helping” (Caprara, Alessandri, & Eisenberg, 2012, p.
1289). In these actions, what the individual does is to choose between satisfying his or
her own wants, or those of another person (Eisenberg, Lennon, & Roth, 1983, p. 846).
The concept of prosociality is way more elaborated than what can be realistically
discussed in this section (for a thorough review, see Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2007),
but it can be interesting to understand how individuals may realistically decide to engage
in cooperation-based initiatives such as those discussed in the previous sections.
Prosociality in fact allows to go beyond the (probably simplistic) idea that individuals
establish and participate in community initiatives mainly because these can address
certain problems more effectively than individual efforts. This is probably the case for
the informal settlements here investigated. The interviewees similarly struggle to move
in order to access unequally available urban opportunities, but the features they have in
common probably go beyond this specific necessity: they in fact similarly experience the
city from the margins, and in some cases – for example, in La Torre – they also have in
common the experience of being desplazados, refugees who left the rural regions of
Colombia due to the ongoing civil war and, arriving in the capital, were forced to settle
in informal settlements (contributing sometimes also to their construction). To understand
if these elements provide the basis for prosocial behaviours, and if these attitudes may
support community initiatives related to mobility, devoted research would be necessary.
In fact, a focus on prosociality can be significant also to understand how “to foster
innovation through collaboration” (Caprara et al., 2012, p. 1289), referring in our case to
unprecedented forms of guarantying access to urban opportunities also for marginal
communities.
Apart from a focus on prosocial behaviours, to understand how local communities
can get involved in cooperation-based initiatives it can be relevant to observe how similar
existing initiatives work. In this sense, Latin America provides some examples of
community initiatives that have dealt with local needs related with mobility. A first
example in this sense are interventions that have worked on the local infrastructure to
improve the existing equipment or provide it when missing. Some experiences refer to
the paving of untarmacked roads, in which neighbours come together to finance and
realise the work. This kind of initiative can be spontaneous, as examples from Colombia
show (Hernández García, 2013), or even parts of policy programs, as in Chile: here,
citizens can arrange local committees that, raising the need to pave a road and collecting
G. Vecchio (2020). Cooperation and mobility policy in marginal settlements: an exploration in Bogotá. In P. Parra
Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society.
Rome: Social-One; pp. 29-40. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
38 Vecchio
a small amount of money, can ask for financial and technical support from municipal and
national institutions. Other experiences, although limited in time, refer instead to the
introduction of private, self-financed forms of collective transport to reach areas that are
isolated or simply not served by the official public transport network. An example in this
sense was a short-lived experience from Argentina, where a community engaged in co-
producing its own public transport service – an experience close, but different in purpose,
to informal transport (Forni & Longo, 2007).
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¿Movilidad social? 41
1. Problematización
Desde su creación, las ciudades han atraído capitales, información, tecnología y
recursos humanos (Portes, 2001). Dentro de las ciudades, las zonas centrales suelen
concentrar atributos que resultan atractivos para la mayoría de la población. En particular
los migrantes optan por los centros (Jaramillo. 2017). En el caso de Santiago de Chile
hace aproximadamente una década la pregunta respecto a la concentración residencial en
el centro de la ciudad tenía por protagonistas peruanos y construcciones de baja altura
como cites (Márquez, 2014). El proceso de asentamiento de estos colectivos los llevo a
cites y zonas de baja densidad y baja dotación de equipamiento urbano (Casgrain, 2017).
Al comienzo del proceso migratorio, según diferentes autores, los centros suelen ser
preferidos en virtud de redes familiares y/o de amistad (Stefoni, 2005; Mora, 2008;
Canales & Zlolniski, 2001). Existe una fuerte asociación entre segregación y migración.
La relación no ha pasado inadvertida. En diferentes casos, los migrantes se han
concentrado en las ciudades. Como señala Sabatini & Brain (2008) esta concentración,
que puede alcanzar un grado suficientemente alto como para que un barrio sea
caracterizado por la nacionalidad de un grupo, ha recibido nombres diversos. Ghetto es
una de esas expresiones y refiere a una manifestación agudizada y en oportunidades
involuntaria de agregación localizada o asentamiento concentrado.
Dentro de los estudios urbanos, la Escuela Sociológica de Chicago detectó que los
migrantes se concentraban por colectividades nacionales. Se trataba de un proceso
persistente, que ocurría dentro del mercado habitacional y con la característica de ser un
fenómeno temporal (Parks, 2004).
En la actualidad, como sostiene la revisión realizada por Alegría (2010), para el caso
de América Latina la reunión residencial de los inmigrantes en proporciones destacadas
se atribuye a una pluralidad de causas. El abanico incluye desde las relacionadas con
características de la vivienda, patrones culturales y la interacción de las características
sociales y económicas y los patrones urbanísticos y socioculturales de la sociedad local o
receptora.
Si observamos la literatura, la aglomeración de los migrantes en las ciudades
latinoamericanas viene concitando creciente atención. Existen modelos explicativos tanto
para la localización residencial agregada como también atribuida a los mercados étnicos.
Uno de los supuestos que sustenta la existencia de modelos que cuentan con capacidad
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
42 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
explicativa, radica en un hecho que subraya Alegría: los inmigrantes “en el proceso de
asentarse en el espacio urbano interactúan con las estructuras locales adaptándose a ellas”
(2010, 11). La existencia de mecanismos estructuradores, capaces de secretar reglas,
obliga a una adaptación de los migrantes. Las estrategias adaptativas, las estrategias de
“inserción residencial” por ejemplo, se adaptan a esos mecanismos estructurantes.
El arriendo suele constituir una forma de habitar la ciudad que propende a la
heterogeneidad, densificación y compactación (Blanco, Fretes & Muñoz, 2017). Aunque
los tenedores no pueden cancelar la propiedad de la tierra (Toro, Link & Valenzuela,
2017), sí pueden gozar los beneficios de residir sin comprar. Escallón (2010) da cuenta
del alquiler más allá de una categoría de tenencia de la tierra, señalando que refiere a una
alternativa para ser parte del sistema habitacional en su conjunto. Esto implica que tras la
vivienda el propósito que se persigue es la inserción en una red social. En el caso de los
migrantes desarrollan estrategias para acceder a la vivienda (Casgrain, 2017), las que en
muchos casos traen consigo diversas externalidades negativas como la mala calidad de la
vivienda, falta de espacios, deterioro de los edificios, sobre precios del arriendo,
inseguridad frente a la expulsión (Casgrain, 2017). A esto se adiciona el desconocimiento
de la ciudad desde la cual las decisiones de localización responden a las estrategias de
búsqueda disponibles, las referencias que la red provee respecto a los diversos sectores
de la ciudad, el capital social y espacial que se porta.
La movilidad social del/la migrante supone el desafío de la adaptación a los nuevos
espacios habitados y sus estructuras (Kauffmann, Bergman & Joye, 2004). Y es en este
proceso de interacción con las estructuras que hace necesario entender el género como
una categoría en disputa que requiere ser cualificada para comprender el proceso de
inclusión/exclusión que resulta del asentamiento residencial de un colectivo en una zona
específica de la ciudad.
El centro como espacio limitado y en disputa es un área al que solo los mejores
pagadores pueden acceder (Contreras, Ala-Louko, & Labbé, 2015) La optimización de
este recurso escaso lleva a la tendencia de densificar las zonas. Y sí la ciudad funcionaba
bajo ciertas reglas con anterioridad a la llegada de los migrantes, ¿por qué se concentran
cuando llegan? Hay trabajos que buscan equilibrar la importancia de la estructura urbana
con la importancia de las personas (Alegría, 2010), reducidas a la condición de individuos
o elevadas a la de sujetos.
Esta tensión, lejos de resolverse, se complejiza al tomar como punto de análisis el
capital espacial que distingue dos acepciones: una que pone foco en que el capital reside
en el territorio y otra que pone foco en el sujeto como agente de dicho capital. En la
primera acepción, la aglomeración en el espacio presume ciertas características y se
entiende el capital espacial como el resultante entre la productividad local y la capacidad
del agente (Hugon, 1998; en Apaolaza y Blanco, 2015). La segunda alternativa, plantea
el capital como un resultado de los mecanismos del agente en la estructura. Mientras que
para Levy (2014) se entiende como el acervo que porta el agente que le permite optimizar
a su favor las características del entorno.
Dentro de la comuna de Santiago polo Santa Isabel, San Isidro y el eje Bulnes-
Almagro en la comuna de Santiago concentran el valor del metro cuadrado más caro de
la región (González, 2018) y es en esta área donde se concentra el colectivo Venezolano.
En el caso de las mujeres venezolanas, se advierte concentración, pero la concentración
tiene más características: ocurre en el centro, se deposita en edificios y no necesariamente
toma la forma de arrendamiento, sino que también incluye allegamiento – un tipo de
cohabitación sin pago de renta en dinero. En el caso de las mujeres que no tienen ingresos
¿Movilidad social? 43
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
44 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
está influida por el ingreso, su proceso de visado y la operación del mercado inmobiliario.
Respecto a ello Alegría (2010) señala que en el caso de América Latina el mercado
muestra una opacidad frente a la cual los costos de difusión de la oferta inmobiliaria son
muy costosos. Junto a esto el “riesgo” del no pago converge con la desconfianza, por lo
que los inquilinos prefieren sus redes al momento de ofrecer arriendo. Esta dinámica
encapsula la oferta y demanda en distintos mecanismos de comunicación de las redes.
Esto complejiza el acceso a la información para ciertos grupos que presentan diferencias
lingüísticas y de capital social, reflejado en el acceso diferenciado a redes sociales,
periódicos y/o sitios web.
Las formas en que se desarrolla el habitar influyen en el proceso de inclusión social.
En él los migrantes son un colectivo que se ha caracterizado por ser vulnerable ante los
procesos de exclusión residencial (López-Carmona & Hernández-Pedreño, 2015). Para
quién llega los agentes de socialización primaria conducen la trayectoria migratoria. Y,
por tanto, aparece el riesgo de que la red de interrelaciones entre un espacio y otro se
conviertan en un círculo vicioso del cual sea complejo salir (Echazarra, 2010).
Los y las migrantes experimentan trayectorias residenciales y estas evolucionan en
función de las condiciones de vida del migrante desde la necesidad básica de alojamiento
hasta la estabilización, asociada a la capacidad de acceder al alquiler formal, que permite
la consolidación de la trayectoria migratoria. Estas trayectorias no son lineales, influyen
las redes y el capital que portan. Y son diferenciadas entre trayectorias migratorias
individuales o familiares y la movilidad residencial que tienen.
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
46 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
48 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
motivo del proceso migratorio, toma más fuerza en el relato entre quienes tienen una
migración más reciente. Experiencias de violencia en Venezuela se ven materializadas en
la imposibilidad de libre tránsito por la ciudad. El contrapunto constituye un punto de
contraste permanente con Chile. En particular las venezolanas de la muestra con un menor
tiempo de estadía dan cuenta de experiencias personales apenas digeridas. María Paz
comienza su relato autobiográfico de una manera taxativa y victimizada “estás hablando
con alguien que viene de haber sido robada 16 veces en su país, de vivir lo que implica
que de repente empiezan a robar a todo el mundo [...] Dame ese teléfono, dame esto, dame
aquello” (María Paz, 18 días en Chile).
Junto a estas manifestaciones de violencia delincuencial se evidencian rastros de
violencia política. Luisa empleada de la empresa petrolera estatal, ingresa a Chile en
calidad de refugiado junto a todo su grupo familiar (esposo y tres hijos). La razón que ella
declara: el hostigamiento recibido por parte de sus empleadores para ser parte del partido
del oficialismo: “como yo era rebelde me obligaban a hacer las cosas y yo no las hacía,
de hecho cuando renuncié, me catalogaron como traidora a la patria” (Luisa, 10 meses en
Chile).
La violencia como motivo de la migración se entrecruza con la crisis económica en
Venezuela. En palabras de María Ángeles (12 meses en Chile):
“Las razones por las que sale el venezolano de Venezuela es por la inseguridad que
hay, porque en Venezuela hay mucha violencia y aparte de eso le sumamos la escasez,
aparte de eso le sumamos el 1000% de lo caro que está todo. Me entiendes, tú trabajas
un mes completo para comprarte un par de zapatos, si es que te alcanza para comprarte
los zapatos.”
3.4. Llegada a la ciudad: “Si vas para Chile … Te saldrán al encuentro, viajero”
Se corrobora lo señalado por Bustillos, Painemal & Albornoz (2018), quienes
plantean que la migración venezolana en Santiago responde a una crisis económica. Esto
genera un desplazamiento donde los que salen, lo hacen “con lo que te cabe en la maleta”
(Carolina, 12 meses en Chile). Junto a ese flujo existen grupos de venezolanos que han
migrado durante los últimos años y que ven en Chile una oportunidad de emprendimiento,
mejor posicionamiento social y una búsqueda de proyección económica. En palabras de
Elena: “decidimos venirnos para acá para buscar un mejor futuro pues” (5 meses en
Chile).
Antes de su llegada a Chile, trece de las entrevistadas tenían algún contacto cercano
viviendo en la RMS. Al momento de llegada al país estos contactos operan como
facilitadores del proceso de inserción laboral y habitacional y actúan como
intermediadores culturales que intervienen en el proceso de delimitación entre lo propio
y lo ajeno (Granados, 2010).
En el proceso de inserción laboral las redes sociales operan bajando las barreras de
acceso al aumentar la confiabilidad, quienes tienen trayectorias más extensas actúan como
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
50 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
avales en el proceso de búsqueda. Como señala (Mónica, 10 meses en Chile) “Está muy
difícil sobrevivir acá en Chile y en realidad el suelo mínimo que te ofrecen al llegar acá
no te sirve, es muy poco en realidad, entonces por eso, de verdad yo no quería estar en
este país. Yo corrí con la suerte de tener un amigo que fue quien me abrió las puertas,
porque como él estaba encargado del local, él ya me conocía”. Junto a estos la red de
connacionales venezolanos tiene una manifestación relevante en redes sociales donde se
intercambian servicios, referencias estratégicas para encontrar empleo y residencia.
meses en Chile), condensa todos estos elementos cuando señala: “Allá casi todos tienen
casa propia (...) Lo que es luz, agua, (...) si a ti te da la gana (...) no lo pagas y no te lo
cortan, (...) Yo no sabía lo que era pagar luz. Yo no sabía lo que era pagar arriendo”. El
contraste con Chile es absoluto. La realidad que impone el país y la ciudad, obliga a
cambios. Vivir en un lugar donde no existe la escasez, es una experiencia desafiante. Vivir
en un lugar donde el pasaje de transporte público cuesta 1 dólar, es un verdadero reto.
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
52 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
“Yo había traído un colchón inflable de Venezuela, pero yo voy a inflarlo así, pero que
fastidio, eso de darle así con la manito. Yo me lo voy a llevar con los infladores
eléctricos, pero en Venezuela la luz es en 110 y aquí es 220. Cuando yo lo conecté a la
corriente se explotó, se dañó, se quemó, me tocó dormir en el piso durante mes y medio
en el piso de ella, no tenía sábanas, nada porque ella también estaba nueva. Cuando yo
llegué ella tenía 2 semanas de residir en el depto. y es verdad que era terrible estar con
su esposo, con sus 2 niños” (María Ángeles, 12 meses en Chile).
