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This paper presents a unified framework to analyze social mobility (SM) and inequality of opportunity (IOp) in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, focusing on subnational disparities in intermediate functional areas. Using data from the 2018 Household Survey on Territorial Dynamics and Wellbeing, we estimate SM and IOp simultaneously to investigate how individuals’ origins and circumstances influence their economic outcomes as adults. The study employs rank-rank regression to measure relative SM and introduces additional variables, such as sex and territorial characteristics, to capture IOp. Our findings indicate that absolute mobility is similar across the three countries, but relative mobility is higher in Chile, while IOp is lower compared to Colombia and Mexico. Parental wealth is the most significant determinant of IOp in Mexico, whereas territorial factors play a more influential role in Chile and Colombia. The results suggest that policies aimed at reducing IOp and enhancing SM should combine place-based and person-based interventions, especially in countries where territorial characteristics significantly impact socioeconomic outcomes. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a comparative analysis of SM and IOp within a common analytical framework, thereby enhancing our understanding of the complex interactions between these two concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relies on the center–periphery division in the production of science and technology to discuss the glyphosate debate in Colombia as an instance of Oreskes and Conway's tobacco strategy. The paper highlights some particularities in the implementation of the strategy in a peripheral context. Specifically, it shows that the debate here does not revolve around a product's science and risks, but mainly around the results, consequences, and legal status of a government peace policy. To achieve this, the paper appeals to a mixed methodological approach integrating intensive methods to analyze traditional mass media and extensive methods to analyze social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn this paper, I discuss the potential of pregnancy maps, a body cartography technique emerging from the critical Latin American praxis of cuerpo-territorio, with a focus on the investigation of embodied experiences of reproduction to re-centre women’s reproductive priorities and concerns in environmental policymaking. The paper contributes to the debate on Environmental Reproductive Health by questioning reductionist understandings of body-environment relations and reconceptualising toxic reproductive disruptions by looking at the everyday life experiences of women inhabiting contaminated territories. I draw on 14 pregnancy mapping workshops conducted among goldmining and coca farming communities in the Bajo Cauca region (Colombia) that are in close everyday contact with mercury and glyphosate to argue that engagement with women’s understanding and experiences of reproductive risks is essential to design more gender-just environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article uses a Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) lens to illuminate the lived experiences of women in rice farming in rural Tolima, Colombia, by examining the gender division of labor, the devaluation of women’s work, and geographies of exclusion among farmers and farmworkers. Through the analysis of ethnographic findings, this paper argues that perceptions of women as either berracas [tough, badass, stubborn, and hardworking] or out of place legitimize the devaluation of women’s contributions to the political economy of rice. These gender dynamics create geographies of exclusion, shaping rural livelihoods and exacerbating disparities in resource access. This paper advances SRT’s understandings of agricultural wage labor, class differentiation, and how women navigate, resist, and shape their roles in agrarian communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how IDEMIA, a French security company, constructed an infrastructure for the identification and authentication services of the Colombian National Civic Registry (NCR) for more than 20 years of contractual relationships. The paper is divided into two sections. In the first part, we detail the history of infrastructure identification development by the NCR. The contracting model imposed a state action that allowed IDEMIA to grow together with NCR to create an infrastructure that ties all types of agencies and institutions as users of their technological solutions and services. By controlling the infrastructure and expanding its reach to other sectors, IDEMIA has been able to experiment with new technologies, such as a facial recognition engine and digital ID wallet, to generate new dependencies. In the second part, we expose three controversies in which the NCR has defended its exclusive competence against the National Police, the Government, and the private sector. Thus, it secured IDEMIA's position as a key provider of technological solutions for the NCR's public service. This case shows the commodification of legal identity, the entanglement of public and private interests that makes it hard to differentiate them, and the importance of historical analysis to explore the infrastructure power of technology companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity has maintained cultural connections with our environments from time immemorial. Plants and artisan crafts are a prime example, as craft purpose, skill, design and species used can vary greatly between communities and the loss of a critical plant species can result in a loss of access to cultural craft practices. To mitigate global biodiversity loss, conservationists are faced with the challenge of assessing species vulnerability to extinction and prioritizing species for conservation funding using information instruments, like the IUCN red list. This process does not necessarily consider a species' cultural importance. In this paper, we address this gap for plant species used in artisan crafts in Colombia. We aim to answer the following: (1) how represented are endemic species in artisan crafts; (2) how threatened are artisan craft species according to (a) international and (b) national vulnerability status? We used the number of species-associated common names as a proxy for cultural awareness. We found that continentally regional species were far more represented in Colombian artisan crafts than national endemics. We also found a strong positive relationship between the number of common names and national vulnerability assessment status, but no statistically significant relationship for international vulnerability status. Based on our results, well-known plants used in Colombian artisan crafts are more likely to be assessed nationally than internationally. While the IUCN is thorough in their recommendations, more can be done to prioritize the inclusion of conservation assessments for species based on their contributions to cultural diversity. Key policy highlights: Many plant species important for Colombian artisan crafts are not being assessed for vulnerability to extinction. Even the most well-known artisan plant species lack profiles on the IUCN Red List for international conservation. At the national level, artisan-used plant species labeled as 'Least Concern' have more associated common names and so are possibly better known by the public, on average, than artisan-used plant species that have not been evaluated or have no profile at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand how the judges, in general, lived the Constitution during the 19th Century, other phenomena that have been gradually forgotten by the dogmatic constitutionalists should be included, apart from the