The present work characterizes the social protest in Chile between the years 2006-2011. After a registration and review of the protest actions that took place around the student, mapuche and environmental conflict, its scope and intensity (number of days and number of protest actions) is analyzed, the repertoire of action deployed around each axis of conflict and its geographical location, pointing out some elements of continuity and rupture over time, as well as differences and similarities between the protest movements. Finally, some to be developed areas of analysis are outlined within the framework of an ongoing research program.

Among the examples of microcredit in Brazil, the Oriented Productive Microcredit Program of Banco del Nordeste, the CrediAmigo Program, stands out. This proposal seeks to evaluate the impacts of the CrediAmigo Program on the perception of the managers, credit advisors and / or coordinators and beneficiaries, in municipalities in northern Minas Gerais. This proposal stands out for studying one of the poor regions of Brazil, which needs external stimuli to develop, in addition to field research with different social actors of CrediAmigo. Through content analysis, this study identified the positive effects of microcredit, consistent with the theory, considering it an instrument capable of strengthening ventures and raising the income of beneficiary families, even identifying an improvement in the quality of life.

In this article, we carry out, in the first place, a critical and contextualized review of the literature produced in the academic field of Electronic Participation in recent years, presenting its main proposals and analyzing its strengths and weaknesses. Later we present a series of basic concepts that allow us to understand the essential aspects of digital participation: what is (e) Participation, what are its characteristics, dynamics, justification and implications.

In this paper we explore the idea that talented migrants can assist in the development and growth of their economies of origin through brain-circulation dynamics, linking the developed world where they live and developing homelands they (or their ancestors in the case of later-generation diasporans) left behind. Depending on the roles these talented people play in the organizational (and institutional) environment at both ends of the migratory trail, different alternatives of diaspora-led initiatives are available to them. When these roles are attached to the private sector, the introduction of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives piggybacking preexisting diaspora tools (such as talent networks, open migration chains, diaspora-oriented institutions, etc.) might be the more appropriate and efficient channels.

The decrease in the population of primary school age is an irreversible trend that poses important challenges for the authorities, institutions and policies that govern the educational system in Mexico. This fact offers a scenario in which the teachers will foreseeably face groups of less numerous students, facilitating a lightening of the teachers' workloads, as well as a greater interaction of these with their students. Common sense suggests that these two factors can benefit school performance. However, international experiences show that the above does not necessarily occur automatically. The results in this regard suggest that the decrease in the size of the classes must be accompanied by a set of public policy measures that favor the teaching and learning process. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on class size as a conditioning factor of quality and school performance in Mexico, but above all, provide elements for the design and implementation of a public policy aimed at making the decrease in the number of students per group, an opportunity to improve educational quality.

Although the background of the concept of "social cohesion" refers to classical sociology, it has been in the last three decades when the term has gained a new impulse, being rethought as an axis of analysis and orientation in the field of public policies, especially regarding the policies of the European Union. Currently, both the definition and the scope of application of social cohesion has become a source of debate since its insertion in Latin America, where the context of violence, exclusion and the highest levels of economic inequality in the world have raised new challenges and critical positions towards the application of social cohesion policies and even towards the use of the term itself.

Given the growing interest of governments and public administrations to develop citizen participation initiatives, this article provides an approach to some of the possible mechanisms for incorporating citizens into political and public decisions. Information and Communication Technologies can bring advantages to participatory processes to streamline and disseminate them; but they can also limit participation to those who do not access the Internet. Since we live immersed in a society in which access to information and knowledge can be carried out through multiple channels, it is recommended that citizen participation initiatives be designed from an integral perspective, taking into account both virtual and on-site participation mechanisms.

Conditional Transfer Programs implemented by different governments in Latin America have given mothers a central role in reducing poverty and generating family well-being. These initiatives have had a positive impact in some countries where they have managed to ensure subsistence conditions for their users, without this implying a transformation in the relationships between men and women. From a gender perspective, I review two recurring and common problems in the elaboration of these programs: the first, regarding the dilemma of paid work / unpaid work and, the second, the issue of care. I conclude that the monetary transfer programs have reinforced the sexual division of labor in the user families, and have been weak in promoting the social empowerment of female household heads. Its limited link with the labor market has been decisive for the reproduction of gender relations.

In recent years, the concept of open government has spread strongly and has been installed on the world political agenda in a surprising way. However, it is an idea and a model in the construction phase whose ambiguity and lack of consensus definition can significantly harm the potentialities attributed to it, as a new paradigm that allows building capacities to adequately take on the challenges of the 21st century, on the base of putting into practice the principles of transparency and openness, participation and accountability in public affairs. The article discusses the origins and scope of the concept and proposes an operational definition. In addition, and taking the case of the recently created "Open Government Partnership" (OGP), a framework of reference is proposed to evaluate the action plans that the Latin American countries have committed joining this initiative. Under this perspective, the comparative analysis of action plans allows us to extract lessons learned that can contribute to strengthening and consolidating efforts to "open" governments in the region, from a vision linked to the concept of open and collaborative governance. Finally, we reflect on the possibility that under the label of open government a new agenda for state reform and modernization of public management will be promoted for the coming years in Latin America.

In the present study, which is part of the doctoral research, we seek, first of all, to approach the process of Latin American decentralization as a whole to observe its progress and its most visible difficulties, highlighting the importance of institutionality (both formal and informal) in the levels of success or failure of these reforms. Next, we take the Colombian case to carry out a two-way review: first, we look at the institutional design that frame this transfer of competencies, and then, through a case study, point out points of importance within the local contexts that mark the prevalence (and sometimes strengthening) of non-democratic mechanisms after the decentralization reforms. We conclude this work by emphasizing the need to review not only the formal issues involved in a new role of the local sphere, but also the informal issues traced by social conceptions around the public, the role of state agencies, and citizens themselves in the definition of objectives and in the implementation of mechanisms to achieve them jointly in pursuit of the common good.