El cambio de clima es una de las dimensiones que se enfrentan al no contar con los
recursos para enfrentar el frío. En el caso de Elizabeth pese a vivir en un edificio de
segunda renovación su experiencia con el infierno fue compleja “las ventanas estaban
malas, entonces pasamos todo el invierno, con frío. Yo no quería pasar frío” (14 meses
en Chile) esta situación se evoca desde el contraste y la nostalgia de su vida en un país
caribeño donde estas necesidades son solo parte de las distinciones que hacen percibir la
lejanía al país de origen.
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
54 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
“anoche salí, oye porque allá en Caracas las 7 de la noche es toque de queda para llegar
a cualquier sitio, es ese toque de queda fantasmal que de hecho se ha puesto la sociedad
actual para resguardarse, este, anoche terminé por este boulevard, fuimos a un
restaurante y eso y eso es, es volver hacer cosas que tenías tiempo mucho tiempo,
muchos años que no hacías, sencillamente eso, entonces quizás por eso lo sientes como
una bienvenida, yo no lo he sentido como un choque, una bienvenida.”
“le hablé de verdad con mucha sinceridad al caballero y como que le gustó y decidió
alquilarnos, confió en mí, me dijo voy a confiar en ti y en tu pareja que se ve que son
unos buenos muchachos y si me quedan mal pues ya quedará en ustedes y obviamente
primero, primero, lo primero que hacemos al cobrar es pagar el alquiler. Antes que
cualquier otra cosa” (18 meses en Chile).
la puerta a todos los países fue Venezuela, es así, yo me acuerdo que chilenos,
colombianos, peruanos, árabes, chinos, de todos los países, yo conocí cuando estaba en
el colegio, incluso mi esposo estudió con chilenos (12 meses en Chile). Este contraste
marca la experiencia vivida de transnacionalidad en la dualidad que implica el estar
permanentemente en el aquí y el allá.
Dentro de las principales dimensiones que destacan las entrevistadas de su
experiencia de residir en el centro de la ciudad es la posibilidad de experimentar
permanentemente el acceso a servicios y recreación. En palabras de María Carmen
“Vamos a la heladería, vamos al centro, nos gustan muchos de allá los paseos, paseo
Ahumada, hemos ido a la plaza de Armas, a los mall, a los parques, nos gustan mucho los
parques porque allá eso por el hecho de estar en el centro ver como vamos a parquecitos
para ellos, para tener esa distracción, estar en familia porque allá en Venezuela tú no
puedes estar tranquilo en un parque sin estar pensando en que te pueden robar o que te
pueden atracar o que tener plata para poder salir por la cuestión del transporte, entonces
aquí todo como que es muy accesible, caminamos unas cuantas cuadras y llegamos a
centros comerciales” (12 meses en Chile).
Elizabeth (14 meses en Chile) señala que “para buscar trabajo es muy bueno decir
que vives en el centro de la ciudad. Si dices que vives en Maipú, buenos va a tomar
tiempo”. La experiencia de centralidad está asociada a distritos con un amplio desarrollo
de un comercio étnico que permite sostener costumbres culturales. María Carmen (12
meses en Chile) señala respecto de su barrio “me siento céntrica, todo lo consigo, todo lo
tengo cerca”.
4. Conclusiones
Migrar supone una apuesta, un riesgo y/o una estrategia que moviliza recursos,
capacidades y capital. El impacto de estos movimientos y flujos es sistémico, e incluye
efectos en el lugar de origen y en el de destino. Cambiar de lugar es cambiar de vida y
esto supone un horizonte incierto hacia el que comienza a transitar.
Esta experiencia de movilidad humana entreteje un relato cotidiano, íntimo que se
vive de manera diferenciada a partir del lugar de la ciudad en el que se emplaza el/la
migrante. La trayectoria de inserción residencial acontece en un territorio que habilita,
conecta y facilita – o no – la inclusión social. En este sentido las voces de las entrevistadas
permiten ilustrar aquellas vivencias que construyen su proceso de asentamiento en la
ciudad como mujeres migrantes latinoamericanas en Chile.
La inserción socioespacial de las mujeres venezolanas en Santiago se desarrolla en
dos momentos. Uno preliminar a la llegada y un segundo que corresponde al proceso de
búsqueda del primer asentamiento en la ciudad.
C. M. Ramírez González (2020). ¿Movilidad social?: análisis de la experiencia de inserción residencial de mujeres
venezolanas en la comuna de Santiago, Chile. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for
All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 41-59. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
56 Catalina Marcela Ramírez González
cercanos, amigos y/o vecinos de Venezuela que han migrado previamente, quiénes son
sus referentes al momento de llegar. Este punto permite complejizar el imaginario en
torno a las personas en movilidad humana, como agentes que portan una historia y desde
ella un capital social y espacial que marca su inserción en la ciudad.
El viaje en sí mismo es una de las primeras experiencias que enfrentan. Dentro de la
muestra la mayoría de las entrevistadas llega a Chile por tierra. Lo que implica días viaje
en condiciones adversas, que desafían las redes con que cuentan y a su vez activan nuevas
conexiones entre quienes viajan juntos. Son estos trayectos, momentos de traspasos de
datos y referencias respecto al país de llegada. Diversas formas de apoyo que narran
recibir las entrevistadas desde alimentos en la frontera, hasta hospedaje en los países
previos a la llegada a Chile.
Las experiencias vividas en Venezuela vinculan a las entrevistadas con la violencia y
la falta de proyección económica. Dimensiones que influyen en lo más o menos mentada
que resulta la decisión de migrar. Las entrevistadas refieren a su situación laboral y de
vivienda en el país de origen, desde la nostalgia de haber tenido casas propias, negocios,
autos, carreras profesionales consolidadas y que se vieron interrumpidas abruptamente
por un contexto socio-económico por fuera de su voluntad. Esto a su vez marca de manera
particular el duelo con el cual refiere a su país y al deseo de retorno.
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Inside the walls, outside the city 61
1. Introduction
The scientific interest in the topic of the asylum, considered as a way to respond to
the “social control” in the Italian and European territorial reality, dates back to the studies
carried out by the first generation of sociologists, as a magnifying glass through which it
was possible to observe both the climate of reform bound to the promulgation of law 180
and the various debates coming from abroad (Foucault, Goffman, Laing, Castel). Another
view which has been less influenced by well-established interpretative categories – such
as those of the convergence between instances of social security and containment of
deviance – is the one that, between the 70s and 90s, dealt with the relations between
psychiatry and society. This approach has taken up the line of research centred on the
topic of mental illness, with reference to therapeutic practices within asylums. The
approach that inspired this research retrieved documentation from the Italian historical
archives, from which records on health conditions and administrative matters emerged:
this material allowed to overcome the mere interest in the mental hospital system, placing
instead the focus on exclusion from ordinary social places. Along with the analysis of the
phenomenon of inclusion through the study of institutions that determine the exclusion
of “deviant” individuals from the community, the focus on the structural logistics of the
building itself intends to propose a new perspective, from which to try to outline the
relationship between alienation-asylum-space. The focus on the architectural and spatial
components of the asylum was prompted by the broader reflection on the correlation
between the image of the internee – which is crystallised within the range of stereotypes
of a series of studies based on class stratifications – and the construction of meaning that
revolves around issues of political nature, in which the separation of groups into ideal and
real spaces finds its origin.
Therefore, this research tries to reconstruct and describe the condition of the internal
space, namely the one within the asylum walls, and the external space, that is the local
socio-cultural context. In doing this, we should also consider that the period examined –
the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century – coincides, from the point of
view of the evolution of internment models, with the full emergence of the organicistic
paradigm related to the birth of institutions, as well as a profound phase of economic-
productive and political-social transformation.
R. Rubino, P. Contini and F. Gentile (2020). Inside the walls, outside the city. The analytical inclusion by categories
in societies of the past. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in
Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 61-65. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
62 Rubino, Contini, and Gentile
Each of these sections was divided into cells. The hospice was equipped with gardens
where everyone could walk and lands to allow the internees to work and occupy their
days.
Fig. 1 – Francesco Cellini, Plant of the “Santa Margherita” in Perugia, 1824-1879, first
upper floor plan, scale 1: 100, tab. III, (State Archive of Perugia, Former Congregation of
Charity, Asylum of S. Margherita, b. 9)
The asylum of Bonifazio in Florence, with a regular and extended shape, developed
on a single floor in width rather than in height. In this case, people were divided by gender
by a vertical wall, built at a later time. This institute had courtyards designed for the
entertainment of the internees. Inclusion by economic categories included a
neighbourhood dedicated to the better exposed, namely to those who paid the monthly
fee. Furthermore, the first and second class of patients were divided into separate rooms.
The large number of internees (in 1854 there were 484 internees: 233 men and 251
women) in the entire asylum of Florence prevented a further division between the
“wealthy” and the “harmless” and this aspect did not facilitate peace during everyday life.
The presence of dividing walls was aimed at establishing as much order as possible. The
renowned asylum of Genoa was located at the Eastern end of the city. It was a central
construction to which other six long constructions, with as many beams, were connected.
The central building was developed on five floors, while the others were two or four
stories high. The arrangement was functional to the division of the internees by gender,
social status (the wealthy were divided by the beggars), form and progress of the disease.
In Venice there were two structures for alienated workers, which were addressed
respectively to the two genders. At the Church of St. Giovanni and Paolo, where the
provincial hospital was located, there was the female mental hospital. This building
enjoyed good exposure and perspective as it was placed by the sea. Furthermore, it was
developed on three floors, that were functional to the division of insane people by forms
of madness: on the ground floor there were melancholic, demented and epileptic women;
the upper floor was addressed to women who had just arrived, who were kept under
R. Rubino, P. Contini and F. Gentile (2020). Inside the walls, outside the city. The analytical inclusion by categories
in societies of the past. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences in
Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 61-65. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
64 Rubino, Contini, and Gentile
observation. This asylum did not have gardens for walking. The mental hospital for men
was supported by the Fate Bene Fratelli Hospitaller Order and was located on the small
island of S. Servolo. The building had a square shape: the façade overlooking Venice was
occupied by religious people, the central part by the infirmary and the opposite façade
was dedicated to insane people. This part of the overall structure constituted a rectangle
that in its extremes was formed by the ancient building. The new central part had large
spaces and three courtyards. Except for the narrowness of the space in proportion to the
number of internees (there were 334 internees in the asylum of S. Servolo when Dr.
Girolami went there), the S. Servolo asylum, both for its main conditions and for the
excellent assistance and direction, was to be considered one of the best. According to the
archival documents relating to the administration of these asylums, there was a will, that
was present in the majority of institutions, to improve the structures. As a matter of fact,
there are traces of several enlargement or reform projects that started concrete works,
often to the limits of what was feasible (towards the end of the XIX century in several
cities such as Ancona, Arezzo, Naples, Palermo, Sassari and Aquila new mental
institutions were built or projected, as there were increasing needs).
3. Conclusions
The whole XIX century was characterised by the phenomenon of the great mental
hospital internment, although traces of asylums for insane people date back to the Middle
Ages (Fusier, 1862). The asylum was conceived as a place of concentration and
imprisonment for specific categories of people who, even if not directly classifiable as
delinquents, threatened social tranquillity. The collection of data on the structures of
asylums in the past allowed us to understand how the division into categories was based
on a structural predisposition, which was conceived by the political thought of the time.
As a matter of fact, the asylums that were examined had uniformed and uniforming
features that suggest the paradox of internal division for representative groups. The
project was based on the model of an asylum-village and, in particular, a self-sufficient
and autonomous village, a sort of small independent city. This characteristic is reaffirmed
also by the choice of having a currency that could circulate exclusively within the
institution. In the reality of the Trieste asylum, for instance, a symbolic reward in
cigarettes was given to the workers/internees and, in order not to circulate money, the use
of the metal plate was introduced, which served as internal exchange currency and also
to pay the fees. The organisation of the spaces is a central theme of what has been called
“asylum technique” and the policy of enlarging the structures, like the one outlined,
contains in itself a tendency to encourage long-term care. Significant social changes,
greater decision-making power of the psychiatric body and industrialist logic in the
management of mental illness increased the size of psychiatric institutions especially
during the first part of the XX century. As a matter of fact, the expansion of the buildings
and the parallel increase in the number of patients continued until the eve of the Second
World War.
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Ser mujer en Colombia 67
1. Introducción
La desigualdad económica se define como la diferencia en variables relacionadas con
el ingreso. Aunque existen otras formas de definir la desigualdad, por ejemplo, en la de
oportunidades, el mercado laboral sigue jugando un papel determinante en su creación y
reproducción.
Adam Smith planteó en la teoría del valor del trabajo la especialización de este. Para
Smith la especialización se justificaba por el incremento en la productividad que
generaba. Pese a lo anterior, reconocía que no existen marcadas diferencias en los talentos
de las personas y que las habilidades que se desarrollan – de forma desigual – con el paso
del tiempo, más que la causa de la división y especialización del trabajo, son su
consecuencia (Smith, 1776/1995).
El trabajo comenzó a definirse entonces como: una mercancía y un medio de
intercambio, por medio del cual se comerciaban horas de trabajo de un bien por las horas
de trabajo de otro bien. Los salarios en ese sentido son la recompensa por el trabajo
invertido en la producción de una mercancía.
Desde allí comienza la explicación teórica del por qué existen desigualdades en el
mercado laboral, al ser el trabajo definido como una mercancía en donde su valor está en
función del trabajo socialmente necesario para producirle, no se incluyen otros trabajos
sociales que permiten que dicho proceso productivo tenga lugar. Por ejemplo, los trabajos
relacionados con la “economía del cuidado”. En consecuencia, el trabajo de hombres y
mujeres es valorado de forma distinta en el mercado laboral.
Ahora bien, ¿Qué es la economía del cuidado? En este documento se usa la economía
del cuidado para hacer referencia tanto a lo relacionado con el cuidado en sí mismo
(satisfacción de necesidades materiales y emocionales de personas dependientes), como
al trabajo doméstico, es decir, al trabajo de cuidados directos e indirectos (Esquivel,
2011).
Las labores relacionadas con la economía del cuidado, como se discutirá en otros
apartes, recaen en mayor medida sobre las mujeres, incluso cuando estas participan en la
producción directa de un bien o servicio. De esto se desprenden las siguientes relaciones
causales:
N. A. Marín Díaz (2020). Ser mujer en Colombia. Una aproximación a la desigualdad por género en el mercado
laboral actual y sus implicaciones en el “largo plazo”. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 67-75.
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
68 Marín Díaz
1. Las mujeres trabajan más que los hombres (en el mercado laboral y aportando en
la economía del cuidado), siendo esto último no remunerado en algunos casos y en otros,
como es el caso de las empleadas de servicio doméstico, en condiciones precarias de
trabajo y por ende, estas mujeres experimentan sobrecargas que afectan su productividad
y calidad de vida.