judgment of Judge Marshall of 1803 and the constitutional courts of Kelsen during the interwar period. Among them, it will be stated (a) that the ruling of 1803 was not a judgment that came out of nowhere, but one that followed a judicial career already marked by previous judgments, (b) that Kelsen did not act alone in proposing constitutional courts and (c) that the constitution was understood also as a relevant legal standard in Hispanic America throughout the 19th Century. This paper will focus on the third point but in the Colombian case. This requires considering how the constitution was lived at the time, to understand the value that the norm had in the liberal century. The forgetfulness or silencing referred to in this work is due to cultural colonialism, which affected, and continues to affect the Hispanic American legal culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research utilizes the theoretical framework of the protest paradigm to analyze how major TV channels and newspapers in Chile and Colombia covered—on their official X (Twitter) accounts—the massive 2019 protests. The paper collected data using the software Crimson Hexagon (CH), a social media analysis software that accesses all public messages posted on Twitter, and then conducted a manual content analysis to fully explore the adherence to the paradigm in digital environments, including audience interactions with media content. Results show that chosen media outlets take mainly the riot and confrontation frames to delegitimize protesters, partially influencing the reaction of audiences who engaged with those diminishing devices. A further analysis demonstrates how deeply intertwined the media are with the status quo and elites. In addition, legacy media, particularly TV, seem to fall into a systematic delegitimization of social protest. This research is valuable as it enhances the understanding of media portrayals of protests in Latin America given the new dynamics of news engagement on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary collective relocation of former combatants in cantonments plays a vital role in Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) programmes. Existing research emphasizes the necessity of implementing limited-duration cantonments to mitigate potential security dilemmas. The 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) provides a unique experience, deviating from conventional practices by maintaining cantonments over an extended period, with some evolving into permanent settlements. What are the effects of this strategy on community-based reintegration? Drawing upon original data from interviews, ethnographic observation, and surveys conducted in conflict-affected communities, this paper compares two cases: a cantonment successfully transformed into a permanent settlement and another initially promising cantonment that ultimately failed to achieve permanence. This study argues that long-term cantonments contribute to community-based reintegration benefiting former combatants and receiving communities by maintaining internal cohesion, supporting the local economy, and rebuilding the social fabric in conflict-affected territories. However, specific conditions, particularly land ownership and security, are crucial for such a development. Without these conditions, long-term cantonments face the risk of being closed or relocated, threatening peacebuilding outcomes. The displacement of ex-combatants to other territories hinders community access to the benefits offered by the collective reintegration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper conducts a comparative analysis of EU (91 texts) and US (93 texts) discourses concerning post-peace accord Colombia (late 2016 to mid-2022). Employing a Bourdieu-influenced methodology, our proposal aims to reconcile Post-Development theories with International Relations research. This innovative and multidimensional approach illuminates both discursive continuities within Global North while concurrently providing a framework that allows to identify and interpret internal political divergences. Our findings highlight a shared commitment to a liberal conception of peacebuilding, alongside internal distinction strategies employed to legitimize respective policies towards Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature has documented widespread variation in the extent to which insurgents provide public goods, collect taxes, and regulate civilian conduct. This paper offers what is, to our knowledge, the first study of the long-term economic legacies of rebel governance. This effect is theoretically unclear. Rebel governance may generate incentives for households to expand production and accumulate resources. However, rebel rule may be too unstable to maintain such incentives. We explore empirically the effect of rebel rule on households' economic resilience using a longitudinal dataset for Colombia. Results show a positive relation between wartime rebel rule and the ability of households to cope with weather shocks in the post-war period. Households in regions where armed groups were present but exercised limited or no intervention fare worse. This effect is associated with infrastructure improvement led by armed groups, their intervention in dispute adjudication, and their close interactions with local populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Black women entrepreneurs in Cali, Colombia confront racism and sexism, as they engage in the expanding neoliberal beauty market. We argue that anti-racist entrepreneurial experiences in Cali are shaped by four interconnected processes: First, changes in gender and development policies, aligned with inclusive neoliberal development projects. Second, the limitations of state neoliberal multicultural policies, which has made activists aware of the need to address racism and sexism. Third, activist's appropriation of the intersectional turn, allowing them to recognize articulations between racism, classism and sexism. Fourth, the adoption of anti-neoliberal discourses supporting distributive and solidarity practices. Our analysis suggests that while entrepreneurial anti-racist actions do not generate radical or permanent changes in the beauty industry, they do have material and symbolic effects in Black women's experiences of racial justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHousing cooperatives are being reconsidered in many countries worldwide as potentially relevant actors in the provision of affordable housing. This is also the case in Latin America, characterised by neo-liberal housing policies that have led to an increasing financialization of housing and marginalisation of the poor. Uruguay is an exception, with housing cooperatives playing a key role in the provision of affordable housing. For over two decades its Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM) has been advocating and actively supporting the establishment of cooperative housing in the region. In this paper, we examine the opportunities and challenges of housing cooperatives to penetrate in Colombia and El Salvador’s housing systems, two countries historically characterised by neo-liberal housing regimes. Based on empirical research in Uruguay, Colombia, and El Salvador, we will analyse the socioeconomic, political, and institutional factors that enable or constrain the emergence of housing cooperatives and their sustainability over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal gasification to manufacture dihydrogen (H 2) has long been known as a surface process. Recent works have also highlighted the H 2 generating potential of the Organic Matter (OM). The evolution of OM generates H 2 all along the process but this gas is only expected to remain as free H 2 after the maturation and expulsion of the hydrocarbons (HC) which means at a high