CIDE - Interdisciplinary Center for Development Studies

Identifying the location of natural, socioeconomic, and political phenomena is a fundamental factor with an influence on a region’s development process. Those phenomena or processes where location is important is a special type of data that is known as geographic or spatial information. A consideration of where different phenomena are located allows us to answer questions such as: Which regions develop more than others? How are environmental and socioeconomic variables related in the region? How has this relationship evolved over time? Where these phenomena are found can also be both cause and consequence of activities associated with development, and of the equity or inequity of their impacts and benefits. The development of computational tools for the analysis and manipulation of geographic information, in particular geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS) and the information coming from remote sensors, has revolutionized the way the phenomena, resources, and processes present on the earth’s surface are managed and analyzed. These tools and their application to the management and analysis of geographic information for solving specific problems have formed a new discipline called Geomatics. Geomatics allows us to answer five basic questions about a specific region or place according to two topics: In the topic of spatial distribution there are two (2) questions answered: What phenomena or resources are present and Whereare they located in different places. Relative to processes that are resolved the how, when, and why are used because a region is the geographic space where these activities are carried out. Geomatic tools have enormous potential in regional planning processes, development, and the administration and management of a region’s resources. Among other things, these tools contribute to decision-making for resource management, they permit an evaluation and monitoring of the region’s administration and of the impact of development policies. In addition, they permit the simulation and modeling of the impacts of applying different types of regional management. Despite the enormous potential of geomatic tools, it is important to bear in mind their limitations, not only relative to the tools in and of themselves, but also relative to the information available for using them. The general purpose of this course is to give an overall vision of geomatic tools so that each student can learn their basic functions, the advantages and disadvantages of their use, information limitations, and their application potential to the different disciplines of knowledge. Unlike other geomatics courses, this course does not teach a specific packet. Rather, what it seeks is for each student to acquire the basic concepts of spatial analysis that can be used independently of which program is available.

This course is aimed at presenting and discussing with the students some of the topics considered strategic and core to what its known nowadays as development studies. In this way, students appreciate and understand the complex and interdisciplinary nature of said process, the urgent nature of studying and becoming significantly involved in development, taking into account the different dimensions it involves, and the possible role in its discipline and career.

For several decades now it has been evident that human activities have an enormous influence on the functioning of our planet. The development process, the majority of which so far has been sustained by the economic utilization of so-called natural capital to improve the income and quality of life of people, together with population growth and changes in socio-cultural patterns at the world level, has generated enormous pressures on the planet’s resources. According to many researchers, development as currently conceived is not compatible with the planet’s limited resources. When we talk about Global Change it is assumed that it is a process that has only had an impact in the last 40 or 50 years. This is not true, however, since the earth since its formation has been in a process of constant change. The contemporary change process, however, is different in the sense that a single species (ours) is responsible for the majority of the transformation, for the use of resources, and in this sense for the future of all living beings and of the planet itself. A change of this magnitude by a single species has very few parallels in the geological past of the Earth. Although environmental issues and the relationship between society and its surroundings are at the very center of this global change, it also generates significant transformations in the political, economic, social, and institutional arenas. Global change is not something happening "over there" or something over which the regular citizen has no influence. Our daily activities contribute to global change, and what we do or don’t do has repercussions on the functioning of the planet and society. The purpose of this course is to understand how human activities have an influence on the planet, how the development process impacts the planet, and in this way, the student will be able to answer questions such as, "What is climate change?" What causes it? What other aspects of human activity and of the development process have an impact on the planet’s functioning? What future will we have if we continue the way we are going?          

Students will be in a capacity to learn about the various research approaches and methods while developing at the same time a preliminary document for a graduation project where their research question is restated and a framework for the interpretation of analysis is developed, in addition to a brief bibliographic review.