2. El que a las mujeres se les asocie con la economía del cuidado, es decir, que exista
en la sociedad una señalización de que el cuidado es un tema relacionado con las mujeres,
hace que la vinculación con el mercado laboral no suceda de la misma forma que los
hombres, que no tienen la misma señal. Esto último hace que, los aportes directos
femeninos a los fondos de pensiones sean inferiores.
3. Además de lo anterior, las mujeres, dada la especialización del trabajo existente
(las mujeres son mayoría en carreras poco remuneradas y los hombres en carreras de
Ciencias, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas (sigla en inglés: STEM), que son muy
bien remuneradas, se enfrentan a condiciones laborales desiguales respecto a los hombres
lo que a su vez, afecta sus aportes a los fondos de pensiones.
4. La normativa existente en Colombia respecto a las licencias de maternidad y
paternidad, y los jardines infantiles hacen que su vinculación al mercado laboral se
dificulte y por ende, que se presenten periodos de tiempo en donde no existan aportes a
los fondos de pensiones.
2. Metodología
Para mostrar que existe una desigualdad por género en el mercado laboral colombiano
y que esto tiene implicaciones en las pensiones percibidas, el análisis se realiza desde dos
perspectivas: el corto y el largo plazo. En el corto se analiza la situación de las personas
que hoy están o podrían estar vinculadas al mercado laboral. En el largo, se analiza lo que
está sucediendo en las personas que hoy están jubiladas.
Para las desigualdades en los salarios actuales se recopilan los resultados de
investigaciones que hayan utilizado el método de Oaxaca-Blinder, así como algunas
estadísticas relacionadas con mercado laboral publicadas principalmente por el
Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE). Para las desigualdades
en las pensiones que reciben la generación de personas mayores actuales, se usa la
estadística descriptiva con datos provenientes de la Superintendencia Financiera de
Colombia. Luego, con estos dos insumos se lleva a cabo el análisis y la discusión. Se
utilizan estos dos métodos porque no existen datos (por ejemplo: datos panel) que
permitan hacer un análisis exhaustivo y causal al mismo individuo en diversos momentos
de su vida.
Antes de dar paso a los resultados y las secciones siguientes, es preciso comentar en
qué consiste el método Oaxaca Blinder. Este método proviene de dos papers titulados
“Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates” de Blinder (1973) y
“Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets” de Oaxaca (1973). En ellos,
se establece un método para analizar la discriminación salarial por género. Lo que se ha
hecho desde 1973 es utilizar de forma complementaria ambos aportes y utilizarlos para
analizar discriminación. Con Oaxaca se pueden encontrar diferencias en el salario que
pueden ser explicadas por el propio modelo econométrico y con el segundo se puede
atribuir discriminación a factores que no logren ser explicados por el modelo (Ospino,
Roldán, y Barraza, 2009).
Ser mujer en Colombia 69
3. Resultados
1
La TGP “es la relación porcentual entre la población económicamente activa (PEA) y la población en
edad de trabajar (PET). Este indicador refleja la presión de la población en edad de trabajar sobre el mercado
laboral” (DANE, 2019).
2
La ocupación de acuerdo con el DANE (2019) está definida como:
“Las personas que durante el período de referencia se encontraban en una de las siguientes situaciones:
- Trabajaron en la semana de referencia, por lo menos, una hora remunerada.
- No trabajaron la semana de referencia, pero tenían un trabajo.
- Trabajaron sin remuneración en la semana de referencia, por lo menos, una hora con familiares”.
3
Las personas que se incluyen en la “inactividad”, de acuerdo con el DANE (2019) son las que están:
“en edad de trabajar que no participan en la producción de bienes y servicios porque no necesitan, no pueden
o no están interesadas realizar una actividad remunerada. A este grupo pertenecen: Estudiantes, amas de
casa, pensionados, jubilados, rentistas, inválidos (incapacitados permanentemente para trabajar), personas
que no les llama la atención o creen que no vale la pena trabajar”.
N. A. Marín Díaz (2020). Ser mujer en Colombia. Una aproximación a la desigualdad por género en el mercado
laboral actual y sus implicaciones en el “largo plazo”. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 67-75.
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
70 Marín Díaz
Fig. 1 – Desagregación de la inactividad por sexo y según tipo de inactividad, año 2018
13,5%
36,5%
8,1% 59,5%
55,3%
27,0%
Hombres Mujeres
4
Familia conformada por un solo núcleo familiar.
Ser mujer en Colombia 71
Fig. 2 – Relación del ingreso medio entre los sexos por años de instrucción
78,0
76,0
74,0
72,0
70,0
68,0
66,0
64,0
62,0
60,0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
N. A. Marín Díaz (2020). Ser mujer en Colombia. Una aproximación a la desigualdad por género en el mercado
laboral actual y sus implicaciones en el “largo plazo”. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 67-75.
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
72 Marín Díaz
Para Quiroga et al (2018) en el año 2017 la brecha salarial por género fue de 20.48%,
si las dotaciones fueran las mismas para hombres y mujeres la diferencia de salarios sería
del 20 %, si el salario dependiera únicamente de la educación, las mujeres ganarían 6%
más, si las mujeres y los hombres tuvieran los mismos años de estudio, las mujeres
ganarían 11% más que los hombres, si el salario dependiera únicamente de la experiencia,
las mujeres ganarían 6% más.
3.2. Largo plazo: ¿cómo están las mujeres actualmente para afrontar las
contingencias derivadas de la vejez, la invalidez o la muerte?
En Colombia el sistema provisional funciona de la siguiente manera. Existe un
sistema privado y uno público, los cuales obedecen a los dos tipos de regímenes
existentes: Régimen solidario de prima media que es administrado por la Administradora
Colombiana de Pensiones (COLPENSIONES), de carácter público, en el cual la pensión
que se obtiene está previamente establecida y es acorde a lo que establece la Ley, y el
Régimen de Ahorro Individual con Solidaridad que es administrador por instituciones
privadas dedicadas a la administración de este tipo de fondos y que a diferencia del
público, es un ahorro que proviene de las cotizaciones, pero mediado por su respectivo
rendimiento financiero (Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, 2019).
Para jubilarse en el sistema público es necesario cumplir dos requisitos: el primero es
completar 1.300 semanas cotizadas y el segundo, es tener al menos 57 años si se es mujer
y 62 si se es hombre, mientras que en el privado es necesario completar 1.150 semanas y
las edades mencionadas antes. Respecto a los montos a recibir, en el régimen público éste
dependerá del monto con el que se hicieron los aportes y en el privado depende del capital
que se acumule en los aportes y sus rendimientos, el grupo familiar y la expectativa de
vida (COLPENSIONES 2018).
Otro aspecto importante por mencionar respecto al sistema de pensiones y el género
es que existen dos (de otras más) opciones de jubilación que incluyen el grupo familiar
cercano de quien cotiza. La primera es la pensión familiar y funciona cuando las semanas
individuales de cada una de las personas que conforman la pareja no alcanzan a cumplir
con las 1.300 semanas estipuladas, entonces la Ley contempla que se puedan sumar las
semanas alcanzadas por ambos y obtener una pensión equivalente a un Salario Mínimo
Legal Vigente (SMLV)5. La segunda, es conocida como la pensión de supervivencia o
sustitución pensional, la cual consiste en que en caso de partir un cotizante, se otorga la
jubilación en calidad de beneficiarios a su conyugue, compañero (a) permanente, hijos
menores de 18 años, hijos entre 18 y 25 años que estén estudiando, hijos (hijas) inválidos
(inválidas) o padres si dependían económicamente del cotizante.
Ahora bien, ¿qué muestran los datos? De acuerdo con los datos de la
Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, en el año 2018 habían 1’334.980 pensionados6
en el régimen solidario de prima media, de los cuales el 72% son pensiones de vejez, el
5,3% de invalidez y el porcentaje restante de sobrevivencia. Mientras que a corte de
diciembre del 2018 el número de pensionados en el régimen de ahorro individual era de
5
El SMLV actual en Colombia es de 828.116 mil pesos colombianos. Si se asume una tasa de cambio de
3.000 pesos colombianos por cada dólar, es equivalente a 276 dólares.
6
En estos datos sólo se incluyen los pensionados de las entidades: COLPENSIONES, CAXDAC,
FONPRECON Y FONDOANTIOQUIA, que son entidades dedicadas al trabajo con fondos de prima
media.
Ser mujer en Colombia 73
80,0%
Proporción respecto al total del monto
70,0%
60,0%
50,0%
40,0%
30,0%
20,0%
10,0%
0,0%
≤2 >2 ≤4 >4 ≤7 >7 ≤10 >10 ≤13 >13 ≤16 >16
Número de SLMLV
Hombres Mujeres
4. Discusión
Resumiendo lo que hasta acá se ha presentado, se encontró que actualmente las
mujeres en Colombia están más educadas que los hombres, pero tienen salarios inferiores
y se enfrentan a factores de discriminación que los hombres no. Además, dedican más
horas de su vida al cuidado y el trabajo doméstico lo cual podría afectar directamente su
productividad y, de acuerdo con los datos, es ésta la principal razón por las que se
inactivan en el mercado. Por otro lado, en el largo plazo, es decir, en las mujeres que hoy
están en edad de ser jubiladas o se han jubilado, se encuentró que reciben
proporcionalmente montos inferiores a los que reciben los hombres y que son mayoría en
el número de personas que reciben jubilación en Colombia, pero porque ocupan el primer
N. A. Marín Díaz (2020). Ser mujer en Colombia. Una aproximación a la desigualdad por género en el mercado
laboral actual y sus implicaciones en el “largo plazo”. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 67-75.
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
74 Marín Díaz
Bibliografía
Baquero, J. (2001). Estimación de la discriminación salarial por género para los trabajadores
asalariados urbanos de Colombia (1984-1999). Borradores de Investigación, 1-26.
Barbosa, W. & Beltrán, J. (2017). Determinantes de las diferencias salariales y laborales por
género, un análisis econométrico para Colombia entre los años 2005 – 2014. Bogotá:
Universidad de la Salle.
Blinder, A. (1973). Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates. The Journal
of Human Resources, 436-455.
Ser mujer en Colombia 75
CEPAL – Comisión Económica Para América Latina y el Caribe (2018). Estadísticas por género:
Relación del ingreso medio entre los sexos por años de instrucción y área geográfica
[Base de datos]. Retrieved from: https://cepalstat-
prod.cepal.org/cepalstat/tabulador/ConsultaIntegrada.asp?idIndicador=2296&idioma=e,
28 de diciembre de 2018
COLPENSIONES (2018). Pensiones y afiliaciones. Retrieved from
https://www.colpensiones.gov.co/pensiones/Publicaciones/proximos_a_la_pension/Pens
ion/pension_familiar, 27 de diciembre de 2018.
DANE – Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (2019). Mercado laboral según
sexo – Históricos [Base de datos]. Retrieved from
https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/mercado-laboral/segun-
sexo/mercado-laboral-historicos, 1 de febrero de 2019.
Esquivel, V. (2011). La economía del cuidado en América Latina: Poniendo a los cuidados en el
centro de la agenda. El Salvador: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo.
Galvis, L. (2010). Diferenciales salariales por género y región en Colombia: Una aproximación
con regresión por cuantiles. Revista de Economía del Rosario, 235-277.
Jiménez, M. C. (2014). Discriminación salarial en Colombia: un análisis de género de las
diferencias salariales en las 13 Áreas Metropolitanas 2007 - 2012. Bogotá: Universidad
Jorge Tadeo Lozano.
Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social (2019). Sistema General de Pensiones. Retrieved from
https://www.minsalud.gov.co/proteccionsocial/RiesgosLaborales/Paginas/sistema-
general-pensiones.aspx, 20 de enero de 2019.
Oaxaca, R. (1973). Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets. International
Economic Review, 693-709.
Ospino, C., Roldán, P. & Barraza, N. (2009). La descomposición salarial de Oaxaca-Blinder:
Métodos, críticas y aplicaciones. Una revisión de la literatura. Revista de economía del
Caribe, 237-274.
Quiroga, Á., Mora, J. & Bedoya, A. (2018). Estimación de la brecha salarial por género en las
trece ciudades principales de Colombia para 2017. Bogotá: Universidad de la Sabana.
Ruiz, F., Botello, H. & Marín, N. (2013). Convergencia espacial de la pobreza multidimensional
local en una muestra de países de América Latina. In J. Boltvinik, S. Tello, & G. A,
Multidimensionalidad de la pobreza (pp. 187-232). Buenos Aires: CLACSO-CROP.
Smith, A. (1776/1995). Investigación de la naturaleza y causa de la riqueza de las naciones. (C.
R. Braun, Trans.) Madrid: Alianza editorial.
Superintendencia financiera de Colombia (2018). Informe de clasificación de los pensionados del
régimen de prima media por tipo de pensión, edad, salarios mínimos y sexo [Base de
datos]. Retrieved from: https://www.superfinanciera.gov.co/jsp/9159, 28 de diciembre de
2018.
N. A. Marín Díaz (2020). Ser mujer en Colombia. Una aproximación a la desigualdad por género en el mercado
laboral actual y sus implicaciones en el “largo plazo”. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 67-75.
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
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Women in science 77
1. Introduction
Studies on the social representation of female roles in the general public arena have
been analysed with a view to identifying gender imagery within the sphere of scholastic
and academic studies and, in particular in the transition between secondary and tertiary
education (Villar and Hernàndez, 2014). In this regard, it is important to consider the
family environment and social representations of science.
The first dimension referred to corresponds to the sphere of the student’s family and
relative socio-economic contexts. One's family of origin, the school one attends and other
places where the socialisation process develops are all influential in shaping the identity
of students and therefore in defining their individual choices. The family environment is
a context which may generate opportunities and yet also obstacles when a course of
scholastic studies is chosen, while students spend long periods of time at school. The
family may instil ideals and indicate points of reference which will encourage or perhaps
deny the opportunity of particular experiences, such as undertaking a particular course of
studies and it may create certain gender stereotypes, while schools can provide students
with a network of opportunities which students may easily take advantage of; however,
inversely, they may also be excluded from specific social groups or may find it difficult
to undertake certain professional careers.
The second dimension is that in which images of society, beliefs and representations
of science and technology are acquired in accordance with the social context one belongs
to. The influence of the media – in their different forms – contributes to the development
of scientific imagination. Such mechanisms play an important role in forming opinions
and may influence the choices of individuals in society.
These two dimensions influence the choices of men and women and have a particular
impact on women’s careers. In this study various elements of development concerning
professional careers are presented and particular attention is paid to scientific careers,
considering their evolution within an international framework and focusing especially on
Europe. Subsequently, the influential effects which certain media narratives and works of
fiction in particular may have on the public imagination will be presented, together with
an examination of emblematic cases in which female roles are discussed and the particular
contribution of gender equity with respect to awareness raising. In the final section we
discuss certain elements of interest concerning the role of women in the public space,
examining the case of a well-known Italian scientist.
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
78 Pellegrini
Analysing data at the European level with regard to degrees and research doctorates
we note that the scenario is rather similar: in all disciplines the number of women present
is higher, with the exception of computer science and engineering.