temperature of above 200 °C. In this paper we studied the potential of three different tertiary coals from Amaga, La Jagua de Ibirico and Barrancas, all located in Colombia. Their H 2 yields were studied using a pyrolyser and the kinetic of the H 2 generation were quantified. All the studied coals are immature to early mature as source rock (SR) with large TOC content, between 66 and 83%, and good H 2 potential. The highest values were found for the Barrancas area where the potential reached 25 mg H 2 /g TOC. The temperature corresponding to the peak of H 2 generation is between 740 and 800 °C depending of the heating rate. This corresponds to the 200–300 °C for the H 2 kitchen, even if the H 2 generation starts before as already observed for continental organic rich source rock. Comparison with the other coals shows that H 2 potential is linear with TOC. In the Colombian coals, the H 2 yield in mg H 2 /g of rock is around 1/4 of the TOC content. In average, these coals have so a H 2 yield about 10 000 mmol H 2 /kg of rock, two orders of magnitude above the "best" olivines. It should nevertheless be kept in mind that the extrapolation of these laboratory data to sedimentary basins remains unconstrained and will need to be refined when well data and modelling tools are available. • The coals have significant H 2 potential in deep sedimentary basins. • High temperature open-system pyrolizer can be used to quantify these H 2 yield. • The reaction kinetic of the H 2 generation from coal is of order 1 and H 2 window generation can extend from 200 to 400 °C. • The Cenozoic Colombian coal's yield of H 2 in mgH 2 /g rock is ca ¼ of its organic carbon content in percentage. • A 80% TOC rich coal has a H 2 yield two orders of magnitude higher than that of olivines at a similar temperature of 250 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores children's and youth's understandings of Colombian citizenship. Drawing from ethnographic work in the Museo Casa de la Memoria in Medellín, where I accompanied 15 school visits with young museum workers and over three hundred school-aged children, this paper proposes that citizenship appears to be a double-bind and disputable categorization. Citizenship was defined as a failed formal project and lived as relational and bounded by the shared violence historically suffered by vulnerable communities. To the post-accord generation, being Colombian is about learning of the collective suffering, and their perceived civic responsibility is to collective memory and peacebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the web tools used by two Colombian daily papers (El Tiempo, from Bogotá, and El País, from Cali) in order to interact with their readers. For our research we used a matrix to help us classify the abovementioned tools vis-à-vis the different extent of the interactions, the latter understood as the range of possibilities offered by the media to their users in order to modify, produce, and communicate content with both the original transmitters of information and other users. In the case of the papers herein examined, we found that, in spite of the fact that they do offer tools which in fact do bring about interactivity, the latter revolves around three main aspects: adaptability, browsing, and feedback, whereby the user remains at a first level (that of reading the texts) but is not yet allowed to co-produce the content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colombia experienced a decline in investment due to the COVID-19 shock, resulting in a negative gap of -2.8% of GDP in the second quarter of 2020. The recovery of investment in Colombia has been relatively slow but has been bolstered by sustained and growing dynamics in machinery and equipment purchases. This paper analyzes the macroeconomic factors influencing this type of investment and its behavior during the pandemic. The results confirm the expected effects: purchases of machinery and equipment decrease when the cost of capital use and the real exchange rate rise, while they increase in response to growth in economic activity and industrial confidence. Control variables include additional factors that may affect investment decisions, such as loan availability and degree of openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impacts of armed conflict on women's sexual and reproductive health in Colombia, building on a reproductive justice perspective to analyse original interviews with stakeholders in healthcare, women's rights, and peacebuilding. The analysis reveals that war affects women's sexual and reproductive health in three ways, through violent politicisation, collateral damage, and intersectional dimensions. First, multiple armed actors have used women's health as an instrument in politically motivated strategies to increase their power, assigning political meaning to sexuality and reproduction within the context of war. Second, women's health has also suffered from secondary damage of conflict resulting from a decay in healthcare service provision and an unmet need for healthcare services among those affected by sexual and reproductive violence. Third, marginalised women have been particularly affected by a discriminatory nexus of poverty, ethnicity, and geographic inequality. The paper concludes with a reflection on the opportunities for reproductive justice in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tayrona were an indigenous tribe that lived in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and its surroundings on the actual north territory of Colombia. The purpose of the present paper is to suggest the possibility of mushroom use in sacred rituals for spiritual purposes by the Tayrona in pre-hispanic Colombia, this obviously involving a mycological knowledge that would have included uses of fungi as nutritional edibles and medicinal sources. The uses of psilocybin producing mushrooms in the past and in present indigenous inhabitants in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia is of the most ethnomycological importance and should be studied with rigor and discipline. Psilocybin in recent times has been proposed in medicine as a new way to threat anorexia, depression, anxiety, addictions, among other illnesses that affect human beings in modern times with positive results. There is a part in this document dedicated to psilocybin as a panacea of the future relating all these applications and uses to the Tayrona indigenous culture from pre-Hispanic Colombia and suggesting they had a knowledge of the brain functions and the effects of the mushrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe a new ophthalmosaurid specimen found in the lower Barremian beds of the Paja Formation at Villa de Leiva, Boyacá, Colombia. The specimen represents a new species of Platypterygius, P. elsuntuoso sp. nov. defined by three unique features within the genus: a small ventral peg in the anterior ventral border of the extracondylar area of the basioccipital; a supratemporal groove in the quadrate; and a shallow neck at the base of the acellular cementum ring on the teeth root. In support of our taxonomic determination, in this contribution we also assess the species composition of the genus Platypterygius, comparing the known anatomy of the type species P. platydactylus with that of the other species previously assigned to the genus. We found that a great morphological affinity in the forelimb of the species P. americanus, P. australis, P. hercynicus, and P. sachicarum (lower Barremian to lower Cenomanian) with that of the type species (Aptian) is unquestionable and differentiate them from all other ophthalmosaurids. Three new diagnostic features (synapomorphies of the genus) support their inclusion in Platypterygius. Consequently, the genus name "Kyhytysuka", recently proposed to differentiate P. sachicarum from the genus