How is knowledge produced, justified and used over prevailing dimensions of the category "development" used within the notions of regional development? What does the paradigmatic changes from objectuality to subjectivity and towards omnijectivity within the prevailing dimensions of development imply? These are the core questions with regard to the course´s theme and for whose answers an individual and collective knowledge construction methodology has been foreseen regarding the theoretical-methodological approach of the Graduation Project of each participant in the regional development planning and administration area, from the field of investigation of interdisciplinary development studies .

The course is organized in four modules which approach the following issues: 1) Discourses and conceptions of civil society, mainly from the analysis of global civil society, new social movements and the contemporary resurgence of civil society. 2) New social movements and new theoretical paradigms. 3) Citizenship, civil society and the dispute over democratic construction in Latin America. 4) Issues and debates around global civil society, the deepening of democracy and the struggle for social justice in the global political economy.

The close relationship between development management and environment, as well as political and institutional changes with regard to public policies has become more evident day after day. The seminar will analyze the main current themes and debates relative to the he society-nature relationship , through an in depth analysis of the so called environmental dimension of development, the concept of sustainability. and the multiple expressions of current social-environmental conflicts, as well as the various approaches and intervention practices aimed at promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the territory and of natural resources.

The student who receives advise from his Graduation Project Director must make a final bibliographical review and produce a version in accordance with the provisions set forth in the Master´s Degree Program graduation project regulations.

The close relation between development management and environment is increasingly clearer, which leads to political and institutional changes in the field of public policies. The seminar analyzes the main issues and current debates around the relation between society and nature, with a focus on the analysis of the so-called environmental dimension of development of the concept of sustainability and the multiple expressions of current socio-environmental conflicts, and on the different approaches and practices of intervention aiming at promoting the preservation and sustainable use of territory and natural resources.

The course is organized in four modules, which dwell on the following topics: 1) Discourses and conceptions of civil society, mainly based on the analysis of the global civil society, new social movements and the contemporary re-emergence of civil society. 2) The new social movements and the new theoretical paradigms. 3) Citizenship, civil society and the dispute for the construction of democracy in Latin America. 4) Issues and debates around global civil society, strengthening of democracy and the struggle for social justice in the global political economy.

Graduation Project defense.

Employment is the link between economic and social issues, between home and society, between public and private entities, between education and production. Analyzing the labor market is a core issue in the concerns about development. It is important in social issues because of its long-lasting impacts on the quality of life of human groups, as part of cultural issues due to the change of identities and social practices, as part of political and institutional issues because it provides legitimacy to a society and the redesign of power organizations, as part of economic issues because it generates and allows social reproduction. Development dimensions are related not only to labor, but also to time and space scales thereof. This concern has been essential in looking at the relation between global and local aspects, between national and municipal contexts. From the local viewpoint, it is a relatively novel function for administration and local governments. This course incorporates the principal approaches and theoretical perspectives as Local Economic Development practices for employment analysis, which will be dwelled on based on debates over agglomeration, innovation and governance, as common issues for globalization and gender for the analysis of labor and labor markets, in order to locate one of the most important concerns in political, institutional and economic life within the perspective of local and regional development.