Tab. 2 – Degrees and research doctorates obtained by women, by subject area, and with an
indication of percentages of the overall number of graduates and doctorate-level
qualifications
Educational Humanities Social Economics, Natural
Sciences and fine arts sciences, administrative sciences,
journalism and and legal mathematics
information studies and computer
communication science
Austria 82.2 68.6 64.2 57.0 49.6
Belgium 78.7 61.4 70.3 52.6 44.7
Bulgaria 82.1 68.6 66.5 67.1 67.3
Cyprus 89.4 77.6 73.8 57.2 75.4
Croatia 84.6 72.1 72.4 67.2 68.0
Denmark 71.4 65.6 61.4 50.2 53.7
Estonia 92.8 72.9 72.1 70.8 61.0
Finland 83.0 72.1 71.2 61.6 54.3
France 76.6 69.2 65.8 58.9 49.0
Germany 81.1 69.8 65.5 54.4 47.0
Greece 85.7 73.9 63.2 59.7 52.6
Ireland 71.3 59.1 61.5 49.5 50.9
Italy 93.3 71.2 71.4 52.1 57.9
Latvia 92.1 75.7 77.5 70.1 65.2
Lithuania 80.2 72.6 74.6 69.4 60.0
Luxembourg 68.9 62.0 67.7 50.1 45.2
Malta 85.5 56.9 66.5 53.2 50.8
Poland 86.6 75.6 70.2 68.4 72.0
Portugal 82.3 61.6 69.6 59.5 61.6
UK 75.9 63.3 62.4 53.7 53.0
Czech Republic 83.7 68.9 67.7 66.3 59.0
Slovak Republic 81.5 68.1 72.0 65.0 66.1
Romania 90.8 65.9 75.3 67.0 66.9
Slovenia 83.0 70.2 69.5 65.3 62.8
Spain 76.3 58.8 64.0 56.9 50.9
Sweden 81.0 62.0 67.2 62.7 54.6
EU 28 80.5 67.3 66.7 58.6 53.3
Hungary 83.5 66.8 69.3 66.7 52.4
following
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
80 Pellegrini
Graph 1 – European countries with the highest number of female graduates and graduate
researchers, with an indication of the percentage of the total number of graduates and
holders of doctoral degrees in each country
Poland 65,7
Latvia 65,6
Cyprus 64,5
Estonia 64,0
Slovak Rep. 63,1
Czech Rep. 62,9
Lituania 62,4
Sweden 62,3
Hungary 61,3
Bulgaria 61,2
Croatia 59,8
Belgium 59,6
Slovenia 59,5
Finland 59,3
Greece 59,3
Portugal 58,7
Romania 58,5
Italy 58,5
Malta 58,1
UE 28 57,7
UK 57,2
Denmark 56,4
France 56,1
Spain 55,9
Austria 54,9
Ireland 51,9
Luxembourgh 51,8
Germany 50,7
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Source: Analysis carried out by Observa on EUROSTAT data, cf. Graduates by education level,
programme orientation, sex and field of education, official website, September 2018. Data
referring to 2016, with the exception of the Netherlands (2015). Pellegrini and Saracino (2019).
The presence of a high number of women in the academic courses considered is not
in itself an indicator of a good condition, even though these data show that women are
now increasingly selected for important posts in educational institutions specialising in
all disciplines. This situation may be verified considering the teaching profession, in
which over the years women have made considerable progress, although in many
countries the number of female teachers and lecturers is still quite low (graph 2).
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
82 Pellegrini
Graph 2 – European countries with the highest number of female university professors, with
an indication of the percentage of the total number of teachers in each country
Greece 33,8
Luxembourg 35,3
Malta 35,4
Italy 37
Germany 39,1
Cyprus 41,2
EU28 41,6
Slovenia 42,0
Austria 42,1
Denmark 42,8
Spain 42,9
Hungary 43,2
France 43,4
Poland 44,4
Portugal 44,5
Sweden 44,5
UK 44,8
The Netherlands 45,2
Slovak Rep. 45,6
Belgium 48,3
Bulgaria 48,9
Croatia 48,9
Estonia 49,1
Romania 50,0
Finland 51,7
Lettonia 55,3
Lituania 56,5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Source: Analysis carried out by Observa on EUROSTAT data, cf. Distribution of academic staff
at education level by age, official website, August 2018. Data referring to 2016, with the
exception of Denmark and the Czech Republic (2015), Ireland and Poland (2014). Pellegrini and
Saracino (2019).
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
84 Pellegrini
men and women for the development of a stable career and prospects of adequately
reconciling work and private life. The Netherlands, Malta and Denmark are the Member
States which present the best results in this dimension, with a margin of improvement
recorded in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
As regards remuneration, the G.E.I. examines gender inequality reflected in financial
resources by measuring gaps in annual and monthly revenue, analysing the economic
situation of men and women with respect to poverty and the distribution of income.
Presenting a score of 79.6 in 2015, salary levels have improved by 5.7 points since 2005.
This is the second area revealing a more rapid improvement of the entire Index, for which
most Member States have shown an increase in their scores. The fastest progress has been
observed in Slovakia (+ 12.5) and Malta (+ 12.1) since 2005, while seven Member States
(DE, ES, HR, IT, LU, PT and UK) reveal a marginal level of progress (increases lower
than 3 points). Greece is the only country with a score that has worsened over the 10-year
period (- 1.2 points).
For all Member States, progress has been driven by gains within the sphere of
financial resources for men and women, covering monthly earnings and overall income.
The average score has increased by 12.1 to 73 points. The best Member States in this area
are Luxembourg, Belgium and Sweden. The Member States presenting the most space
for improvement are Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania.
However, the variable relating to the economic situation, which indicates both the
risk of poverty and income inequality, has continuously decreased over the last 10 years
by 3 points (to 86.7). The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia had the highest scores
in this context in 2015, while Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria and Latvia presented the lowest
value, recording the highest levels and greatest gender disparities in terms of poverty and
income inequalities.
The data presented in any case show that on the European continent many steps
forward have been made with respect to gender equality and that women are acquiring
greater recognition and space to act in which they may attain a degree of protagonism,
overcoming contrasts and prejudices. These results naturally concern only a part of the
contemporary world, however the results obtained in the European continent can be taken
as an example and a stimulus for other parts of the world.
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
86 Pellegrini
Secondly, the presence of a good gender balance makes it possible to valorise the
various perspectives and the contribution which research teams must make with respect
to the expertise of those involved. Male and female researchers have different approaches
also in the manner in which they present results and their critical views, if well organised,
can offer important advances in knowledge (Börjeson and Nielsen 2016; Nielsen,
Andersen and Schneider 2016).
1
http://iris.fp-7.org/about-iris/
Women in science 87
3.1.1. The narratives of CSI and NCIS: roles, gender and research
questions2
The CSI squad presents family structures and Catherine Willows and Gil Grissom
may be seen as the mother and father of the team. Catherine is a single mother and an ex-
dancer who acquired a Bachelor of Science degree in medical technology. She is very
interested in scientific evidence from the holistic point of view. Her main question when
studying a case is “why?”, expressing a specific curiosity and interest in the context in
which a crime took place.
Gil Grissom is an entomologist with a very strong base in scientific knowledge. He
is very familiar with experiments, he likes to test hypotheses using experimental methods
and he is highly focused on evidence. His main interest is in “who” and “how much” a
person profits from a crime.
What is very important for our consideration of the expectations of students is the
different approach to problem-solving of the two characters. The two approaches closely
reflect the preferences expressed by students, whereby females would tend to focus in
particular on the meaning of scientific activities and males would pay more attention to
technical aspects.
The NCIS force has a patriarchal structure: Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the father and boss
and there is a smart young forensics scientist, Abigail or ‘Abby’ Sciuto. In Abby’s
narrative we note the proposal of particular values concerning science activities. She has
a strong passion for science and is always fascinated by the discovery of new details
regarding the cases examined.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is a typical marine, a white male strongly devoted to discipline.
He stresses the importance of getting to the point, being clear and taking rapid action.
These characters are frequently engaged in lively debate, in which Abby expresses
2
Some reflections contained in this paragraph were proposed in the study overview ‘Science goes to
Hollywood: students making choices and the impact of science fiction’ presented at the 12th PCST
Conference in Florence in 2012.
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
88 Pellegrini
passion and scientific rigour while maintaining her originality and attempting to contrast
the stereotype of a submissive woman.
In the particular messages conveyed in these science fiction series we note some
similarities in the motivations identified in men and women with respect to scientific
studies. In a sense it would appear that these television shows reinforce some of the
attitudes expressed by students.
First of all they transmit the sense of an intrinsic value, where terms such as ‘passion’
and ‘pleasure’ denote and emphasize the emotional sphere, but also a rational attraction
to subjects and their practical application.
A difference is noted between males and females and it appears that females are very
interested in acquiring deeper knowledge and perceiving the value of scientific
disciplines.
In the Italian qualitative data acquired in the IRIS project we frequently come across
such words as “aspirations” and “ambitions” that are used by females, indicating an
underlying desire to assume a particular role in society. The content of the discourse
relates to career objectives and one’s lifestyle, but also to the social role the students
intend to attain. Males are more attracted and motivated by practical and laboratory
activities, especially in view of an aim to acquire high status, and females offer reasons
for their choices which focus more on mankind, the environment and nature, and
expressing a concern for and “taking care of others”.
While male students referred to issues regarding the exploitation of science and
technology for the betterment and development of society which were often described in
general and abstract terms, female students spoke of the relevance of the impact of science
on everyday life and the importance of working in a group when conducting research.
proposes in a new way the activity of the researcher engaged in activities that can produce
a public benefit, overcoming some clichés and diffidence thanks to a type of activity –
astronautical endeavours – which has always aroused curiosity and great interest.
3.1.3. Fabiola Gianotti: from the CERN to the cover of the TIME Magazine
A survey carried out by the Science and Technology Observatory on the opinions of
Italians in 2016 found that 75.9% of male and female Italians recognised a photograph of
Fabiola Gianotti among three options, two of which showed images of Samantha
Cristoforetti and Elizabeth Blackburn (Bucchi and Saracino 2017). Fabiola Giannotti is
the Italian scientist who now leads the CERN in Geneva, the largest nuclear physics
laboratory in the world. The result of the survey reflects the popularity of a female
scientist one might not consider capable of arousing such great interest, but this high
media profile and recognition is due to the commitment that Fabiola Gianotti has shown
in recent years, her participation in numerous TV shows, public events and conferences
where she has spoken about her life – and not only at the professional level – to the general
public, and her recognition on one of the covers of the Time magazine in 2012.
Fabiola Gianotti is known internationally as a scientist, as the director of important
research projects and on account of her important role in scientific discoveries, including
confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson, which was announced on 4 July 2012
at the CERN in Geneva. Her media presence has always had the objective of
disseminating the nature of studies carried out in the world of physics in an
understandable way, indicating the importance of open and critical public
communication.
In this area the commitment of the CERN is considerable. In fact, the Geneva
laboratories receive 120 thousand visitors a year, the CERN website is organised in an
easily accessible way with a broad variety of media content and fully connected with the
main social media. Giannotti's commitment with respect to the general public is to convey
– especially to young people – a sense of the pleasure gained in acquiring knowledge and
making discoveries that will offer mankind useful knowledge for its development. Thus,
the image of this scientist presented to the public corresponds to that of a scholar
committed to the public good by developing knowledge.
4. Conclusion
Women have achieved greater media visibility in recent years thanks to their qualified
presence in roles that were predominantly held by males until a few years ago. Female
scientists, scholars, politicians and environmentalists are now protagonists in the public
sphere and in forms of public communication generated by the media. This trend is found
at various levels, and especially in the most popular media.
Young people, albeit with particular differences occurring between males and
females, are attracted by television programmes that draw attention to science and
technology. Television shows may preserve and transmit gender stereotypes, however
they can also present the various roles of male and female scientists, offering new ways
of identification and also favouring the possibility to nurture the motivations of young
people who wish to follow careers in scientific study and research work.
The use of forensic science in solving crimes involves the audience and offers
certainties that are sometimes beyond the real possibilities of an investigation. However,
the presence of scientists in the investigation makes it possible to illustrate subjects of
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
90 Pellegrini
scientific interest to the general public and especially to young people, rendering the
world of science more attractive and interesting and drawing attention to new
opportunities and possible career options.
Over the past decade most EU Member States have set gender equality in the field of
research as a key priority. This has been in response to the growing presence of women
in research activities and their under-representation in top-level positions. However,
efforts to promote equal opportunities have not yielded significant results. Also
international programmes developed in Europe and the United States “have proved
unable to increase the number of women in science, particularly in positions of
responsibility, and they have not helped to address the structural barriers contributing to
the well-known “leaky pipeline phenomenon” (EC 2012).
In this paper we have discussed key issues regarding gender equality in science and
technology and the development of science careers. We have referred to the contribution
of women to scientific knowledge, the public images of women scientists and the attitudes
of young people towards science. All of these issues are addressed considering differences
and segregation phenomena.
The attempts to increase public transparency in order to improve structures and
processes and overcome the discrimination against women have resulted in partially
significant changes in the models of balanced recruitment of men and women in research
activities. At EU level structures and career paths have been identified as one of the main
challenges faced by the emerging European research space. In any case it is not sufficient
to increase the levels of recruitment and improve the possibilities women have to develop
their skills, allowing them to assume top-level roles and achieve positions of greater
responsibility. Much must be done from the cultural point of view to transmit to the new
generations different images of female roles, enhancing ideas, tools and communication
strategies which can be very powerful with the means currently available.
Carefully designed policies and the encouragement of gender-balanced leadership
will enable scientific and other organisations to exploit the power of diversity to initiate
unexpected innovations and discoveries. The opportunities that can be obtained are
therefore numerous and proportionate to the effort to include gender policies in all sectors.
References
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Research. Bruxelles.
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European Union.
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Nielsen, M. W., Andersen, J. P., Schneider, J. W. (2016). Does gender composition influence
medical research groups’ orientation towards gender and sex-based analysis? National
Science Foundation funded workshop “Is there a gender-diversity dividend in science?”,
February 26, 2016, Stanford, CA.
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Various Authors (2011), genSET, Summary Report of Public Consultation on the Future of
Gender and Innovation in Europe. Bruxelles: Lipps B., ESF.
Villar, A., Hernàndez, F. J. (2014). University Transitions and Gender: from choice of studies to
academic career development. Policy Futures in Education, 12(5), 633-645.
G. Pellegrini (2020). Women in Science: their presence and representation. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.).
Human Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 77-91. ISBN:
978-88-95697-08-6.
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Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires 93
Fabrizio MARTIRE
1. What pretest is
The quality of the data collected through a survey relies on different factors: the
conceptualization of the problem to be investigated and the consequent choice of the
individual characteristics to be surveyed; the design of the questionnaire to get
information by interviewees; the interaction between interviewers and interviewees. All
these factors can be evaluated with a questionnaire pretest to prevent problems that may
arise during the data collection phase of the research.