Platypterygius is here rejected. A careful comparison of the cranial characteristics of Platypterygius specimens preserving associated cranial and fin remains demonstrate that Platypterygius is a genus distinguishable from other ophthalmosaurids not only by a typical forelimb but also by a particular combination of skull features. In this context, the skull morphology of "Simbirskiasaurus" concurs with that defining Platypterygius and its minor differences are not sufficient to support its generic distinction. The morphological comparisons and our phylogenetic analysis show the new species P. elsuntuoso more closely related to the Colombian species P. sachicarum than to other species of Platypterygius. Given that the new species came from the lower Barremian and P. sachicarum came from the upper Barremian, the minor differences in dentition found between the two species suggest a speciation by adaptation to new food sources in the Cretaceous epicontinental sea of Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bucaramanga seismic nest has the highest concentration in volume of intermediate depth seismic events with light and moderate magnitudes (Mb > 4.8) worldwide. Despite the nest depth (Zhypo ≥ 100 km), these events play a crucial role in the seismic hazard assessment for several cities in northern South America (NoSAm), particularly those situated close to their epicenters. Moreover, these earthquakes are widely felt across the country, even hundreds of kilometers away from the nest. This paper assesses the performance of commonly used subduction intraslab Ground Motion Models (GMMs) in predicting the updated nest database gathered and processed by the Colombian Geological Survey. This analysis confirms the necessity of a partially non-ergodic ground motion model for estimating the spectral accelerations produced by Bucaramanga nest earthquakes in northern South America. The GMM presented herein is the first model developed specifically for seismic nests in the region and is conceived as a regionalization of the recent NGA-Sub Abrahamson and Gülerce (Earthq Spectra 38(4):2638−2681, 2022) GMM. Additionally, we provide estimates of the variance components at both the earthquake and station levels and compare the developed GMM with the spectral accelerations recorded for typical earthquakes, for the highest magnitude earthquake in the database, and for a recent Bucaramanga nest earthquake having a moment magnitude over 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the male homoerotic experiences of ex-combatants from the FARC-EP and ELN guerrillas, as well as paramilitary groups, during their period in these armed groups. For this article, we have used multiple methodological strategies. For the first two stories, we made semi-structured qualitative interviews with ex-combatants. Then, we wrote the narratives collaboratively. For the third story, the anecdote was constructed based on the testimonies of the residents of a municipality of Caldas affected by the armed conflict. The participation of combatants in homoerotic practices and their involvement in romantic relationships with men showed that interpretations and meanings of homosexuality (and heterosexuality) in war contexts can be questioned, since their involvement is related to victimization. In addition, the narratives demonstrated that the meaning of these concepts was fragmented in various directions such as desire, feelings, anxieties, and complicity with the armed logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hispanic Society Museum & Library (HSML) holds a collection of nine viceregal barniz de Pasto objects, made by Indigenous artisans in the 17th and 18th centuries. Designed to imitate Asian lacquers and intended for European aesthetic tastes, barniz de Pasto is an example of Indigenous technique and knowledge that has survived to the present day. An in-depth analysis of five of these barniz de Pasto objects, dated to the first half and last quarter of the 17th century based on their iconography, was carried out through a combination of non-invasive and micro-invasive techniques, including portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy to investigate the possible presence of inorganic pigments, and fiber-optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) and reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS) to provide molecular information on colorants and their distributions across the objects. Dyes and pigments were also identified using Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). The nature of the resin was determined by FTIR and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), while the decoration stratigraphy and composition were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). This paper confirms the use of mopa mopa, the resin used in the barniz de Pasto technique, in two objects not previously analyzed, and identifies indigo, insect-based red, calomel, lead white, and an unknown flavonol-based yellow dye, and challenges the use of calomel as a temporal marker for these works. Taken together, these results expand our understanding of the material use and explorations undertaken by artists during this time period to create such elaborate and enduring objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore what campesino [peasant] livelihoods in the rural Andean mountains of Colombia offer to understandings of more-than-human co-existence and care. For, while new conservation paradigms promise to transform economic and social horizons, being "paramuno" [resident of the "paramo," or high moorlands] in the small community of Monquentiva is already characterized by becoming-with-other-beings-and-practices; a disposition toward incorporation of elements that are at-hand, and an ethics of care toward other beings in the landscape. We draw on ethnographic data to present this case study, emphasizing the forms of social organization and persistence that have enabled the emergence of economically and ecologically sustainable livelihoods. We explore these processes in terms of what we call world-making practices, showing how relationships with Indigeneity and collectivity are being renegotiated, and arguing for modes of conservation that engage with existing forms of peasant innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the purpose of ending wars, international organizations and governments promote reintegration projects that seek to transform combatants affiliated with illegal armed groups into citizens through education. The assumption behind these efforts is that through education, ex-combatants will become economically independent, overcome marginalization, experience personal transformations, and integrate into communities. This paper questions this optimistic narrative of education by highlighting the differentiated meanings of education for ex-combatants reintegrating in urban Colombia. Listening to the voices of ex-combatants who have engaged in technical and vocational education programs, this paper compares policy narratives with ex-combatants' narratives regarding the role of education in the reintegration process. The analysis reveals how for ex-combatants, education is a complex social practice that redistributes resources and contributes to positive psychosocial and empowerment transformations. At the same time, it is a process of insertion into an individualistic system and adaptation to unequal participation within the country's socio-economic hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess whether the Colombian Constitutional Court has had a transformative approach to transitional justice in relation to conflict-related sexual violence. Building upon previous literature on feminist approaches to transitional justice, we carry out a content analysis of all 37 Autos related to conflict-related sexual