After 50 years of official development assistance, we confront the same core questions as those in the development agenda in 1948: How to eradicate the different forms of human deprivation? How to respond to the public policy challenges posed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?, and how to ensure full enjoyment of political, economic, social and cultural civil rights for all humankind? The return of poverty as a core issue in the debate around development and its global scope is closely related to two issues, which are common to many other problems and are present between and within countries, namely: a) The rediscovery of inequality: the world is not flat.  The realization about the existence of deep inequalities related to a delayed eradication of poverty has brought about important changes such as the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations General Assembly, or the adoption by International Financial Institutions of new instruments, including Policy Reduction Framework Papers. The rediscovery of the issue of inequality is related to an undeniable increase in income inequality observed in the most populated nations in the world, such as the United States, China, Brazil and Russia and, more recently, India, as well as within other countries with transition economies. At the same time, the poorest 20% of the population appears to be losing ground and experiencing new levels of human deprivation and exclusion from the potential benefits of a world that is more open to exchange and opportunities, because the basic health problems, access to water, deterioration of natural resources and the livelihood of millions of people remain urgent and are still unresolved.   b) Social exclusion and differential access to the benefits of globalization: Globalization has accelerated a series of critical processes, unprecedented in the past 500 years, we live in a time of abrupt and extreme contrast among social groups, countries and geographic regions with a high access to resources and opportunities on one side, and on the other, a wider group of people, countries, and possibly geographic regions, that are marked by deep inequalities regarding access to resources and opportunities, as well as a gradual collapse of their own environment, this issue transcends the barriers of inequality regarding impact but not as to potential for confrontation.   Perhaps now more than ever are we able to state that the same environment that we have modified in our quest for growth and expansion of our production capacity required for a greater social justice, is now becoming a threat. The issues of climate change, environmental degradation, and their most evident consequence: natural disasters, tell us that we should have a wider vision, and that our research and public policies must face the challenge of the interdisciplinary and multi-dimension character of problems. At the same time, our institutional structures appear now, as rarely before, impotent in facing the challenges of environmental collapse and social exclusion social, when the ability to govern and generate public value and wellbeing is subject to the evil forces of economy and the unbridled interests that pursue profit to an extent never seen before since the times of domination of religion over monarchy during the Middle Ages.

The student who receives advise from his Graduate Project director must carry out a final bibliographical review and produce a final version of the Graduation Project.

The location of natural, social, economical and political phenomena is a basic aspect that influences the development process of a region. The phenomena or processes where location is important are a special type of data known as geographic or spatial information. The location of different phenomena allows to answer the following questions: What regions develop more than others? How are environmental and socio-economic variables related within the territory? How does this relationship evolve through time?   The location of these phenomena may be both cause and consequence of activities related to development, equity and inequity of its impacts and benefits. Developing computer system tools for the analysis and manipulation of geographic information, particularly of geographic information systems (SIG), global positioning systems (GPS) and information from remote sensors, has revolutionized the way phenomena, resources and current processes are managed and analyzed on the earth´s surface. These tools and their application to geographic data management and analysis of specific problems have created new disciplines known as u>geomatics.   Geomatics allows to answer five basic questions about a specific place or region:   Qué phenomena or resources are present SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION Where are located in different places Howare PROCESSES being usedWhen are they usedWhy are they used.  Considering that the territory is the geograpahic area where these activities take place, geomatic tools have a huge potential within the processes of territorial planning, development and management of territorial resources. Among others, these tools contribute to the decision process for resource management, enable to perform evaluations and monitoring of the territorial management and the impact from development policies. Additionally, they allow to simulate and model potential impacts resulting from the application of different types of management over the territory. Despite the enormous potential of geomatic tools, it is important to take into account its limitations, not only regarding the tools per se, but also the data available to use them. The course´s general objective is to provide an overall view of geomatic tools for students to learn about their basic functions, advantages and disadvantages of using them, information limitations and their application potential in various knowledge disciplines.   Unlike other geomatic courses, this one does not pretend to teach a specific package, it rather seeks for each student to acquire basic spatial analysis concepts that can be used independently from the program that may be available.

At the end of World War II, the world order undergoes changes that will definetely determine future decades

The concept of development has become one of the most controversial notions in economics, sociology, and politics in the past few decades. For some, it is simply a manifestation of Western thinking trying to impose itself on societies that are unfamiliar to its logic. To others, it is a notion that is able to guide the actions of any society towards a better future.   This course offers the possibility to dwell on this concept from an interdimensional perspective that explains its complexity and provides the opportunity to reflect on its main components from the perspective of diverse societies, which may as such have very different cultural visions.    

The development of the course is mostly intended to reconstruct the demographic, social, political and economic Colombian structure as a conceptual, empirical and institutional reference framework for the development of public policies and models of government in Colombia, during the 90´s and early XXI century.