Pretest is an activity that can be very expensive, and for this reason it is more often
declared rather than carried out. Furthermore, it risks being also of little use, if it is
implemented on the basis of the conviction that the quality of the information gathered
depends exclusively on the questionnaire design. Any reflection on the pretext of the
questionnaires must presuppose that the interaction between the three aspects mentioned
above can influence the quality of the information collected.
For a long time, pretest of the data collection tools was carried out in only one way:
after being instructed on the objectives of the pretest and on the types of recurrent
problems in the interviews, the interviewers were invited to write down all the difficulties
encountered during the interviews; at the end of the pretest session, the researchers
organized a group discussion with the interviewers to collect their general impressions of
the questionnaire and their reports of the problems that emerged for each question.
This very general idea has been implemented in different ways, and many
methodologists complained about the absence of shared guidelines. As to the types of
interviewers, for example, some researchers prefer to choose only expert interviewees,
because of their alertness to the problems that emerged during the interview, and their
competence to give useful suggestions for the revision of the questionnaire (Converse and
Presser, 1986). Others proposed to choose non-professional interviewers, because
professional interviewers tend to implicitly bypass questionnaire design problem rather
than bring them to light (De Maio, 1983).
Also with regard to the types of interviewees, different researchers make different
choices: some claimed that the sample for the pretest should be representative of the
population being studied (Zaltman and Burger, 1975); others, as Galtung (1969), believed
was sufficient guarantee the maximum heterogeneity in the composition of the sample.
F. Martire (2020). Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires. A dialogue between psychology and
methodology of social research. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social
Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 93-104. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
94 Martire
As for the number of interviews to be carried out, the suggestions varied from 10 to 100
(Cannell et al., 1989).
In the second half of the eighties of the past century, researchers begin to study the
effectiveness of pretest methodologies. As part of a research program dedicated to the
definition of new modes of management, Bishoping (1989) studied the effectiveness of
the traditional pretest, reaching very critical conclusions. Comparing the notes taken by
the interviewers during the interviews with the problems they indicated in subsequent
group meetings, it appeared that in the discussion the interviewers omitted some problems
they had detected during the administration of the questionnaire. Furthermore, from the
interviewers' reports it was often difficult to understand whether their emphasis on a
specific problem depended on its recurrence in various interviews or on the vivid memory
of a single interviewee.
More generally, the criticisms of traditional pretest approach concerned its strong
dependence on the interviewers' judgment and on the behaviour of the interviewees, who
could also be unaware of a problem or not wanting to say it in order to not appear
unskilled.
These criticisms have prepared the ground for a new phase of the reflection on the
pretest, mainly characterized by two aspects: the openness to the concepts and working
tools of cognitive psychology and the development of computer technology. They have
favored the diffusion of new pretest techniques. First, however, it seems appropriate to
reflect on the objectives of the pretest, given that any evaluation of a technique or
instrument cannot ignore an appropriate reflection on the aims pursued by those who use
them.
definitions can therefore be divided into three sub-functions, each based on the aspect that
can potentially cause trouble.
a. Check of troubles due to the interviewers. Before the survey begins, it is important
to check the interviewers' ability to perform the task correctly, that can compromise the
accuracy of the data in many ways. Misunderstanding the instructions of a question,
modifying the wording to such an extent as to alter the meaning of a phrase, using probes
or influencing in other way the answers of interviewees, for example expressing
preferences or expectations about their answers. If correctly identified in the pretest, these
possible dysfunctions can be partly prevented by reviewing the formulation of the
questions and / or better training the interviewers.
b. Check of troubles due to the interviewees. In a pretest, the researcher must
investigate the capacity of the interviewees to understand the wording of the questions
and perform the required tasks, their willingness to answer all the questions, including
those on sensitive subjects. Do the respondents understand the meaning of words and
expressions? Do they have difficulty understanding the syntax? Do they interpret the
question according to the intentions of the researcher? Do they have problems performing
the requested tasks? These questions can be answered by directly questioning the
interviewees or through pretest procedures that gather clues about these aspects.
c. Check of troubles due to the wording of the questions and the structure of the
questionnaire. A question can be design in such a way as to direct the interviewees
towards one of the answers, or having not the necessary elements for the interviewees to
correctly answer, and for the interviewers to decide which category to attribute the
answer. The positions of the questions in the questionnaire could be disorganized and not
smooth or influence the respondents' answers. The questionnaire could contain erroneous
instructions for filter questions or be so long as to make even the most motivated
respondents tired. These and other problems can be identified through a pretest designed
to control the formulation of the single questions and the general structure of the
questionnaire simultaneously.
Other than identifying possible causes of low data quality, the pretest can be used to
assess how certain aspects of the research (the contact strategy with the interviewees, the
authority of the sender, the relevance of the topic, etc.) influence the rate of participation.
Whatever the specific objective of a pretest is, its results must always be evaluated in
relation to this objective; a question that a pretest validate about a specific aspect (for
example, its capacity to transmit a clear meaning to the interviewees) cannot be
considered reliable tout court, and for that reason taken and used in other contexts without
being adequately checked. The pretest, as Converse and Presser (1986) observe, does not
give a question any "permanent state of grace" such that it should no longer be subjected
to control; on the contrary, its reliability must be assessed on the basis of the always
different conditions in which it is intended to be applied.
F. Martire (2020). Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires. A dialogue between psychology and
methodology of social research. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social
Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 93-104. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
96 Martire
of view of the interviewees; 3) techniques that are based on listening to the point of view
of the interviewers.
the decisions of the research keep a fundamental role: he has the task of evaluating the
results of the analysis and making the final decisions on what is suggested by the software
(Graesser et al. 2006, 18).
Another pretest tool is eye-tracking, a hardware and software technique that examines
the eye movements of respondents when they answer a self-filled questionnaire in order
to understand where and for how long the gaze of the interviewee fixes on the
questionnaire. This technique, widespread above all in market research, has become to be
used at the beginning of this century; therefore, the methodological studies of its
functioning can count on several examples of its application. Among these, Redline and
Lankford (2001) examined the way in which the instructions on questions are understood;
Galesic et al. (2008) investigated the effects of the order of answers.
As these studies suggest, examining the eye movements of the interviewees is
potentially useful for checking the graphic design of a questionnaire that, in the absence
of an interviewer, can influence the data collection process. When an interviewee has to
fill in a questionnaire without relying on an interviewer for explanations, the graphic
aspects become important: they can increase or reduce the motivation to participate in a
survey (Walton et al. 2011). For this reason, authors such as Redline and Lankford (2001)
believe that it is necessary to examine the perceptive process of the interviewees so as to
be able to control it. The fact that this is possible with eye-tracking is, however,
questionable: even if technology has been refined over time, the instrument continues to
be very invasive, probably altering the perceptive process of the interviewees.
F. Martire (2020). Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires. A dialogue between psychology and
methodology of social research. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social
Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 93-104. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
98 Martire
4.1. Think-aloud
The think-aloud is the request to the interviewee to verbally express all his thoughts
while answering the questions in the questionnaire. After receiving some basic
instructions, the inter-visa is asked to verbalize his thoughts as if he were talking to
himself. This strategy reduces the role of the interviewer, limiting his interventions to
simple solicitations when the interviewees seem reluctant to think aloud.
The think-aloud has deep roots that date back to the end of the nineteenth century
when Wundt proposed introspection as a technique to investigate people's psychic
processes. Later, some of the most authoritative psychology traditions of thought have
enhanced the verbalization of thoughts as a research and analysis tool (Schultz 1969).
As a matter of fact, other traditions in the history of psychology have hardly criticized
the introspection and verbalization of cognitive processes as a research technique. An
orthodox behaviourist cannot accept introspection / verbalization as a work tool for
psychologists (Watson 1919). If behaviours are the "true nature" of the psyche, the
representations that subjects can give of their ideas and reasoning are outside the
empirical field of psychology as a science.
Introspection / verbalization as a research tool entails problems of accuracy of the
reports provided by subjects. To get accurate verbalizations of cognitive processes it is
important to fulfil some conditions: the subject must be instructed to pay attention to his
cognitive processes; he must be given the opportunity to practice introspection; the verbal
report must be made at the same time as the cognitive process takes place (Nisbett, Wilson
1977).
The faster the performance of a cognitive task, the more difficult it is for a person to
simultaneously report his thoughts (Austin, Delaney 1998). This is a crucial issue in the
design of a cognitive pretest. Some questions in the survey, due to the speed with which
they are administered and the simplicity of the task, require such a rapid response to
question the usefulness of think-aloud strategy. The usefulness of this strategy should
therefore be evaluated question by question.
As well as on the problems of accuracy, there has been much discussion in literature
about the possible “reactivity” of the think-aloud strategy. As a matter of fact, it requires
the subjects to reflect on the cognitive processes they put in place to perform a task, and
this could alter the way they perform it, improving or worsening their performance.
Analysing over forty researches, Ericsson and Simon (1993) come to conclude that
there are no significant differences between the performance of a person who completes
a task thinking aloud and that of a person who does it silently. The only effect in some
cases registered is the lengthening of the time required to perform the task.
According to the two authors, to reduce the risk of reactivity of the think-aloud
strategy, it is appropriate to: a) instruct the subjects to report only the thought processes
present in the short-term memory; b) ask them to verbalize their thoughts without trying
to justify, analyse or interpret them.
F. Martire (2020). Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires. A dialogue between psychology and
methodology of social research. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social
Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 93-104. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
100 Martire
interaction with the interviewee, by addressing the conversation and deepening the
problems that emerge during the interview.
Verbal probing is an interview technique that can be useful for different aims, not
only to pre-test survey questions. In the essay The Art of Asking Why (1935), Lazarsfeld
proposes the use of probes to articulate the answer to a why-question and to clarify the
role that certain factors have had in the decision-making process. The answers to the
probes ca be relevant empirical material to study the values, opinions and decisions of the
interviewees. Answers to the probes can be useful to: a) clarify the meaning of the
answers to the structured questions; b) bring out the specific and most important aspects
of opinions or judgments expressed; c) clarify which factors have most influenced a given
opinion or decision; d) help the researcher to clarify the meaning of the statistical reports
that emerge from the analysis of the answers to the structured questions. Despite
proposing it as a general interview technique, Lazarsfeld also believes that verbal probing
can play an important role even in the preliminary stages of a survey process, when the
researcher's task is to design the questionnaire.
Willis (2015) proposes two criteria to classify verbal probing for pretesting. The first
one refers to when they are administered. The probes can be asked immediately after the
interviewee has answered the question under examination (simultaneous probes) or at the
end of the administration of the whole questionnaire (retrospective probes). Simultaneous
probes imply the risk of altering the way in which respondents respond to subsequent
questions; these, in fact, understanding that they will be ask to deepen every answer, could
begin to respond with a higher level of attention than a standard situation (Willis 2015).
Retrospective probes, on the other hand, imply risk of getting unfaithful reports, because
they could be based on ex-post rationalization of cognitive processes. The choice between
a simultaneous approach and a retrospective approach may depend on various factors,
including the method of administration of the survey questionnaire. If the questionnaire
to be evaluated will be self-filled in by the interviewees, retrospective verbal probing is
preferable, so as to simulate as much as possible the normal conditions of investigation,
and then to highlight any problems related to this method of data collection (Gray 2015).
Verbal probes can also be classified according to their level of generality. General
ones encourage respondents to give as much information as possible about how they
answered the question under evaluation, without referring to any particular aspect of that
question; they can therefore be applied for the evaluation of several questions of the same
questionnaire. Instead, specific probes are designed to examine a certain aspect of a given
question (eg a term, syntax, reference period asked in a question about past events, etc.)
or to investigate a phase of the response process generated by the question.
Specific probes can be effective when the researcher is already aware of the possible
shortcomings of the questions, allowing him to focus the attention of the interviewees on
the aspects he means to investigate. If, on the contrary, preliminary analysis of the
questionnaire does not highlight potential specific problems, general probes are
preferable, because they leave the interviewees more free to reconstruct the ways in which
they answered the questionnaire, bringing out, directly or indirectly, the possible
shortcomings of the questions.
Willis (2005) propose another classification criterion for verbal probing: proactive or
reactive probes. Proactive probes are questions that an interviewer can ask regardless of
whether the respondent has problems in responding; instead, the reactive ones are
triggered by something the interviewee said or did, and that highlight a problem he
encountered in responding.
Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires 101
Reactive probes allow the researcher to catch the problems that the interviewee
manifests in answering, while the proactive ones allow him to investigate possible
problems which the interviewee might not be aware of.
F. Martire (2020). Cognitive interview to pretest survey questionnaires. A dialogue between psychology and
methodology of social research. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social
Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 93-104. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
102 Martire
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Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 105
1. Punto de partida
De acuerdo con la legislación colombiana vigente y los aportes de algunos teóricos
de la educación agrupados en las ya conocidas teorías críticas del sur, resulta a la vez un
derecho y un imperativo para las comunidades locales apropiarse de sus problemáticas
sociales y generar propuestas educativas que respondan con efectividad a dichas
demandas del contexto haciendo uso de los instrumentos proporcionados por las políticas
públicas. Sin embargo, lejos de tal idea romántica, en Colombia se ha arraigado –salvo
algunas excepciones dignas de resaltar– la concepción de la educación como mercancía
en la que élites de directivos y expertos externos contratados ad hoc parecieran ser las
únicas capaces de dar cuenta de los alcances del proyecto educativo de una escuela,
dejando al margen los aportes que pueden brindar las diferentes expresiones de las
comunidades que la integran.
La investigación de la cual se desprende esta ponencia se llevó a cabo con la
comunidad educativa de la Escuela Sol Naciente de Tocancipá1 y partió de la necesidad
de indagar alrededor de la pregunta por los criterios a partir de los cuales se debe evaluar
por primera vez la implementación de los objetivos Proyecto Educativo Institucional –
PEI de la IE2, que evidencien la filosofía institucional y las perspectivas de la comunidad
educativa; esto con el fin de contar con insumos para aportar a una futura consolidación
del sistema interno de evaluación institucional.
La motivación de investigar sobre este fenómeno se vincula con los retos que deben
ser asumidos por las sociedades para hallar soluciones a sus problemáticas con el fin de
mejorar la calidad de vida. En virtud de ello, de acuerdo con el Programa de las Naciones
Unidas para el Desarrollo, en la actualidad el desafío en términos de desarrollo – por lo
menos en la latitud occidental – no se remite tanto a cobertura como a calidad. En ese
sentido, en lo que se refiere a educación “permanecer más tiempo escolarizado no se
traduce automáticamente en capacidades y competencias equivalentes. Por lo tanto, al
hacer un seguimiento de los futuros avances, será importante trasladar el foco de atención
a la calidad del desarrollo humano” (Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo,
1
En adelante ESN.
2
Abreviatura para Institución Educativa.
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
106 Espejo Moya
2018). De ahí que resultara pertinente adelantar una investigación que, precisamente, se
interesa por dar un aporte significativo a la estructuración del sistema de evaluación
interno de una comunidad educativa para que, a futuro, pueda cualificar sus procesos de
acuerdo con los rasgos misionales que se han propuesto y, en consecuencia, los objetivos
educativos se vean alcanzados de manera más eficiente y comprobable. Además, el hecho
de que han sido los representantes de las distintas expresiones de la comunidad educativa
(estudiantes de los distintos niveles, padres de familia, profesores, directivos y egresados)
quienes han participado en la investigación, se debe considerar como un valor agregado
porque se trata de una comunidad que toma las riendas de sus problemáticas de orden
educativo y busca darles solución a través de un ejercicio riguroso de investigación.