violence issued by the Colombian Constitutional Court between 2008 and 2016. In doing so, we delve into how the high court identifies perpetrators and survivors of sexual violence, the causes that lead to sexual violence during conflict and displacement, and the measures they propose to eradicate this crime. Overall, while we find that critical decisions are transformative in most of the analysed dimensions, there remains some room for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the determinants of rural-urban student performance in Colombia, a nation characterized by pronounced inequality. Using quantile regression, a student-level education production function at different points along the achievement distribution is estimated. Using the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, estimates are provided to explain the achievement differential between urban–rural students. These estimates account for various factors including individual, family, and school characteristics. Results indicate that mean differences in performance between students in rural and urban Colombian schools are significant. Observable factors, especially school characteristics, are the main drivers of the performance gap. Substantial differences are observed when different test percentiles of the performance distribution are considered. Our results suggest that one way in which education can reduce student performance gaps is by investing in improving school quality in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanitarian and development agencies intervening in Latin American cities increasingly face the challenge posed by criminal armed groups (CAGs). Yet, there is a need for evidence‐based comparative studies on how international agencies deal with them. Drawing on data collected in Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Mexico, this paper presents a novel typology of humanitarian organisations' access strategies that distinguishes between different levels of interaction with CAGs. The paper shows how humanitarian agencies assess a variety of risks and balance the potential consequences of their engagement with CAGs with the need to maintain constructive and trustful relationships with the state and the community with which they work. It finds that indirect dialogue or negotiation with CAGs via community leaders who act as intermediaries might provide a low‐risk alternative to direct negotiation with CAG leaders, provided that 'do no harm' and humanitarian protection considerations vis‐à‐vis communities and intermediaries play a central role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of Venezuelans nationals to other Latin-American countries has been defined as the most significant migratory phenomenon in the recent story of the region, with Colombia being the country that hosts the highest number of Venezuelan nationals. From a human rights perspective, this article critically analyzes the response of the Colombian State to address migration from Venezuela. The objective of this article is to show that Colombia has preferred to govern this migration through the creation of ad hoc permits, instead of recognizing the need for international protection of this population and their status as refugees. To this end, this paper analyzes the Colombian regulatory framework on migration and refuge and, in particular, the response of the Colombian State to the migration of people from Venezuela. Its central argument is that the Colombian authorities have opted for the design and implementation of alternative measures of migratory regularization, as it was at the time the Special Permit of Permanence and is today the Permit for Temporary Protection. This article concludes by stating that the approach to Venezuelan migration has led to a clear detriment to the refugee system, today collapsed and with no prospect of reform or strengthening. This is so because the institutional design of the Colombian refuge entails a host of obstacles that discourage applicants from following this path, even when they require international protection. The authors of this paper use legal dogmatic as the main research methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal transport sector has various ambivalent characteristics and often a negative connotation since it commonly operates unauthorized and illicitly and is not part of the official transport sector. However, the informal sector provides a mix of legitimate transport offerings as well as important complementary services. The paper focuses on these 'new mobilities' and aims to understand informal transportation systems not only as a service coverage in specific areas lacking formal transit, but also as an activity that arises as a popular form of struggle and a covert and unorganized form of resistance against the political power embedded in dominant transportation systems. Through an empirical study conducted in the region of Urabá in Colombia the paper explores how the dominant agricultural industries in the region are causing huge challenges related to the overlap of transportation scales, congestion and risks of accidents in urban areas, affecting urban development, and how injustices of the existing public transport services and insufficient road infrastructures trigger the production of informal transportation. The paper mobilizes the theory of 'everyday forms of resistance', which draws attention to certain common behaviour and activities of subaltern groups as tactics to survive and undermine repressive domination. As such, this paper questions through its case study to what extent the informal transportation actions in Urabá are in a way challenging oppression and can be called an everyday form of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article presents the results of an exploratory study for illuminating the state of the research concerning public policy in Colombia. A core assumption of the project is that the national capacity (intellectual capital) for producing relevant and thorough research in public policy, theory and practice, is a key element for the quality of its democracy and the sustainability of the system. A systematic documentary review of the research papers produced between 2008 and 2018 was conducted, spanning a total of 1010 papers. The results point to the relevance of continuing this type of study within Colombia and to the need of involving all the stakeholders in a dialogue about how to improve the country's capacity to design, implement, and evaluate sound public policies. Related Articles: Asongu, Simplice A. 2016. "Sino‐African Relations: A Review and Reconciliation of Dominant Schools of Thought." Politics & Policy 44(2): 351–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12152. De Lombaerde, Philippe. 2015. "The Political Economy of Trade Protection in Colombia." Politics & Policy 43(6): 855–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12140. Seefeldt, Jennapher Lunde. 2020. "Lessons from the Lithium Triangle: Considering Policy Explanations for the Variation in Lithium Industry Development in the 'Lithium Triangle' Countries of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia." Politics & Policy 48(4): 727–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12365. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: The article aims to analyze child recruitment as a form of human trafficking. Beyond the theoretical perspectives that focus on security or rights, it addresses the topic as a form of unfree labor. By means of a case study focused on child recruitment by right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia, the paper analyzes how children entered and exited illegal armed groups, the functions they performed, and the exploitation they endured. The research argues that child recruitment operates as a large-scale labor-market uptake in the wartime social order, where the “employers” are paramilitary groups, and the labor force, in part, consists of children and adolescents. Methodology: This case study relies on different sources of information: a database on child recruitment provided by the special Justice and Peace Unit of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office (989 cases between 1981 and 2005), sentences of Peace and Justice, testimonials given by victims in judicial processes, and semi-structured interviews with different actors. Conclusions: The paper shows that child recruitment as a form of trafficking is functional to wartime social order in contexts of poverty and inequality. There is demand and supply; thus, both girls and boys, who worked as soldiers, are not only victims but also agents that make decisions in challenging conditions. Therefore, if the socioeconomic options for these children, even after their demobilization from the armed group, are still a choice between bad and worse, joining a violent (no longer “armed” but “criminal”) group will remain a feasible alternative. Originality: The article contributes to the academic literature on a recent topic, such as the overlapping between child recruitment and human trafficking in armed conflict and post-conflict situations. It also contributes to the literature on “unfree labor,” as the study focuses on an actor (illegal armed groups) that has not been analyzed until now. Finally, the research demonstrates the limits of understanding human trafficking (and child recruitment as a form of trafficking) as a problem of security or rights entitlement. It highlights the analytical and political advantages of categories such as “unfree labor” to provide effective solutions for the prevention and reintegration of child soldiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the entrepreneurship and reintegration of Colombians who migrated to Venezuela around 2000 and were arbitrarily deported to Colombia in 2015 by the Venezuelan government. It asks to what extent their cross-border spatial mobilities and social networks help develop their microenterprises and how the geopolitical context influences their socioeconomic reintegration. The methodology includes multi-sited ethnographic observation, biographical interviews, mental maps, and participatory Minga workshops carried out with 18 individuals. It is concluded that, despite their remarkable resilience, these individuals and their business ventures face constant precarity due to a lack of state support, prevalent geopolitical conflicts, a weak local economy, and the trauma of deportation. At the same time, in an attempt to improve their socioeconomic reintegration, returning migrants deploy cross-border mobility strategies to take advantage of the opportunities offered by different localities in Colombia and Venezuela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in Colombia present high rates of mental health problems, to which the country's history of armed internal conflict contributes in complex ways. Mental health services in Colombia are fragmented, inadequate, and difficult to access for many. Young people's help-seeking is often hindered by mental health stigma and/or poor experiences with services. This paper presents a thematic analysis of qualitative data from a mixed-methods study aimed at developing and testing a mental health intervention for Colombian youths. We draw upon theoretical lenses from scholarly work on stigma and Sen's 'capabilities approach' to inform our analysis of interviews and group discussions with staff and young people involved in the state-funded human capital building programme 'Jovenes en Acción' (JeA). By illustrating how study participants talked about stigma, vulnerability, mental health services organisation, and the challenges of discussing mental health topics in a learning environment, we illuminate aspects of mental health support and anti-stigma interventions that might need enhancing. In particular, we suggest that more emphasis on 'community competencies' as complementary to and interrelated with individual competencies would strengthen young people's individual and collective resources for mental wellbeing while being in line with the sociocritical principles of existing human capital-enhancing programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an investigation of the main causes of migration of the Wayuu to urban areas of Colombia and Venezuela and the effect this has caused on the contact between Wayuunaiki and Spanish. Through interviews, ethnographic observations and bibliographic consultations, we identify the voluntary and forced causes of this long-lasting migration that continues to develop. The settlement in urban areas and the growing bilingualism of the Wayuu facilitates the development of an ethnolect specific to the ethnic group, distinguished by the use of lexical borrowings, morphosyntactic combinations and codeswitching. This paper contributes to the existing literature by identifying more features and examples of the products of this linguistic and cultural contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to suggest a mathematical model of unpaid housework and empirically test its main predictions using data from Mexico (2014) and Colombia (2017) time-use surveys. The model, based upon the Marxist-feminist approach, suggests that the magnitude of unpaid housework is determined by the super-exploitation of labor, i.e. the gap between wages and the value of labor-power. The outcome is an equation that relates positively the magnitude of unpaid housework with the super-exploitation of labor. The parametric and nonparametric regression estimates applied in both countries show preliminary empirical support for the theoretical model. The theoretical and empirical findings have several implications for Marxist-feminist literature as well as for empirical research on unpaid housework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID 19 pandemic, Online Asynchronous Focus Groups (OAFG) through WhatsApp were conducted to explore women's experiences in the context of Congenital Syphilis prevention in Colombia. This paper discusses issues raised by the OAFGs (not least in relation to face-to-face focus groups). After a review of the literature on online and offline focus groups, there is a consideration of some key features of our OAFGs. In particular, we note how silence, presence, attention, continuity and multiplicity manifested in our OAFGs. We suggest that rather than regarding OAFGs as inferior to the 'gold standard' of face-to-face focus groups, our OAFGs raise important questions about our assumptions about focus group methodology. For instance, what counts as participant engagement, what comprises 'useful' social data, and what constitute the boundaries of a focus group all emerge as critical issues. We go on to reflect on some of the implications of these issues for the fruitfulness of OAFG methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Genocide” is a key frame through which death is given social significance. Scholars have argued that genocide sits at the top of a hierarchy of grief – signalling it as the most profound paradigm through which those killed can be mourned. How does the mourning of life unfold when legal and social conceptualizations of genocide diverge? And what does this divergence tell us about the power of “genocide” as a label for violence? Focusing on the extermination campaign against Colombia’s Patriotic Union (UP) political party, this paper examines how recent transitional justice programmes have interpreted the question of genocide and violence against political groups. I specifically trace the development of two separate, discursive registers of genocide: one legal and one of “common parlance.” In so doing, I contribute to scholarly concern with