Provide conceptual tools that allow to learn and understand political, institutional and economical conditions necessary to consolidate modern large scale democracies. Provide conceptual tools and historical analysis allowing  to reflect upon the significance that institutions and political culture have over democratic governance in Latin America and that enable us to understand and identify advances and problems of the third democratic wave in the region. Provide analytical and conceptual tools and submit studies that explain democracy´s progressive erosion in Colombia, reflect upon the causes of the armed conflict and learn about some of the institutional changes and public policies implemented during the past decade so as to solve violence in Colombia and mitigate the erosion of democracy.

The design and put into force of public policies requires an administrative infrastructure that ensures that governmental decisions are taken to practice, as it offers inputs for such decision making. This infrastructure is, at the same time, the object of public policies pointing at creating conditions to meet the goals that the State has set in the most efficient and effective manner. The promotion of development, the reduction of poverty, the search for equity, the control of environmental destruction, are main objectives of the State, requiring proper functioning of the public administration. Within the same context, the inequality in the levels of territorial development within the country is a problem to be addressed by the State in its public policies for development. Decentralization is one of the most significant changes in the organization of the Colombian State during the last decades, and continues to be a topic center of continuous debate. Given its nature encompasses political, financial, and administrative reforms that affect the State and the national territory as a whole. Currently, most of social expenditure takes place in territorial entities.

The main purpose of the Public Finances is the study of the public sector as a receiver of financial resources and subsequent investor of them, trying to determine the method of State to reach its goals through the management of budgetary expenditure. In general, the possibilities for the study of the State finances is determined by the social interpretation of the State, its functions, and its objectives. This course addresses this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective, because even though Public Finances are an autonomous discipline, they include and use tools that belong to economic science, public administration, law, and political science. The idea of this course is to maintain an equilibrium between the theory and its application to the Colombian case, specifying the different normative conceptions that support the different positions regarding this issue. The main axis of this course is (illegible in the original) the group of public decisions that determine the income and expenditure of the State, and the mutual relation between them (Corona & Díaz, 2000). From this point of view, it is very important the study of the financial institutions that receive financial decisions from the States: Budget and taxation, from the national and territorial point of view and their influence in the behavior of the economy.

The State plays a key role in addressing the needs of the public, and public policies are the instrument to carry out this task. Therefore, the manner in which the State decides that a problem is socially relevant and deserves attention, as well as the criteria for the allocation of available resources to solve it, demand a thorough analysis, since there is social pressure over the State to address the public problems in a more efficient and effective manner, especially if such decisions affect the wellbeing of vast sectors of population and the development path of their countries. It is precisely at this point that the analysis of public policies as a sub discipline of study gains importance, and is the reason for the specialization of professionals on how to set and structure public policies.

Students will be able to see the differences among implementation, execution, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies, as well as among the main conceptual approaches regarding implementation and monitoring of public policies. Specifically, students have understood the main challenges related to the implementation cycle of a public policy, Students have developed working knowledge on the main theoretical approaches on the implementation of public policies, and students have analyzed a particular public policy based on what they have learned during the course.

It is expected that a student that successfully finishes this course is able to: recognize valuable theoretical and practical elements, of the evaluation of public policies and social programs, management and application of concepts and methodologies related to the research and investigation of social policies and programs, availability of elements that render possible the identification of the proper model for the evaluation of social programs and policies.