Por otra parte, en medio de la estructuración del proyecto, se identificó una tensión
de orden metodológico a la hora de definir el tipo de investigación que se debía adoptar
de acuerdo con los objetivos definidos previamente, puesto que los datos que se
pretendían recabar para dar solución al problema –plasmado en la pregunta de
investigación– eran de orden documental, pero las técnicas de recolección, en algunos
casos, iban más allá de la naturaleza de los documentos y poseían un enfoque más bien
discursivo.
Del diálogo académico que suscitó dicha circunstancia y de la bibliografía consultada
para contrastar las distintas perspectivas que los autores manifiestan frente a los diferentes
tipos de investigación válidos para trabajos de orden cualitativo, como es el caso de Pérez-
Serrano (1984), Porta & Silva (2003), López-Noguero (2002), Martín-Martín (2008),
Kerlinger (1998), Fernández-Chaves (2002) y (Páramo, 2008), se optó por el análisis de
contenido como tipo de investigación, a sabiendas de que se trataba de una empresa poco
explorada, pero no por ello menos válida en términos de rigurosidad metodológica.
Dicha decisión se fundamenta, en primer lugar, en el hecho de que la investigación
de corte cualitativo, que ha ido ganando adeptos en el campo de las ciencias sociales en
la medida en la que cada vez se adelantan más trabajos con alto grado de rigor y
sistematicidad (Hernández-Sampieri, Fernández-Collado, & Baptista-Lucio, 2010, p. 4),
contempla dentro de sus características la naturaleza iterativa del proceso de investigación
– en contraposición a la propuesta metodológica lineal en la investigación cuantitativa –,
lo cual permite adelantar modificaciones de orden teórico o metodológico en medio del
proceso de investigación (Batthyány & Cabrera, 2011, p. 78), siempre y cuando se
responda coherentemente a las problemáticas que emergen a lo largo del proceso a partir
de acciones que permitan resolver de la mejor manera el problema de investigación, tal
como es el caso de la presente experiencia investigativa.
En segundo lugar, dado que son pocos los autores en la literatura en idioma español
que conciben el análisis de contenido como un tipo de investigación, mas no solamente
como una técnica de recolección de datos; y teniendo en cuenta, además, que son apenas
incipientes las experiencias investigativas que hacen uso de dicho tipo de investigación –
como es el caso de López-Noguero (2002) –, se consideró pertinente ofrecer a la
comunidad académica un producto investigativo en el que se evidencie la validez de este
método para abordar problemáticas en las ciencias sociales y así brindar un aporte para
alimentar este sub-campo del saber en el que poco se ha trabajado, en lo que se refiere a
investigación cualitativa.
En virtud de lo anteriormente expresado, la investigación parte de un interés
educativo en lo que se refiere al trabajo comunitario de construcción de criterios para
evaluar la puesta en marcha del PEI en la figura de la implementación de sus objetivos y,
a su vez, persigue un interés metodológico al presentar un intento de validación del
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 107
3
Tal vez resulte útil aclarar que existen convenios con otras instituciones (colegios, juntas de acción
comunal, dependencias de la municipalidad, algunas organizaciones de la sociedad civil, esto en el orden
municipal; y también se cuenta con lazos institucionales en el exterior), pero que no se han plasmado
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
108 Espejo Moya
Más allá de ello, es posible identificar que en los tres componentes que están
establecidos en el documento (administrativo, conceptual y pedagógico), existe una
relación directa entre los acontecimientos que provocan la fundación de la IE, incluyendo
la espiritualidad que ha animado el proyecto desde el inicio, la fundamentación
pedagógica que se genera en la medida en la que la experiencia va creciendo, y el ideal
antropológico que se persigue con el ejercicio educativo ofrecido por la Institución.
Desde el punto de vista, tanto del componente conceptual como del pedagógico, es
posible dar cuenta de una noción de currículo que busca ser contestataria delante de unas
lógicas económicas que buscan la formación de operarios que no cuestionen el statu quo,
sino que se limiten al seguimiento de instrucciones (de órdenes) para alimentar el sistema
establecido. Por el contrario, el proyecto busca la promoción de ‘mujeres y hombres
nuevos’ que se formen no solo intelectualmente, sino también desde lo socio afectivo y
lo moral, para ofrecer distintas lecturas de la realidad y, en consecuencia, puedan
promover cambios desde lo local.
En este sentido, se puede hablar de una concepción curricular afín con el enfoque
práctico de Joseph Schwab (2008), desde la perspectiva de la relación existente entre
teoría y práctica, puesto que, como se ha evidenciado en los documentos y en las
narraciones de los participantes en la investigación, la educación que promueve la Escuela
no se reduce a impartir conocimientos, sino que busca una formación integral que redunde
en el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de los estudiantes por medio de un mejor
conocimiento de sí mismos y de la construcción de una proyección propia en la que cada
quien pueda concebirse como protagonista de la propia existencia en relación con los
demás. Pero también se puede hallar relación con el enfoque crítico social contemplado
en el marco epistémico de las teorías críticas del sur con autores como Paulo Freire
(1974), Shirley Grundy (1998) y Wilfred Carr & Stephen Kemmis (2004), puesto que el
PEI desde su fundamento invita a la emancipación de las lógicas opresoras, pero no a
través de la lucha revolucionaria, sino desde la formación en un ‘amor que construye’ a
partir de la exigencia y de la formación pluridimensional del ser humano. De este modo,
las personas pueden hacerse cargo de sus comunidades estableciendo relaciones mucho
más eficientes con los organismos estatales con el fin de generar democracias más
participativas.
De estas nociones de currículo de las cuales participa la fundamentación de la
Escuela, es posible entender el PEI como el documento y su praxis en el que la comunidad
educativa ha plasmado un sueño educativo fruto de una experiencia comunitaria y no del
deseo de unos empresarios. Ha sido un grupo de personas el que ha identificado una
necesidad formativa inminente y que ha tratado de dar respuesta de la mejor manera, hasta
el punto de fundar una IE de tipo formal que respondiese a dicha necesidad, pero que
además aportara significativamente al mundo de la pedagogía.
Pero este documento no tendría razón de ser si no fuera por la acción curricular a la
que impulsa a la comunidad educativa. Esta acción es la puesta en marcha de los
presupuestos pedagógicos y filosóficos que se han plasmado en el documento y animan
el quehacer cotidiano de la Escuela.
específicamente en los documentos pertenecientes explícitamente al PEI, sino que, dado que son
intervenciones recientes, aún se están consolidando y se encuentran a la espera de ser considerados como
insumo para construir el componente comunitario del documento.
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 109
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
110 Espejo Moya
En virtud de lo anterior fue posible identificar que la perspectiva apropiada para esta
investigación es de naturaleza hermenéutica, puesto que se buscaba que, a partir de la
forma en la que la comunidad educativa entiende los objetivos del PEI de la ESN, se
pudiera aportar a la construcción de los criterios evaluativos que permitirían efectuar un
análisis del desarrollo de los objetivos en estudio. Es decir, se buscaba entender la
comprensión que los sujetos tenían en su momento de una suerte de construcciones
teóricas con implicaciones prácticas con el objeto de construir los criterios para
evaluarlas.
Lo mismo se puede decir cuando otro de los objetivos de la investigación perseguía
el análisis de los documentos institucionales en los que se fundamentan filosófica y
pedagógicamente los objetivos del PEI. Si bien en ello no se habla en un sentido estricto
de una comprensión directa de la acción de uno o varios sujetos, sí se ejerce interpretación
de sus productos. Éstos hablan de la forma en la que los sujetos comprenden, en este caso,
el ejercicio educativo y, particularmente, el ‘universo pedagógico’ de la ESN desde la
perspectiva de sus participantes.
Con base en lo anterior, se determina que el ejercicio investigativo se ubica en la
perspectiva epistemológica hermenéutica por la necesidad que existe de entender las
comprensiones que tiene la comunidad educativa de la ESN sobre los objetivos de su PEI
y de comprender tanto los fundamentos, como las prácticas curriculares que han sido
animadas por la puesta en marcha de dichos objetivos; esto con el fin de obtener unos
criterios con los cuales los objetivos puedan ser evaluados.
4
Con dicha afirmación no se pretende asumir en ningún momento que cualquier criterio resulta válido para
hacer investigación abogando al carácter flexible de los estudios cualitativos. Más bien se trata de sugerir
una mirada, tal vez más amplia, de las posibilidades de hacer investigación sin ir en detrimento de la
sistematicidad y el rigor.
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 111
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
112 Espejo Moya
grupos focales que persiguen las prácticas discursivas de los miembros de la comunidad
educativa;
establecer las unidades de análisis que puede entenderse como “el fragmento de
la comunicación que se toma como elemento de base para el análisis y pueden variar
desde palabras específicas, hasta libros completos” (p. 208). Su delimitación depende de
la naturaleza propia de la investigación.
determinar las categorías de análisis. Estas son entendidas como “cada uno de los
elementos o dimensiones de las variables investigadas y que van a servir para clasificar o
agrupar según ellas las diversas unidades” (López-Noguero, 2002, p. 169). Dichas
categorías son las que han sido enunciadas y abordadas en el marco teórico y que permiten
enmarcar la investigación en un campo específico de estudio. Se busca entonces que las
categorías sirvan como guía para el diseño y la aplicación de los instrumentos de
recolección de datos que, eventualmente, después del ejercicio de codificación y
triangulación arrojen como fruto los criterios para evaluar los objetivos del PEI.
Teniendo en cuenta dicha finalidad, se concuerda con Porta & Silva (2003) quienes
sugieren que “los datos provenientes del análisis de contenido[, por lo general,] pasan a
formar parte de trabajos de investigación de mayor envergadura” (p. 10) ya que este es
uno de los fines de la presente investigación, puesto que el hecho de diseñar los criterios
no da cuenta de la evaluación que se pueda ejercer sobre el desarrollo de los objetivos,
sino que se hace necesario continuar con el proceso con ejercicios investigativos
ulteriores.
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
114 Espejo Moya
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 115
4. Resultados
Una vez que se contó con el análisis de contenido adelantado alrededor del PEI de la
ESN y de las narraciones de la comunidad educativa5 fruto de los grupos focales, se
procedió a hilvanar estos dos productos en el diseño de los criterios de evaluación. Este
ejercicio se plasmó en 11 matrices –que, en su conjunto, se pueden tomar como un nuevo
instrumento de evaluación que cuenta con sus propios criterios de aplicación y
validación– que representan la operacionalización de cada uno de los criterios para
practicar la evaluación de los 13 objetivos específicos del Proyecto Educativo6, más el
objetivo general y cuyos indicadores con los cuales es posible identificarlos son los que
se enuncian a continuación: Promoción, Pertinencia, Cooperación, Respeto, Equidad,
Seguimiento, Sinergia, Impacto, Reconocimiento, Igualdad de género y Coherencia. En
dichas matrices se ve representado el rol de la comunidad en la construcción y el análisis
riguroso que se adelantó sobre los documentos institucionales para dar cuenta de los
principios filosóficos y pedagógicos que animan el quehacer de la Escuela. En la Tabla 5
se presenta un ejemplo de dichas matrices haciendo uso del criterio de promoción en la
que se evidencia cómo se operacionaliza el criterio a través de sus respectivos
componentes. De esta manera se puede hacer seguimiento diversificado y completo del
alcance de los objetivos del PEI, dado que en estos criterios se tiene en cuenta la
percepción de los miembros de la CE y los principios institucionales.
5
En adelante CE.
6
Según el PEI los objetivos se agrupan de acuerdo con las tres dimensiones de formación ofertadas por la
ESN: socio-afectiva, cognitiva y axiológica.
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
116 Espejo Moya
Ahora bien, es importante aclarar que los criterios responden a dos tipos de naturaleza
no excluyentes. Por una parte, poseen un componente medible y verificable que se
corresponde con la medida de los estándares; de este modo, se limitan los riesgos de
arbitrariedad en la evaluación. Por otra parte, los criterios dan cuenta del valor de lo
cualitativo, presente en las narraciones que los participantes podrán brindar en las razones
que sustentan la medida que han seleccionado para cada estándar del correspondiente
indicador. Asimismo, la CE ha dado a entender que los criterios han de ser universales y
flexibles, es por ello que se ha decidido aplicar todos los criterios, sin excepción, a cada
uno de los 13 objetivos específicos del PEI y, en consecuencia, al objetivo general.
En la estructura de estas matrices es posible evidenciar el aporte que brindaron los
miembros de la CE a través los distintos grupos focales para el diseño de la ruta de
construcción de los criterios.
Del conteo que se haga de estas medidas, bien sea para cada uno de los criterios, o
para la intervención en general se pueden obtener datos de naturaleza cuantitativa que
7
La Escala de Likert sugerida por Oakden (2013) aplicada para los criterios evaluativos representa el nivel
de logro alcanzado por cada uno de los estándares evaluados de acuerdo con el criterio en cuestión.
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 117
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
118 Espejo Moya
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 119
8
Tal y como lo sugieren los datos recabados en los grupos focales – y en concordancia con la Ley 115 de
1994 – y la misma filosofía institucional, es la comunidad educativa la que debe llevar adelante el proceso
de evaluación interna. En el aspecto práctico, se debe garantizar la participación de los representantes de
todas las expresiones de la CE para garantizar el pluralismo y el ejercicio democrático de la evaluación.
Este trabajo debe ser coordinado por un equipo de personas preparadas en el tema – muy probablemente
profesores, directivos y padres de familia – quienes se encarguen de adaptar el instrumento, sistematizar
los datos y presentar los resultados de la evaluación.
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
120 Espejo Moya
5. Conclusiones
Con respecto a las categorías propiamente dichas, el aporte más relevante frente al
concepto de comunidad educativa – perteneciente al componente conceptual en lo teórico,
y al comunitario en lo práctico –, es que ella es quien en su calidad de conocedora del
contexto social, formula y pone en práctica el PEI; hecho que destierra los idearios y las
prácticas alrededor de élites de directivos que trabajan en el documento y, al parecer, son
los únicos capaces de dar cuenta de los alcances del proyecto educativo.
Es posible sugerir, además, que el PEI es praxis, en la medida que parte de la
identificación de una necesidad educativa pasa por una fundamentación y una
planificación de orden teórico que desembocan en un gran número de prácticas. Estas
prácticas contrastadas de manera permanente con la fundamentación, a través de un
ejercicio reflexivo y sistemático (evaluación), retroalimentan la acción pedagógica y
permiten mejorar la planificación y, por consiguiente, la práctica pedagógica y la
experiencia de los miembros de la comunidad educativa.
