The University-Commune

In this new book we return to the challenge of deepening the task to the point of imagining the university formed by commoner university students. It is a turn, a new place from which to name and reconsider community management and action from a sense of co-responsibility for the commons that we must guarantee so that the common project prevails and achieves long-term self-sustainability.This is what the seven articles in this book are about, which calls into question what it means for the university to be and act according to economic principles and logics (giving, receiving, undertaking), social (distribution of roles and benefits) and policies (agreements, consensus, participation and assignment of responsibilities) of the commune. The institutional dimension is important but the vitality, the sense of belonging and the profound strength of the Salesian university project depend much more on the commons logic. Feeling of the commons is not a possibility among many others. We are convinced that, in order to take on this project, it is necessary to transcend institutional, business logic and state regulations. Therefore, the university-commune is the way and, perhaps, the only one possible. University and Common Goods Research Group Universidad Politécnica Salesian

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

Building public–private partnerships for agricultural innovation in Latin America: Lessons from capacity strengthening

"The International Service for National Agricultural Research�on its own from 2002 until 2003, and as a division of the International Food Policy Research Institute thereafter has studied 124 public–private partnerships in agriculture in nine Latin American countries through its initiative on public–private partnerships for Agro-Industrial Research in Latin America...This paper examines...seven cases of public–private partnership building in which private- sector companies, producer associations, and research organizations engage in collaboration for the purpose of developing innovations in agricultural production and value chains. The paper considers different points of entry to partnership building, emulating best practices. The paper describes (a) how common interests among multiple stakeholders have been identified; (b) how partners have been motivated to participate in partnerships; (c) how the roles of different brokers within or outside the partnerships have fostered partnership development; and (d) how the contributions of partners have been negotiated to ensure that partnership arrangements are in alignment with the interests of the partners, their capacities, and the prevailing technological and market opportunities. The paper targets policymakers and administrators in agricultural development, and collaborators in research and innovation projects who are interested in issues of how best to build partnerships among public and private agents." from Authors' AbstractPublic-private partnerships, Agricultural innovations, Capacity strengthening, Agricultural research,

The Green New Deal and Evolution of Institutional Environments for Multifunctionality: the case of Certified Organic Agriculture in Brazil and China

The Global Green New Deal (GGND) aim to green the global economy across a range of sectors including agriculture, to pursue future prosperity and job creation, while at the same time addressing social and environmental challenges. Taking its point of departure in some of the institutional changes envisioned in GGND publications, the paper proceeds to present results of the authors’ current research, within a research programme on institutional dimensions of the current globalization of certified organic agriculture. Case study results from Brazil and China are used to illustrate how institutional environments for organic agriculture differ between nations and to provide a basis for discussing the potential of organic certification to transform global agriculture towards higher overall levels of sustainability. The paper concludes linking the institutional analysis of the GGND and the findings of the presented cases to a broader analysis and discussion on the state of art of institutional environments for multifunctional agriculture

La cooperación Euro-Latinoamericana contra la corrupción y su impacto en los Derechos Humanos

Under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), as well as under regional conventions, Latin-American and European States are strengthening their efforts to combat corruption by, among other measures, consolidating their international cooperation. Building on the increasingly acknowledged impact of corruption on human rights, this paper explores how the substantive link between corruption and human rights could be unfolded to develop cooperation strategies against corruption with a positive impact on human rights. It does it using as examples a selection of initiatives of inter-regional cooperation against corruption between Europe and Latin-America.Los países de América Latina y Europa han venido fortaleciendo sus esfuerzos contra la corrupción en el marco de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra la Corrupción, así como de instrumentos regionales contra la corrupción, entre otras medidas consolidando la cooperación internacional. Partiendo del creciente reconocimiento del impacto de la corrupción en los derechos humanos, este artículo explora de qué manera la conexión entre corrupción y derechos humanos puede utilizarse para conseguir que las medidas anticorrupción tengan consecuencias positivas en materia de derechos humanos. El análisis que aquí se presenta se apoya para ello en una selección de iniciativas de cooperación contra la corrupción en las que participan países europeos y latinoamericanos