Among the different approaches available to be proposed for a course on theories of development, the following have been privileged: a. development as a process of change from the economic perspective: implications and critical positions. B. The difference between economic growth and development: implications for development applied at a local level. Development, as a process determined by the conditions of production, environmental, cultural, political, and social factors, their interaction with the economic and growth dynamics along with the consequences deriving from this group of factors in determined places, and in specific historical timeframes. Theories on development differ depending on the position of the persons postulating them, their philosophical origin, and the time and place of their construction. The course aims to make explicit these positions and origins, placing them in a specific time and space, to render possible a geographic understanding of their postulates and applications.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES Students will be able to: Identify and differentiate the schools and approaches within the Institutional Theory. Learning about the importance of institutions and institutional change within the framework of economic, political, and human development. Familiarize with some central debates on the relation between institutions and development. Reflect on the role of the State and the institutions in development within the context of current globalization. Reflect on the relation between economic and political development and the role of democracy in development. Learn about the importance of global institutions for the functioning and democratization of globalization.

What is development?, What is a dimension of development?, Why are there different approaches to dimensions of development?, Why speak of dimensions of development as one of the basic concepts related to local and regional development? And, how to apply the concept of dimensions of development from a local and regional perspective? These are questions around which the course revolves, and whose answers are provided through a methodology of individual and collective construction of knowledge.       

Students will familiarize with the main postulates and discussions on the theories of local and regional economic development, and will be able to apply different concepts and approaches for the analysis of local and regional development processes, and the elaboration of alternative proposals. Students are expected to know the main concepts, approaches, and discussions on local and regional development, and to develop the capacity to adopt critical points of view related to those elements, and to understand the relation between space and development, specifically the aspects related to generation of value, employment, institutional capability, and competitiveness.

Development is, since the first half of the 20th century, one of the most important projects of the societies that turned out to be known, after the aftermath of the Second World War, as the third world, accounting approximately for three quarters of world population. Development configured during the 50´s as a promise of modernization, civilization, progress, enhancement of material wellbeing, and eradication of poverty for the societies that have lived for centuries under European colonial regimes. At the beginning it was thought that the evolution and general modernization of the societies of the third world had a clear reference in the image of the industrialized countries of Europe and North America, and that they would be able to reach such levels through the modernization of their economy. initially it was a proposed an equivalence between development and social development, and the mechanism to reach it was economic growth. At the beginning the main focus was on economic development at a macro level, that is to say, at the level of countries, and towards the consolidation of national economies. The main concern was around economic taking off of national economies and their sustainability on time. As time went by, and these countries started to grow and show indexes of economic development, it became evident that this process was not uniform within national territories. For the purposes of this course we will dwell on three major concerns on this issue: 1) Why is there an unequal development among regions of the same country? 2) What is the explanation for the geographical location of economic activities and what relation in terms of space distribution does it have with the unequal development among regions? 3) In Colombia there have been several attempts to promote, render easier, and impulse productive activities, some of them directed to specific places, other related to products considered strategic, but in any case centered in specific locations; then, the question is what has happened with these productive efforts, and what type of development have they promoted in the places of their application? The objective of the course on Paths to Regional Development is that students obtain elements, criteria and skills enabling them to ask, analyze and interpret regional economic dynamics, and their impact in the development of the inhabitants of the studied locations, with the purpose of providing those students with the judging elements that allow them to share information about the future interventions in the matters of local and regional economic development. To this aim, this course will focus on three aspects or spheres in an articulated and integrated manner. It is through the combination of these spheres that is expected the development of criteria, elements and skills for the proper reading of the regional economic dynamics. The three spheres are: Theory: Theoretical and conceptual elements will be discussed and analyzed on development (understood in a broad manner, beyond an economic perspective), economic and regional development, economic geography, and regional and urban economics. This theoretical and conceptual review will work as a complement and integrating factor of some of the concepts and frameworks that students will cover in the other subjects of their respective specialty. This sphere aims to comprehend all the ideas and guidelines derived from the theoretical postulates. Management of Economic Development: Here management is taken as an umbrella notion that encompasses planning, administration, and funding for economic development at a national, regional, and local level. This sphere focus on the study, analysis, and discussion on the interventions for the promotion and impulse of economic development within the country. History: This sphere focuses on the study, analysis, and discussion of historical economic development patterns at a regional and local level within the country, with the purpose of finding out and understanding what has happened and through it responding to the three questions posed above.