Uno de los descubrimientos más gratos que ha podido dejar la investigación es la re-
definición de la evaluación educativa, ya no como un ejercicio frío y que se da, por lo
general, por un agente externo a la institución. Ahora, gracias a esta investigación, la
evaluación ha enriquecido su identidad con un elemento comunitario que genera
trazabilidad desde la identificación del problema, hasta el proceso de seguimiento de las
prácticas diseñadas para darle solución. En términos educativos, esta es una riqueza que
dota de elementos democráticos a la labor pedagógica, pues ya no se trata solamente de
un ejercicio que recae sobre los hombros del profesorado, sino que todos los miembros
de la comunidad educativa en sus diversas expresiones tienen un lugar para evaluar el
proyecto educativo del cual han decidido hacer parte.
Gracias a los resultados del proyecto, se demuestra que el análisis de contenido
resulta válido como tipo de investigación dado que, en este caso, permitió abordar de
manera flexible cada una de las categorías y subcategorías de estudio, ya fuesen de
naturaleza documental o discursiva. Dicha posibilidad dio lugar a la sistematicidad y
rigurosidad que demanda la investigación en Ciencias Sociales para obtener resultados
confiables y que puedan entrar en diálogo con otras propuestas académicas.
En ese sentido se concuerda con los autores que sustentan la idea del análisis de
contenido como tipo de investigación, dado que éste permite abordar plenamente un
problema a resolver y ofrece la posibilidad de hacer uso de técnicas tanto documentales,
como discursivas para recabar y analizar la información; lo cual da a entender que en el
análisis de contenido no solo resultan válidos los datos textuales, sino que tienen cabida
también aquellos que trascienden dicha naturaleza y que pueden ser transpuestos a textos
escritos para el análisis posterior.
Con relación al impacto que ha dejado la investigación, en primer lugar, se debe
hablar de la beneficiaria, es decir, la comunidad de la Escuela Sol Naciente. Sus miembros
cuentan ahora con un instrumento validado por un proceso de investigación riguroso que
les permitirá adelantar una primera evaluación sobre el alcance de los objetivos de su
proyecto educativo. Esta puesta en marcha, sin lugar a dudas, dotará a la comunidad de
elementos para propiciar mejoras en lo referente a la calidad de la educación que se ofrece
Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional 121
y de esa manera optar por la sugerencia del PNUD de ir más allá de la cobertura en
términos de desarrollo humano y empezar a hablar de calidad y mejora permanente; lo
que en otros términos implica que la CE de la Escuela no deba conformarse solamente
con el acceso al sistema educativo formal, sino que dicho acceso y, lo más importante, la
permanencia en el proceso sean de alta calidad y se piensen – tanto en la teoría como en
la práctica – como un derecho fundamental.
Se presenta, pues, una experiencia que puede ser leída desde los intersticios de lo
educativo y de lo metodológico dada la naturaleza de los tópicos estudiados. Dicha
experiencia apuesta por una ampliación de los criterios de validez para la interpretación
en el marco de la posibilidad de adelantar procesos investigativos con bases teóricas
sólidas, propias del rigor científico, pero también que reivindiquen el valor de lo
subjetivo, no como elemento marginal y poco deseable, sino como materia prima en el
ejercicio de comprensión del fenómeno de estudio y como fuente implícita de la solución
del problema. Esta forma de abordar el problema no hubiese sido posible por fuera de una
concepción del análisis de contenido como tipo de investigación, ya que, de alguna
manera se hubiesen tenido que sacrificar datos valiosos y necesarios para la construcción
del instrumento que emergió de la experiencia investigativa.
Agradecimientos
A los profesores Marya Sáenz, Wilman Obando y Johan Nieto de la Licenciatura en Filosofía de la USTA-
Bogotá por sus aportes y críticas siempre pertinentes. Especialmente al profesor Juan Sebastián Ortiz por
su asesoría cuidadosa y rigurosa a lo largo de este itinerario investigativo.
A la comunidad educativa de la Escuela Sol Naciente por esforzarse en formar permanentemente a sus
miembros en el ejercicio del diálogo.
Referencias
Batthyány, K., & Cabrera, M. (Eds.). (2011). Metodología de la investigación en Ciencias
Sociales. Apuntes para un curso inicial. Montevideo: Universidad de la República.
Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (2004). Becoming critical: Education, knowledge and action research.
London: Routledge.
Cohen, E., & Franco, R. (1992). Evaluación de proyectos sociales. Ciudad de México: Siglo XXI.
Delgado, J. M., & Gutiérrez, J. (Eds.). (1999). Métodos y técnicas cualitativas de investigación
en Ciencias Sociales. Madrid: Síntesis.
Escolar, C., & Besse, J. (Eds.). (2011). Epistemología fronteriza. Puntuaciones sobre teoría,
método y técnica en Ciencias Sociales. Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos
Aires.
Escuela Sol Naciente. (2013). PEI: Niños y jóvenes amados, generosos y competentes para un
mundo unido y pluralista. Tocancipá: Escuela Sol Naciente.
Freire, P. (1974). Concientización. Teoría y práctica de la liberación. Bogotá: Asociación de
publicaciones educativas.
García G., D. E. (2007). Filosofía y cultura. En J. A. Serrano Sánchez & D. Herrera Restrepo
(Eds.), Filosofía actual: En perspectiva latinoamericana. Bogotá: San Pablo.
Grundy, S. (1998). Producto o praxis del curriculum. Madrid: Morata.
Hernández-Sampieri, R., Fernández-Collado, C., & Baptista-Lucio, P. (2010). Metodología de la
investigación (Quinta Edición). México D.F.: McGraw-Hill.
Kerlinger, F. (1998). Estadística y Metodología de la Investigación (Tercera). México D.F.:
McGraw-Hill.
López-Noguero, F. (2002). El análisis de contenido como método de investigación. XXI. Revista
de Educación. Universidad de Huelva, 4, 167–179.
Marín-Gallego, J. D. (2012). La investigación en educación y pedagogía. Sus fundamentos
epistemológicos y metodológicos. Bogotá: Universidad Santo Tomás.
J. F. Espejo Moya (2020). Construcción de criterios de evaluación para un Proyecto Educativo Institucional:
Experiencia de investigación. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds.). Human Development for All. Social Sciences
in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 105-122. ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
122 Espejo Moya
Daniela ZULUAGA, Felipe CANO RUIZ, Mateo ECHAVARRÍA and Clara Lucía GRISALES
1. Introducción
Desde la experiencia recogida a partir del ejercicio de investigación realizado en el
marco del Proyecto Expedición Dignidad: La comida al centro del pensamiento, se
presenta el siguiente artículo, producto de las reflexiones que tanto a nivel teórico como
práctico tuvieron lugar a partir de la puesta en escena de talleres, entrevistas, laboratorios
de cocina, recorridos por el territorio y propuestas de realización de material didáctico,
en las cuales se profundizará a lo largo del mismo. El anterior ejercicio tuvo lugar en la
región del Urabá Antioqueño, específicamente en el corregimiento Churidó Pueblo,
ubicado en zona rural del municipio de Apartadó, donde, como semillero, nos propusimos
un encuentro educativo que permitiera aprender de la otredad al mismo tiempo que nos
reconocemos a nosotros mismos como sujetos que construimos historia en un territorio,
donde la comida y la cocina son el factor transformador de una tradición educativa
profundamente arraigada. Al considerar la cocina como un aula más, los protagonistas de
la acción educativa son todos los sujetos que en ella participan activamente, en un espacio
abierto, democrático y solidario.
La acción educativa no se reduce al asunto técnico del cocinar, sino que ella resulta
ser la excusa para la formulación de categorías de análisis, donde todos somos sujetos de
conocimiento, rescatando así la dignidad de los saberes que allí se construyen y
encaminarnos en el gran reto de problematizar los discursos académicos que llegan a la
escuela y pensar en cómo pueden llegar otros, en miras de una investigación educativa en
contextos rurales a partir de la pedagogía social; problematizar el ideal de sujeto que
quiere moldear el sistema educativo ordinario en contraste con el sujeto que se quiere
construir con esta propuesta.
Finalmente, considerar un restablecimiento de los procesos escolares mediante la
cocina como laboratorio y el acompañamiento pedagógico basado en las dinámicas de
tutor/tutorado. Este acompañamiento desde el proceso de Expedición Dignidad es
entendido como una relación pedagógica y educativa entre sujetos, dinamizada por el
reconocimiento del otro, donde se conectan experiencias, escenarios y prácticas por
medio de la comida.
Aproximarnos al otro es una necesidad que propone la vida social, pero ir en
búsqueda de ese otro como parte de una intención del sujeto, es lo que se plantea como
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
124 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
Por lo tanto, esta ruta expedicionaria nos posibilitó distanciarnos de las dinámicas
citadinas que hacen parte de la cotidianidad de gran parte de quienes como grupo de
Semillero de investigación, habitamos en la ciudad de Medellín o el Área Metropolitana,
generando un desacomodo en términos geográficos, económicos, políticos, alimentarios
y culturales. A medida que nos alejamos de la centralidad, logramos advertir otras
dinámicas de alimentación, de los paisajes, de las ausencias del Estado, que iban
configurando el territorio y los sujetos que allí habitaban.
Los municipios que visitamos desde nuestro punto de partida, fueron San Jerónimo,
Cañasgordas, Dabeiba, y Uramita hasta llegar al eje central: el Urabá Antioqueño, que
iniciamos visitando a Mutatá, posteriormente a Carepa y llegando al corregimiento de
Churidó Pueblo – Apartadó, donde pernoctamos algunos días, para posteriormente
retomar camino y pasar por Turbo hasta llegar a Necoclí. Algunos municipios los
pasamos en el camino, pero no nos detuvimos en ellos, por eso no hacemos referencia
directa a ellos.
Urabá como subregión, es un territorio que se ha ido conformando alrededor de
dinámicas sociales, políticas y económicas que han traído consigo prácticas de
marginación y exclusión social, por lo cual su reconocimiento posibilita la reflexión y la
generación de acciones políticas y pedagógicas, encaminadas a su resignificación. Su
paisaje se compone de yuca, maíz y arroz, pero, principalmente de cultivos extensivos de
plátano y banano, por lo cual se considera como la región platanera y bananera del país,
además de ser el epicentro de exportación de estos alimentos hacia países de América y
Europa.
Los alimentos mencionados, configuran la principal actividad económica de la
región, por medio de sus cosechas, se evidencia fuertemente la importancia del poder
adquisitivo sobre la tierra ya que los que la “poseen” son dueños de lo que se produce,
pero, por lo observado, podría decirse que no son los que precisamente habitan el
territorio, dando origen a conflictos que el país entero ha presenciado históricamente y
que se mantienen como testimonio de la riqueza y los múltiples intereses que existen
sobre la región.
Algunos de los terratenientes de la zona disponen su suelo para ganadería extensiva,
otros para las plantaciones de plátano, y cada vez se adentra más en el territorio la idea
de una terminal marítima, que sirva al departamento para su internacionalización y de
paso al país como soporte al puerto de Buenaventura y Barranquilla. Esta aventura hacia
el progreso en la línea del ethos paisa, no resulta tan claramente sustentable para todos
los habitantes de la región, por el contrario, consideran en el puerto una amenaza a sus
formas de vida, a la producción agrícola y, sobre todo, una amenaza a la ya difícil
situación social. Pero el puerto sobre el Atlántico en Urabá sigue en rumores y se ciñe
como una amenaza que atrae negociaciones sobre el suelo de Urabá de muy dudosa
procedencia, porque la realidad de lo que será el futuro de esta región parece enmascararse
en muchos intereses, como ya ha sucedido tantas veces.
Pero siguiendo con los dueños de la tierra, es menester señalar que la vocación
agrícola de esta región, mantiene su fuerza en el monocultivo, esta producción agrícola
en masa, sin embargo, no logra reconocerse en las condiciones de vida de los que
realmente laboran la tierra, el campesino se convierte aquí en un obrero de empresas
extractivas, su producción a pequeña escala se ve amenazada por los grandes capitales, y
la actividad agrícola se convierte entonces en una actividad donde trabajan muchos, pero
donde ganan muy pocos.
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
126 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
En el recorrido que abordamos, se puede evidenciar en los grafitis de las calles sin
pavimentar de Churidó Pueblo, la presencia de grupos al margen de la ley, una lectura
que implica entender la lógica de estos territorios frente a la disposición del Estado, sin
pavimento y con el alcantarillado expuesto para trabajos que llevan mucho tiempo
pendientes y que son una herida abierta para los pobladores.
Las cosechas de arroz y plátano configuran la identidad del territorio, y moldean las
acciones colectivas de los sujetos que allí habitan. Los enrutantes, que en el caso de esta
Expedición son el arroz y el maíz, nos permiten unir las diferencias simbólicas que se le
dan a los diferentes alimentos de nuestra cotidianidad, comprendiendo que la comida no
es simplemente ese objeto que se ingiere, sino que hace parte de un conjunto de
construcciones sociales, que están definidas en relación con un proceso de historicidad
del territorio, de cultura, a las dinámicas geográficas, económicas y políticas del lugar.
La comida como un agente integrador de lo que Husserl denomina ‘’El mundo de la
vida’’.
Durante el recorrido de Expedición Dignidad por el Urabá Antioqueño hubo un factor
determinante que nos posibilitó la reflexión de nuestra cotidianidad y nos insertó en unas
dinámicas que implicaban un desacomodo de nuestras prácticas, este factor es: El agua
¿Cuál es el uso que le damos? ¿Cuál es su función en las comunidades? ¿Cómo a partir
del ella se construye una acción colectiva dentro de los territorios? El agua cumple una
función primordial como fuente de vida, es un factor que determina las prácticas que se
construyen en el territorio. Estar allí y evidenciar su ausencia, nos permitió adentrarnos
Acción educativa desde la cocina 127
un poco más en las dinámicas del lugar, desplazarnos al mundo del otro y construir una
relación de empatía hacia esos territorios que han sido marginados severamente y que
cuentan con problemáticas que no pueden ser ajenas a nuestra realidad.
El agua así mismo va modificando las formas de organización territorial, usos y
prioridades de esta fuente vital, usos en la cocina, relación del agua y el sujeto, el agua y
las acciones económicas etc. Por tanto, un pueblo con una vocación de usos de suelo de
producción agrícola extensiva como Churidó, requiere así mismo un uso extensivo de
fuentes hídricas que terminan convirtiéndose en competidores directos de nuestra propia
necesidad de consumo de agua y de nuestra naturaleza hídrica. A todo este recorrido del
agua, se le denomina huella hídrica.
El agua nos acompañó en todo el camino y de todas las formas posibles, lo imposible
es dejarla de lado, nos habita y la habitamos, desde los líquidos que tomamos hasta el uso
para la limpieza de nuestros cuerpos. Cuando pensamos en agua tenemos la idea de algo
que nos limpia, nos purifica, esto no puede ser más contradictorio con las imágenes que
nos topamos de los recorridos de nuestros acuíferos en ríos, quebradas, caños, etc., y así
lo pudimos comprobar desde la Universidad de Antioquia en su cercanía con el río
Aburrá, que de manera local se le nombra como río Medellín, y que a fuerza de así
llamarlo lo constituimos en propiedad de la ciudad, dejando por fuera la complejidad de
su sistema y la capacidad de articular vida con otros tantos municipios, pasando por
quebradas como la Iguaná, una fuente hídrica que en su paso silencioso por la ciudad
apenas si se nota, pero por la presión de la densidad poblacional que parece retener
líquidos, solo nos damos cuenta cuando desata su furia y nos hace testigos de su lucha
por la dignidad, aquella que en nuestro recorrido también estamos buscando. Somos agua
y también necesitamos desesperadamente volver al cauce que los relatos y las historias
oficiales de nuestras escuelas canalizaron hace mucho tiempo, y en muchos casos taparon
para vivir con extrañeza un mundo que no es del todo nuestro, salimos con la dignidad
del agua a buscar nuestro cauce.