the question of genocide and political groups in two ways. First, I interpret the exclusion of political groups from legal definitions of genocide as a question of grieveable life. Secondly, scholarly debate has focused on whether or not political groups ought to be protected under genocide law. I diverge from these questions to trace how emergent genocide discourses include political groups as a socially but not legally included within the term’s purview. I thus argue for scholarly attention to how political groups are interpellated in a manner that neither fully recognizes nor denies their status as victims of genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rickettsiae are obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacteria that are the causative agent of rickettsioses and are spread to vertebrate hosts by arthropods. There are no previous reports of isolation of Rickettsia amblyommatis for Colombia. Methods: A convenience sampling was executed in three departments in Colombia for direct collection of adult ticks on domestic animals or over vegetation. Ticks were screened for the presence of Rickettsia spp. by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) amplifying the citrate synthase gene (gltA), and the positive sample was processed for isolation and further molecular characterization by conventional PCR. The absolute and relative frequencies were calculated for several tick species variables. All products from conventional PCR were further purified and sequenced by the Sanger technique. Representative sequences of 18 Rickettsia species were downloaded from GenBank. Consensus phylogenetic trees were constructed for the gltA, ompB, ompA, and htrA genes with 1000 replicates, calculating bootstrap values through the maximum likelihood method and the generalized time reversible substitution model in the MEGA 7.0 software program. Results: One female Amblyomma mixtum collected on vegetation was amplified by qPCR (gltA), indicating a frequency of 1.6% (1/61) for Rickettsia spp. infection. Sequence analysis of a rickettsial isolate from this tick in BLASTn showed 100% identity with gltA (340 base pairs [bp]), 99.87% for ompB (782 bp), 98.99% for htrA (497 bp), and 100% for ompA (488 bp) to R. amblyommatis. Concatenated phylogenetic analysis confirmed these findings indicating that the isolate is grouped with other sequences of Amblyomma cajennense complex from Panama and Brazil within the R. amblyommatis clade. Conclusions: This paper describes the isolation and early molecular identification of a R. amblyommatis strain from A. mixtum in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of research conducted with the objective of knowing the perceptions of people in Colombia about the possibility of receiving a universal basic income, which does not exist thus far in the country. The research question was: how do the social perceptions of Colombians about receiving a UBI allow them to understand the possibilities of developing a public policy that guarantees it? A qualitative methodology of grounded theory was applied by conducting 37 in-depth interviews with adults of all socioeconomic levels, all educational levels and productive working age. The information obtained was coded. The resultant main categories with which the Grounded Theory was built were mistrust in others, hope for a better society, unconditional support, and implementation scenario. It was concluded that, if there is an intention to implement the UBI in Colombia, there must be policies that contribute to changing the mistrust and fear of citizens to receive support from the State by solidarity and equity so that UBI can be assume as a right that contributes to the construction of justice and social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which women victim/survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and other human rights abuses in Colombia are co-facilitating repair and regeneration in their wider social ecologies – including their families, communities, built and natural environments – through their physical and emotional work. I begin by exploring the concept of co-facilitation which is used in socio-ecological resilience literature to designate the process through which individuals and communities cooperate with their social ecologies to make positive development possible after stressful/traumatic experiences despite systemic inequality and oppression. Using empirical data and following a growing corpus of literature which recognises that during war people are not only harmed but also build life alongside violence, I argue that victim/survivors and women-led organizations cooperate to co-facilitate positive change in women's lives and their communities. The paper concludes by reflecting on the role of these organizations as central resources in women's lives and the need to strengthen them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between Marxism and social sciences in Estudios Marxistas. Revista colombiana de ciencias sociales, published between 1969 and 1987 by a group of intellectuals of the Communist Party. The central argument argues that the appearance of this publication, its production dynamics, its interpretation of Marxism and social research, as well as the debates it generated, can be explained by the need of this group of intellectuals to dispute the nascent academic field, where intellectual nuclei of the "new left" had great influence. In order to develop this argument, the paper is structured in four parts. The first reconstructs the political and intellectual context in which Estudios Marxistas emerged and examines the project it outlined. The second describes the dynamics of its scientific production. The third part studies some of the uses that the research presented therein made of the Marxist tradition. The fourth part analyzes the critique of the Estudios Marxistas editorial group of the "new history" current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of state classification practices have long interrogated how official legal categories are constructed. This paper analyzes the construction of "victimhood" in Colombia as a feat that required negotiation among international human rights organizations, local civil society actors, and politicians across the partisan spectrum. The Victims' Law of 2011, which sought to provide widespread reparations to victims of the civil conflict, originated from the concerns of the human rights community, yet the deliberation process leading up to the law's passage reveals the extent to which elite historical narratives of the conflict unduly narrowed the universe of eligible victims. Using archival evidence from congressional debates from 2007 to 2011, this paper argues that the broad conception of victimhood originally inherited from United Nations guidelines came to be constrained by disproportionate influence from politicians' personal understandings of conflict history, shaped by anecdote and the selective use of historical evidence. These rationales interacted with budgetary constraints to ultimately restrict the victim category according to negotiated temporal boundaries of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the connections between the expansion of mining capital, speculative forms of land grabbing and agrarian transformation. It is argued that in periods of commodity boom, the landowning rural elite benefits from mining through speculative land deals with mining companies. They act as 'land brokers' for the mining firms, helping them to overcome a significant barrier to land accumulation through the de facto abolition of landed property. The analysis is based on a qualitative case study on the expansion of coal mining in central Cesar in northern Colombia. To develop my arguments, I refer to the concept of accumulation by dispossession as defined by