In this course, an emphasis will be made on the development of the notions, methodologies, instruments, and questions considered relevant for the management of development from a local focus, based on the premise that management of local development goes beyond favoring and supporting different local initiatives for development, furthermore, implies the formulation of a comprehensive and integrating vision of territorial development and common objectives for its inhabitants, the formulation and generation of strategies for local action from a global perspective, that is to say, taking into account both national and international contexts. The establishment of criteria that render possible the proper ranking of priorities and the allocation of resources. A process of strategic systematic planning for the management of changes openly taking into account the availability of resources and oriented to practical results, implies the participation of people within a context of uncertainty and shared power. In this course an emphasis is made in the development of the planning, funding, and management processes as key elements on the management of local development.

This course aims at contributing to the general objectives of the specialization by dwelling on the issue of territorial economic development policies. In many of the courses before the specialization and some courses in this semester, students have had the opportunity to learn more about development theories, economic development in general, regional and local development, and development institutions. These courses offer elements of theoretical and conceptual framework for the analysis of policies that seek to promote economic development of territories.   Growth and economic development are the basis for development in a wide sense and therefore, they constitute an issue of daily concern for the population and a basic task for the state at all administration levels, and for different non-governmental organizations.  The course focuses on the analysis of public policies that aim at stimulating territorial economic development. The first sessions include a review of the conceptual elements but the main emphasis is made on learning about the experience of said policies. In this context we will examine the subject of diagnosis and available information for public policies in the area.

At the end of the course, students will have analyzed the geographic, ideological and sociopolitical origins of the main development theories and associated debates. The specific objectives of each of the four units in this course are: 1. Students have analyzed the relation between the socioeconomic origins in different theories and development models. 2. Students have analyzed the relation between selected theories and their implications for the issue of local and regional development and the issue of social responsibility in development, as a relevant aspect for the entire specialization.

At the end of the course, students will be able to: differentiate critically the various schools of thought and approaches within institutional theory, make a basic institutional analysis of core debates in the relation between institutions and development, integrate the content of this course and the issues analyzed in other courses of the specialization with research projects and issues of their interest.

Students will be able to: Identify and learn about the different theories and ideas that contribute to the concept of civil society and understand its historical and contemporary evolution, understand the way the evolution of civil society has been affected and shaped by globalization, by anti-political and anti-system struggles, by civil resistance to authoritarian governments, by ethnical and cultural demands, by movements in favor of strengthening of democracy and the construction of a public, non-state realm,  in developed and developing countries, understand the new paradigms to study social movements and explain the nature, novelty, and features of new social movements and the World Social Forum, and identify political, cultural, organizational and media-related aspects that explain the new dynamics and the trend of global and regional mobilization, identify, understand and analyze some of the main debates, dilemmas and challenges related to the different dimensions of development, and learn about some cases of social mobilization in Latin America and cases of civil society organizations in Colombia.

The student will be capable of building a conceptual framework that defines social responsibility through the assignment of a role to the corporation within society. It seeks to achieve a definition of Social Responsibility that satisfies not only corporations but society. Reflect upon the reach of responsibility that corporations have before society and explore some of the current interactions between Corporation and Society. Corporation cases which implicitly and explicitly have adopted a different role than that of only responding before interests of shareholders with the objective of understanding the roles "extracurricular" that companies have adopted before diverse social functions and create a conceptual framework that enables it to define and set out what has been currently known, up to now, as Social Corporate Responsibility, CSR.

This Workshop is a course that (i) articulates the points of reference seen in the specialization courses and ii) provides conceptual, methodological and instrumental elements that enable to address and set out an experience of Social Responsibility and Development.   In the same way, the Workshop seeks to obtain elements for identify and propose alternatives that encourage exercises of Social Responsibility carried out by participants in organizations and specific contexts. This Workshop is conceived as a gathering, reflection and  agreement space of knowledge and practices (between professors, students and parties who are involved in referred experiences.) The intent of this course is that students adopt or build definitions, generate possible explanations, propose feasible solutions to real problems taking into account the limits of their knowledge.