La presencia de cuencas como las de los ríos Cauca, más adelante Sinú y San Jorge,
y otras que nos dan la entrada a la subregión del Urabá Antioqueño, nos muestran el
comportamiento despectivo que hemos asumido con el agua, unas aguas más
contaminadas que otras, pero en general el contacto de nuestras labores humanas la han
impactado de múltiples maneras y la mayoría de las formas en que lo hemos hecho no
responden a la decencia y el respeto.
Es por esto que al llegar a un lugar como Churidó Pueblo en Apartadó, y encontrar
en medio de la abundancia del agua que recorre estas tierras, una situación tan paradójica
como la falta de ésta para el consumo humano cotidiano y los problemas por su
potabilización, mueve a la ironía y por supuesto al desconcierto. Una zona rodeada de
agua pero con problemas para su abastecimiento, no puede entenderse de otra forma que
como negligencia, una provocación de nuestros sistemas sociales, económicos y políticos
a la dignidad, con daños infligidos a un sistema vital por el uso de pesticidas, por el
desagüe de aguas negras en las fuentes de consumo, por la producción desmedida de
basura que tenemos en el planeta, por la competencia del consumo doméstico o el riego
para plantaciones, y el consumo en la ganadería por el propio desperdicio del líquido vital.
Somos presos de nuestra propia forma de entender la naturaleza al servicio de nuestra
humanidad. Y de esta situación de escasez que se presenta para el consumo de agua
humana y de la perpetración de un crimen contra el agua, la comida no se puede escapar,
es fuente de su composición desde su presencia en cosechas, lavado y secado, así como
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
128 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
otros de Medellín; en lugares como San Jerónimo, donde visitamos la plaza de mercado,
nos hablaban de cada vez una mayor dependencia de Medellín y cada vez menos cultivos
en el municipio, quizás por la proximidad con ese centro urbano tan fuerte. Esta
dependencia se da sobre productos transformados y con mayor procesamiento, esto
acompañado de la presencia de fincas de recreo y turismo procedente de Medellín.
Al ingresar en las cocinas de los diferentes sitios visitados, escuchar los relatos de lo
que se come y al mismo tiempo observar los utensilios usados para la preparación y
servicio del alimento, se nos propone una visión escénica que se compone en su mayoría
de piezas básicas para la realización de sopas, las ollas de fondo profundo en los
restaurantes y otras más pequeñas en las cocinas domésticas nos hablan de sopas y
pucheros, en los municipios que van de Medellín hasta Dabeiba, más allá de este
municipio la presencia de calderos aumenta y las ollas ya no son tan protagónicas, el
recipiente que toma fuerza es el del caldero.
Esta sola observación da cuenta de la importancia de la escena y lo fundamental que
la cocina resulta como base de la organización social en la disposición del alimento y los
requerimientos tecnológicos que trae consigo, pero además nos propone una pregunta
frente al uso del agua en la cocción que tiene asidero en Churidó Pueblo, cuando vemos
que la comida se materializa en lo que denominamos secos y pocas sopas en la
cotidianidad, mientras que la subregión de Occidente nos mostró en sus cocinas la
presencia permanente de las sopas.
De estas preparaciones, intercambios y tecnologías se nos abre entonces un universo
posible de contenidos significativos para nuestra formación como maestras/os, siendo
nuestra responsabilidad la formación de sujetos sociales que participen activamente de
los procesos sociales y con criterios de solidaridad y responsabilidad, no podemos
seguirnos sustrayendo de lo que realidades como la de nuestro país propone, y la comida
nos viene demostrando el alcance que tiene para que podamos generar procesos
transformadores interesantes, y con ella el espacio de la cocina como recreadora de la
acción educativa que puede fortalecer una formación pertinente territorialmente e integral
para el sujeto.
La cocina como espacio colmado de símbolos y anclajes culturales que van más allá
de la ingesta de alimentos se convierte en el reflejo y la síntesis de una cultura,
permitiendo entrever los roles sociales que se han configurado o impuesto dentro de un
lugar y unas prácticas. Dentro de los entramados sociales y culturales se han constituido
roles que se vinculan a espacios determinados y que difícilmente se entienden o se asumen
uno sin el otro, llevando consigo una carga cultural que se reproduce de manera casi
inconsciente en las prácticas sociales.
La cocina y la mujer son ejemplo fehaciente de ello, pues en el imaginario colectivo
de nuestra sociedad se ha generado la idea de que uno de los espacios no cuestionados de
la mujer es la cocina. Esto ha implicado que la cocina, al igual que la mujer, sea rezagada
y subestimada en su alcance social, político y cultural, asumiendo esta un rol y un espacio
que se pretenden subsidiarios de la fuerza con la que se concibe lo masculino y lo público.
Es así que la cocina como escenario de saber, ha sido sometida a un señalamiento, pues
es asumida como un espacio donde no se construye o no existe conocimiento alguno.
Lo que nos atrevemos a pensar es que aquello a lo que le hemos dado el atributo de
doméstico resulta invisibilizado y puesto en una condición naturalizada que debe
sostenerse por antonomasia y no se plantea una necesidad de problematizar y
transformarlo, atrayendo hacia esta condición una idea de estabilización y de seguridad
donde el cambio resulta una amenaza. Aquello concebido como doméstico nos propone
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
130 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
una tradición que debe permanecer inmutable, mientras que ámbitos como lo público, y
lo privado, dinamizan un movimiento permanente en la dinámica social.
La domesticación siendo específicamente la manera de modificar la naturaleza y
humanizarla, resulta la fuente de toda tradición y con ella la visión de la mujer que
acompañó de manera permanente la agricultura en las formas de organización primigenia,
hizo extensiva su representación como portadora de esta tradición, por tanto es de quien
se presume debe mantener la base cultural, esta idea por demás conservadora frente a la
mujer, subsiste hoy para apresar una realidad sustantiva que la confina a un espacio como
la cocina, y ambas, mujer y cocina, se transforman en tradición, es decir portadoras de
estabilidad, en ellas prevalece la idea estática de cultura. Con lo cual mujer y cocina
quedan determinadas a una manera que no representa retos significativos de
conocimiento, pues lo que se presume que esta relación configure es una reproducción de
las maneras como se mantiene la cultura.
Cuando la cocina se transforma no lo hace desde lo doméstico y no es a la mujer a la
que se le reconoce esta capacidad transformadora. Una cocina que se muda, que propone,
que transforma se sale de lo doméstico, y se propone en la imagen masculina de chef y
gourmet. Cuando la cocina de una mujer propone desde lo doméstico algunas alteraciones
y presume un contenido de ciencia, esta es una amenaza y por ello se parece a la idea de
la mujer como bruja.
En ese sentido, la cocina como espacio feminizado no da cabida a lo masculino, y si
lo hace es bajo otras lógicas. Esta feminización de la cocina ha implicado que tanto desde
el hombre, como desde la mujer misma no se vea al hombre como un acompañante de la
cocina, puesto que ha sido excluido o se excluyó a lo largo de la historia, tal y como se
puede evidenciar en una de las entrevistas realizadas a quienes habitan este escenario:
¿Quiénes permite que entren a su cocina? De mi familia, Sí, así entran a pedir alguna
cosa o a sacar, no más.
¿Pero ellos no hacen nada? Que hagan no no no, en ningún momento. Niños en la
cocina: estorban, corren peligro. Hombres en la cocina: estorban también, si no es un
muchacho que vaya a trabajar en la cocina, que sea che (sic), estorba en la cocina.
¿Por qué crees que estorba? Ay no, que hace un hombre ahí en la cocina mirando a ver
que hay, no no es agradable. Mujeres en la cocina: bien, todo bien, normal una mujer
en la cocina. (Entrevista; María Dolly, Cañasgordas)
posibilita el reconocimiento del sujeto histórico, ya que lo que comemos posee una carga
cultural, religiosa, económica, política, y por supuesto, histórica.
Cuando desconocemos nuestras cocinas y los sujetos que la han habitado, estamos
desconociendo historias, memorias, y la posibilidad de conocer una cultura desde sus
prácticas alimentarias. En ese sentido la re-significamos como un escenario que permite
precisamente reconocernos y reconocer al otro como sujetos históricos, poseedores de
identidades y territorios. De manera que su entrada a la escuela es una alternativa pensada
como un aula más, que permite abordar las distintas disciplinas que se enseñan en ella
para tejer comunidad, tal y como plantea Grisales (2018):
“La comida como estructurante social nos permite pensarnos políticamente, tanto en el
sustento diario como en las formas organizativas que se tejen a su alrededor para poder
acceder a ella, lo cual implica intercambio, solidaridad, cooperación, transacciones,
modos de producción, entre otros aspectos que consagran la vida social” (p. 2).
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
132 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
Figura 2. Niñas participando del laboratorio de cocina. Centro de salud Churidó Pueblo
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
134 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
“La posibilidad de verse de otro modo, nacido de lo más íntimo de sí, nacido del deseo
de ser más allá de sí, es la posibilidad real y concreta de abrirse al otro, a las diferencias
de los y las demás desde un nuevo saber” (p. 74).
tendría las dificultades propias del cambio, del desacomodo que produce re-pensar el
proceso educativo, dependiendo, claro está, desde el lugar que se haga; pero la ruta
expedicionaria, en cuanto a la elaboración pedagógica, nos permite tener al tiempo la
convicción de que los elementos presentes en esta, como la cercanía intencionada y
consciente profesor - estudiante (tutor-tutorado), el entendimiento de ambos como seres
dinámicos, y la construcción colectiva del conocimiento, como se planteó en el apartado
anterior; fueron determinantes en nuestro caminar en tanto dieron paso a visibilizar e
incorporar otras formas de hacerlo, de poner en común una apuesta educativa que se
presenta como posible para seguir siendo caminada y explorada por nosotros y otros que
se quieran unirse a este tejido colectivo.
Esta práctica se acompaña de la propuesta de elaboración e implementación de un
material didáctico, el cual, desde la base, advierte elementos significativos en lo que
respecta a los materiales educativos tradicionales y a su carácter homogeneizante con
relación al conocimiento y el “acceso a él” como se plantea en la escuela. Cabe resaltar
que no desconocemos el recorrido de éste a nivel histórico y, por ende, su incidencia en
la transformación de muchos sujetos y escenarios; pero sí consideramos que, desde hace
un tiempo, la forma en que se presenta y ratifica en la escuela a modo de manual
inamovible, no corresponde a los sujetos allí presentes.
5. Consideraciones finales
La comida como acción educativa genera diferentes formas de narrarse como sujeto
social inmerso en un territorio con determinadas características. Sus dotes para el
reconocimiento histórico y geográfico, para construir ambientes educativos basados en la
ofrenda y en la solidaridad, para la dignificación de los saberes alrededor de la cocina y
los sujetos que allí se desarrollan, y en sí, para pensar procesos formativos alternativos,
abren la posibilidad de acercar a la escuela con la sociedad, entendiendo de antemano el
compromiso político que esto implica.
El hecho de que los procesos pedagógicos de Expedición Dignidad hayan sido
desarrollados en su mayoría dentro del ámbito escolar, representa una vuelta a la
construcción política crítica de las acciones educativas allí desarrolladas, siendo un aporte
indispensable para los maestros en formación que protagonizan este camino, ya que es
una propuesta emergente que se enfrenta directamente con la reproducción educativa
estatal como soporte del desarrollo político establecido en términos de desarrollos
didácticos, de contenidos de enseñanza, en escenarios de formación, en la relación
pedagógica, en la naturaleza de los conocimientos que allí circulan, etc.
Todos estos desarrollos educativos considerados como prácticas “alternativas” son
las más sensatas demandas por parte de las comunidades que se encuentran en
marginalidad, y qué mejor forma para darles voz que por medio de algo que es común a
todos como la comida, la cual nos lleva a un proceso no sólo de índole educativo, sino a
un encuentro que busca la cercanía y la adhesión entre sujetos sociales indistintamente de
sus orígenes, escapando así de la homogeneización bajo la cual funciona la educación
estandarizada y burocratizada. Bajo esta alternativa el conocimiento es una apuesta por
la democratización y dignificación construida desde los sentires de los sujetos, lo cual les
permitirá incorporarlo a su mundo más cercano, esta es la premisa que le da el nombre,
sentido y razón a nuestra expedición.
D. Zuluaga, F. Cano Ruiz, M. Echavarría and C. L. Grisales (2020). Acción educativa desde la cocina: en búsqueda
del reconocimiento de territorios, sujetos, experiencias y saberes. In P. Parra Saiani and D. Videla Igor (eds). Human
Development for All. Social Sciences in Dialogue for an Inclusive Society. Rome: Social-One; pp. 123-138. ISBN:
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6.
138 Zuluaga, Cano Ruiz, Echavarría and Grisales
Referencias bibliográficas
Apple, M. (1979). Ideología y Currículo. Madrid: Akal.
Caparrós, M. (2014). El hambre. Barcelona: Planeta.
Escobar, A (2015). Territorios de diferencia: la ontología política de los “derechos al territorio”.
Cuadernos de Antropología Social, 41, 25-38.
Grisales, C. (2018). Propuesta de trabajo semestre 2018-1 Semillero de Investigación Expedición
Dignidad. Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia: Material de trabajo.
Larrosa, J. (2009). Experiencia y alteridad en educación. En Skliar, C., & Larrosa, J. (eds.),
Experiencia y alteridad en educación (pp. 13-44). Santa Fe: Homo Sapiens Ediciones.
Mélich, J. (1996). Acción educativa y antropología simbólica. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós.
Pérez, N. (2009). Escuchar al Otro dentro de sí. En Skliar, C., & Larrosa, J. (eds.), Experiencia y
alteridad en educación (pp. 45-77). Santa Fe: Homo Sapiens Ediciones.
Sosa, M. (2012). ¿Cómo entender el territorio? Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landívar.
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In a global scenario that shows deep conflicts in social coexistence and numerous
signs of intolerance and exclusion, there is a need to consider the challenge of
developing societies that embrace diversity and pluralism in the face of inequalities.
An inclusive society aims at promoting both individual and social growth, by
enhancing everyone full active participation in social life, irrespective of age, sex,
race, ethnicity, disability, origin, religion, economic, or other status. Because we
understand social inclusion as a process of improving the terms on which individuals
and groups take part in society, our focus is on the study of factors and social
mechanisms that cultivate both abilities and opportunities for disadvantaged groups.
ISBN: 978-88-95697-08-6