Michael Levien, and historical materialist approaches on rent, and speculative land dispossession. In addition, I use concepts developed for studying coercive land grabbing and agrarian elite participation in armed conflicts to analyse the mechanisms applied to (coercively) acquire rights to land. It is concluded that with high global prices for minerals, metals and fossil fuels, the expansion of mining in the countryside fosters a process of agrarian change through land speculation that is articulated in a reconcentration of landed property, a re‐strengthening of the rural landowning elite and the dissolution of peasant agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes some indicators of the Colombian educational system considering the effect of the pandemic and assesses the causal effect of an alternation plan between face-to-face and remote education, conducted in 2020, on the results of an achievement test. Indicators reveal that the pandemic caused a greater demand for education services in public schools, increased dropout, and repetition rates, and widened the gaps in academic performance. The causal empirical exercise indicates that the students who participated in the experiment obtained, on average, better results in the achievement test compared to students who remained in the non-face-to-face scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a case study from southwest Colombia, this paper provides hopeful example of an intercultural social movement popular education initiative which brings together social movements across territorial, political and cultural borders in order to generate unity and collaboration between these counter-hegemonic forces in the southwest of Colombia. It examines the learning and knowledge which have emerged from this initiative, led by a small, radical human rights organisation called Nomadesc, which over the course of two decades has brought together activists from diverse movements and territories across southwest Colombia in order to empower them to deal with the violent context, reimagine alternatives, and strengthen and interweave their struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rickettsiae are obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacteria that are the causative agent of rickettsioses and are spread to vertebrate hosts by arthropods. There are no previous reports of isolation of Rickettsia amblyommatis for Colombia. Methods: A convenience sampling was executed in three departments in Colombia for direct collection of adult ticks on domestic animals or over vegetation. Ticks were screened for the presence of Rickettsia spp. by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) amplifying the citrate synthase gene (gltA), and the positive sample was processed for isolation and further molecular characterization by conventional PCR. The absolute and relative frequencies were calculated for several tick species variables. All products from conventional PCR were further purified and sequenced by the Sanger technique. Representative sequences of 18 Rickettsia species were downloaded from GenBank. Consensus phylogenetic trees were constructed for the gltA, ompB, ompA, and htrA genes with 1000 replicates, calculating bootstrap values through the maximum likelihood method and the generalized time reversible substitution model in the MEGA 7.0 software program. Results: One female Amblyomma mixtum collected on vegetation was amplified by qPCR (gltA), indicating a frequency of 1.6% (1/61) for Rickettsia spp. infection. Sequence analysis of a rickettsial isolate from this tick in BLASTn showed 100% identity with gltA (340 base pairs [bp]), 99.87% for ompB (782 bp), 98.99% for htrA (497 bp), and 100% for ompA (488 bp) to R. amblyommatis. Concatenated phylogenetic analysis confirmed these findings indicating that the isolate is grouped with other sequences of Amblyomma cajennense complex from Panama and Brazil within the R. amblyommatis clade. Conclusions: This paper describes the isolation and early molecular identification of a R. amblyommatis strain from A. mixtum in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a compendium of good practices detected from the application of the Social Profitability Indicator in Communication IRSCOM to a group of 12 community and indigenous public interest stations in Colombia during the year 2022. The IRSCOM-RADCC (Radio Comunitaria Colombia) is a tested methodology that is specified in 33 indicators and is designed to collect quantitative and qualitative information on the internal functioning of the media in relation to six categories of analysis: management, social capital, territorial and citizen articulation, programming, Internet activity and infrastructure. The information collected goes through a weighting process that results in numerical scores for each of its variables allowing to observe strengths and weaknesses. The tool facilitates the collection of qualitative information in the form of good practices for each of its variables, thanks to the results of the semi-structured interview that accompanies the IRSCOM implementation methodology. The results have shown ingenious ways by radios to self-manage, as well as loyalty participation, both in management and in the realization of programs. There is also a growing interest in diversity and differential aspects in the configuration of social capital and in the programmatic contents as well as a high level of linkage with the social fabric. All this makes them the axis of territorial structuring and enhancement of proximity communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, systemic, autoimmune disease of multifactorial origin. There are no previous studies in Colombia describing juvenile SLE (jSLE) prevalence, prompting this demographic description. Objective: This study aimed for prevalence calculation and epidemiologic analysis of jSLE) in Colombian patients, ages 0–19, from 2015 to 2019. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study searched the Colombian Ministry of Health database for codes of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) associated with jSLE to estimate the disease prevalence for the total population and for specific age groups at national and regional levels. Calculations used intercensal estimates of population based on the projections of the national statistics administrative department (DANE) from the most recent census. This paper presents a sociodemographic analysis of patients with jSLE. Results: The study identified in Colombia, from 2015 to 2019, 3680 cases with jSLE as the principal diagnosis. Calculated prevalence of jSLE was 25 cases per 100,000 population, with highest frequency in ages 15–19 and females (84%), with a female:male ratio of 5.1:1. Conclusion: Estimated prevalence of jSLE in Colombia is at the highest limit of worldwide findings. Consistent with reports in the literature, the disease involves females more frequently than males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using estimations by Bresser-Pereira et al. (2021), this paper analyses the misalignment between the real exchange rate and the current account equilibrium exchange rate in Colombia in the last two decades (2000-2020). Evidence suggests that the commodity boom and bust cycle in this period is important to explain (i) the main trend of the misalignment, (ii) the deterioration of the current account in recent years and (iii) the general macroeconomic performance of the Colombian economy. A discussion about macroeconomic development and stability is also provided in the context of the Colombian financial configuration, characterized by a flexible exchange rate regime, central bank independence and inflation targeting. Ideas in this paper are consistent with key elements in the New Developmentalism Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]