Humans, as opposed to other beings, have the possibility and the need to make, with a greater or lesser degree of freedom and autonomy, decisions which can affect them or others in a positive or negative manner. These decisions are based on criteria which, ultimately, point to a path to achieving what is "good" But, what is good and what isn’t? That, precisely, is the problem tackled by Ethics, which takes on greater importance today in human organizations whose decisions in many cases define the situation of those who are a part of them or their surroundings. Now, the behavior of each person, as individuals or as members of an organization, reflect an ethical position vis-à-vis themselves and others, this position seen in respect to other human beings refers to what has been called Social Responsibility. Development, for its part, as a process of human betterment, followed by a more or less wide degree of freedom by those who are a part of a society, entails ethical decisions and responsible behaviors. These three elements configure a triangle which articulates the basic elements in this course.

Introduction and discussion with participants on the main contributions of the theory of the organizations and its application on state, private and civil society organizations for the understanding and projection of their action, enabling them to improve their performance, as well as on the level of satisfaction of people working on them. Another objective is to address, from real events within the organization, the main problems of the organizations in which participants work, and discuss, from the theory, the best solutions to solve them. Competences: This course aims to reinforce the following competences: Analysis and Synthesis, Critical Thought, Self Learning and Team Work.

The most important transformation companies have gone through in the past 50 years and the "reinvención" processes of State in the past decades has led to the appearance of what is commonly known as synergies among these spaces that were formerly split. The reappearance of public issues as something taken for granted, not only within the government environment but also as a collective responsibility that is not depleted by the mere creation of public institutions has led to the appearance of, on one hand, what has been referred to in specialized literature as the Third Sector, and on the other hand, a series of complex and very poorly classified relations among firms, the State and citizens´ organizations. Disciplines and areas of study, such as new public economy, new public management or social responsibility reflect these transformations. Based on the above, the construction of public issues would be the result of the interaction of these three spheres and the arrangements amongst them would define both the development model, and the government and citizens´ model. Shared responsibility and knowledge become part of the tools to develop public issues today. How do they work? What is their scope? Which have been successful and which have not? How can co-management and co-responsibility be classified? What can be learned from these practices?. These are some of the questions to be discussed and addressed in detail throughout the course.

Students will be able to: understand development as object of interdisciplinary study, understand conventional interpretations and criticism about development that favor one or another type of regional development management, and implement different conceptual and theoretical categories about development in the analysis of processes and development management.

Students will be able to: identify three major fields of study on the relation between institutions and development in the new era of globalization: theories of democracy, institutional analysis and the theory of social movements and global civil society, understand the importance of the role played by democracy, the state, the market, rules and informal institutions, global governance institutions, and the new emerging social movements against globalization, and identify some of the main challenges of institutions in charge of development in developing countries.

It is sought here that students know and understand the complex relationship between human activities and the natural environment where these activities unfold. This course tries to analyze different forms put forward to address multiple sides of existing relationship between nature and society and therefore the environmental problematic, while offering the students an overall map of the multiple fronts and diverse dimensions pertaining environmental management. No specialization is pretended here on any particular front (for instance pollution, water management, forests, bio-diversity, etc) given that such specialization would require going to in-depth techniques which are not the subject of a post graduate degree in Regional Management of Development. What it is sought here instead, is that this type of professional knows and has the capability to interpret this map of relationships, focus and instruments, enabling the identification of priority fields, methodologies and expert assistance required to manage development.