China in Latin America: lessons for South-South cooperation and sustainable development

This repository item contains a report from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment

Latin American perspectives to internationalize undergraduate information technology education

The computing education community expects modern curricular guidelines for information technology (IT) undergraduate degree programs by 2017. The authors of this work focus on eliciting and analyzing Latin American academic and industry perspectives on IT undergraduate education. The objective is to ensure that the IT curricular framework in the IT2017 report articulates the relationship between academic preparation and the work environment of IT graduates in light of current technological and educational trends in Latin America and elsewhere. Activities focus on soliciting and analyzing survey data collected from institutions and consortia in IT education and IT professional and educational societies in Latin America; these activities also include garnering the expertise of the authors. Findings show that IT degree programs are making progress in bridging the academic-industry gap, but more work remains

Science, Technology, and Innovation Governance for Social Inclusion and Sustainable Development in Latin America

The introduction of the concept of governance in Latin America belongs to the neoliberal policies of privatization that tried to trace and assure that public funds, especially international loans, can overcome several corruption problems and the lag in the bargaining between public and private actors. The idea that transparency and accountability in the private actors that receive contracts from the States with the slogan of competitiveness reach bankruptcy. In this framework, studies in science, technology, and innovation (STI) began to interest in governance as a way to explain how policy and research networks create space, mechanisms, and instruments to negotiate and steer policies and actions and create a better future. The scientific challenges to solve complex problems need several actors and fields beyond traditional ministries and bureaucratic governments jurisdictions. Then, governance arises to understand the coordination between several stakeholders that are able to collaborate and develop systems to achieve common goals. This chapter introduces the book that covers the research shared in the congress “Governance of science, technology, and innovation for inclusive and sustainable development in Latin America” organized by the Network on Governance and Management of Science, Technology, and Innovation—(Red GCTI) with a critical point of view. The main contribution is to show the topics, approaches, controversies, trends, and challenges in the Latin American research of STI governance for social inclusion and sustainability

THE UNIVERSITY AS A COMMON POOL RESOURCE: a set of resources, moral and cultural values from the Academic Community of Universidad Politécnica Salesiana

This book contains information from Universidad Politecnica Salesiana’s Commons Research Group, created in 2016 to deepen as well as identify the implication and the possibilities of imagining the university as a “common pool resource” . This alternative must be explained because the connection of the use of commons – as explained by Elinor Ostrom in her book Governing the Commons. The evolution of institutions for Collective Action (2011) – with the possibility of reconsidering the university in all areas is not immediate nor casual and, at first, such connection seems odd in a time when we value belonging based on evidence accessible at first sight. In fact, what does a proposal which analyzes community and local government decision making methods regarding common resources have to do with university life? The aim of this preface is to answer this question and explain the connection that encourages and gives meaning to several contributions of this book. Each contribution deepens its derivations in the field of management, decision making and knowledge production

Summit of the Americas: The IDB Agenda to Support the Mandates of the Summits of Quebec and Nuevo León: Activities and Strategic Programs

During the Hemispheric Summit that took place in Quebec, Canada, in April 2001, the Inter-American Development Bank presented a set of 22 strategic programs intended to contribute to meeting the mandates that stem from the Summits of the Americas and the commitments that are part of the Plan of Action adopted in Quebec. Since then, the IDB has carried out intensive and complex financial and technical activities in the context of those 22 strategic programs. The programs fall into five areas that summarize the mandates adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the Americas, namely: democratic governance and political development; integration and economic development; ecology and sustainable development; equity and human development; and connectivity and technological development. During the Special Summit in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico (January 2004), the IDB presented a report summarizing achievements made since 2001 with respect to the programs presented in Quebec. In addition, the Declaration of Nuevo León establishes new mandates.Research & Development, Economic Development & Growth, Democracy, Governance, Mar del Plata Summit, November 2005, SOC2005-15