The proposed approach In this course is to seek students acquiring the training to analyze development as a social and cultural process. The course has three objectives. The first one is that students could be able to identify development and modernization as cultural subjects. Cultural concepts will be discussed on the first instance. Modern culture extension in the planet and its central characteristics will be studied, usually invisible as its believes and stances are considered natural. The second objective of the course is to familiarize students with the set of theory questions coming up from recent developments in social sciences centered in critic thoughts on development and its featured ancestors: civilization and progress. Thus the set of development associate notion genesis will be studied as well as the critics proposed different lines. The third objective is to identify social and cultural implications of the running of the programs projects and development policies for which some central development practices will be focused such as poverty measurement participation social impacts identification the social dynamic of development projects will be studied. To that end the students will develop a case study during tof the semester and based upon concrete aspects the different expressions of cultural dimension of development.

The course on Society and Development offered by the CIDER discusses many subjects selected from various potential options, because the relation between the categories of Society and Development is very wide-ranging. The criteria for the selection of the aforementioned five thematic pillars are based on the professional training objective in Regional Development Management. Therefore, it is important to support the knowledge and analysis of social processes that are relevant for development processes. After this course, students will be able to analyze the main implications, differences and similarities between the features of some of the most important social transformations for development in the last 50 years, in their global, national and regional dimension.

Which are the main planning theories and styles for regional development management?, Which are the basic concepts, references and methodological aspects of planning methods and techniques for the regional development management? From what logic is it possible to contextually design methodological planning strategies for the regional development management? These are the questions that have to do with the theme of this course for appropriating and applying planning elements for regional development management, the response of which are derived from a pedagogy supported in hybrid learning environments in the individual and collective construction a contextualized knowledge. General Objective: Learn the main planning theories, styles, methods and techniques for regional development management and design a methodological strategy for its contextualized application. Specific Objectives: At the end of this course, students will be trained to: Learn some of the most relevant topics of the contemporaneous debate on the technical-instrumental planning rationale for regional development management. Take ownership of the basic concepts, references and methodological moments of planning methods and techniques for regional development management. Design the contextualized application of a methodological planning strategy for regional development management.  

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to orient and propose strategies of administration and government from his/her domain for the regional and local processes of development, towards the improvement of the living standards of the population. To this end, we will work around four units: regional actors of development, where we will endeavor to make the student able to identify and characterize the different types of social actors who intervene and/or are affected by regional and local processes of development, institutional improvements, where the student will be capable of describing the main institutional improvements determined by the regional and local processes in the development of Colombia and Context, in this unit the University strives to provide the students with an understanding on history, the importance of the environment/setting, the particular features of each region as to analyze the relations between social actors as per the opportunities and restrictions of the institutions, and a case study, that will enable the students to make a comprehensive analysis of administration in the development of Colombia.

At the end of this course, the student of the specialization will be capable of conducting an analysis based on the behavior of the finances for the development of the country, by using the concepts and tools learnt in the modules. More in detail, the student will be able to: analyze the learnt lessons regarding the implementation of different strategies of financing for the development of the country, understand the design of the mechanisms and financial strategies used in private and public finances, identify sources of financing for investment initiatives from geographical, subject-matter based variables, and financial entities, and to know the basic concepts required for the creation of strategies for the financial management of policies, plans, programs and investment projects.

Geomatics does not only allow to make the inventory of what phenomena or resources are available in different places (where), but it also allows to make a follow up on how they are used, how their availability changes (when) and the reasons to justify those changes (why). The territory is the geographical space where these activities take place, and as such, the geomatic tools possess a great potential for their management and adequate handling. These tools not only allow for the assessment and monitoring of the territorial management, but they also help in the decision-making processes, and allow simulating and modeling what would the impacts be of the application of the different types of handling over the territory.

The goal is for each student to grasp the basic concepts of methodological analysis for the identification of problems and for the design, implementation, tracking and assessment of development projects and to acquire the judgment to select pertinent methodologies in specific cases. The following thematic thrusts are explored in achieving the objective set above: The project’s cycle and management tools required in each of its moments and the implications (scope, limitations and challenges) of carrying out development through projects.