With the advent of ubiquitous computing, interaction design has broadened its object of inquiry into how smart computational artifacts inconspicuously act in  people’s everyday lives. Although user-centered design approaches remains useful for exploring how people cope with interactive systems, they cannot explain how this new breed of artifact participates in people’s sociality. User-centered design approach assumes that humans control interactive systems, but neglects any possibility of the agency of smart artifacts.Following Actor-network Theory, this research recognizes that artifacts and humans share the capacity of influencing society and meshing with each other, constituting hybrid social actors. From that standpoint, the research offers a triadic structure of networked social interaction as a methodological basis to investigate how smart devices perceive their social setting and adaptively mediate people’s interactions within activities. These triadic units of analysis account for the interactions within and between humannonhuman collectives in the actor-network. The within interactions are those that hold together humans and smart artifacts inside a collective and put forward the collective’s assembled meaning for other actors in the network.The between interactions are those that occur among collectives and characterize the dominant relational model of the actor-network. This triadic approach was modeled and used to analyze the interactions of participants in three empirical studies of social activities with communal goals, each mediated by a smart artifact that enacted – signified – a balanced distribution of obligations and privileges among subjects. Overall, the studies found that actor-networks exhibit a social viscosity that hinders people’s interactions. This is because when people try to collectively accomplish goals, they offer resistance to one another. The studies also show that the intervention of smart artifacts can facilitate the achievement of cooperative and collaborative interaction between actors when the artifacts enact the dominant moral principles which prompt the preservation of social balance, enhance the network’s information integrity, and are located at the focus of activity. The articulation of Actor-Network Theory principles with interaction design methods opens up the traditional user-artifact dyad towards triadic collective enactment by embracing diverse kinds of participants and practices, thus facilitating the design of enhanced sociality. The theoretical conceptual framework, methods and tools developed in this research are relevant to product and interaction designers, ubiquitous computing and Science and technology studies (STS) researchers; as well as practitioners interested in making the interaction between humans and computers smarter, more intuitive and more enjoyable. The outcome of this research is addressed to designers, engineers and urban planners who are responsible for the design of the new generation of computational artifacts that will cohabitate today’s transportation terminals and vehicles, offices, parks, streets, among other social spaces of the constructed world.

Given the social inequalities that exist in Barranquilla and the lack of inclusive public environments, this research analyses the potential of scaling up the main asset of the city’s cultural capital – its carnival – to support a strategy that would materialize the vision of a city with useful, attractive, inclusive and vibrant public places that promote equality of quality of life during the whole year. Ethnographic research is done to understand the cultural DNA of the city, both during the carnival and the rest of the year, in order to have elements for the construction of the strategy. The research is done mainly on two levels: institutional and ground level, and has input from local authorities, academics, citizens, private and non-governmental organizations. From informal conversations, formal interviews, field observation and direct experience in the city the author analyses holistically physical, social, economic aspects among others. The first section of the work explains the importance of the carnival as part of the cultural capital of the city, and the social inclusiveness that occurs in public spaces when it takes place. The second section explains the main needs and challenges that the stakeholders of the carnival have in order to keep taking advantage of and growing this asset for the public good of the city. The third section proposes the strategy for Carnival 365 to provide solutions both to the lack of inclusive public spaces in the city, and the challenges of the carnival to keep operating in the long run. Fo r this purpose, the strategy integrates carnival initiatives and processes that are already operating in the city and have the potential to be scaled up to be available during the entire year in public spaces. Four main pillars of action are recommended to be implemented with specific initiatives that can be fostered to be the cement that would sustain the pillars of the strategy in its early stages of creation. The strategy proposes incremental solutions to understanding the city’s own capabilities and limitations, instead of embedding external models or initiatives that could be disrupting in the early stages of implementation. Finally, the conclusion connects the solutions that the strategy of Carnival 365 gives, based on the principles of equality within the context and urban complexities of Barranquilla, and provides a wider reflection about the relevance of the cultural capital of cities to provide quality of life and opportunities to citizens, despite the existence of large social inequalities.

Vista de la fachada del Convento de Santo Domingo, en Bogotá, ubicado en la actual (2017) calle 68 con carrera 1 (primera). Tras la demolición del Convento y de la Iglesia de Santo Domingo, ubicados en el centro de la ciudad, en 1939 y 1947, respectivamente, los dominicos iniciaron la construcción de un nuevo convento. Éste se construyó entre 1948 y 1953, en el nororiente de la ciudad.

Este estudio fue desarrollado para expandir el conocimiento actual sobre la productividad de profesores universitarios y los factores que pueden contribuir a incrementar los niveles de productividad académica de los docentes de educación superior. Se utilizó una muestra de aproximadamente 4000 profesores vinculados de tiempo completo a instituciones de educación superior en Estados Unidos de América. La muestra provino de una de las bases de datos restringida del National Center for Educational Statistics: National Study of Postsecondary Faculty 1999 –NSOPF:99 (Estudio Nacional de Profesores Universitarios). La primera pregunta de investigación, abordaba el problema de “cómo modelar estadísticamente la producción académica de profesores universitarios como variable latente”, fue desarrollada usando técnicas de modelación de ecuaciones estructurales (Structural Equation Modeling – SEM) tales como Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio (CFA), Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio de Múltiples Grupos, Análisis de Perfiles Latentes (LPA), y CFA con covariables (MIMIC). La segunda pregunta de investigación analizaba los factores asociados a niveles altos de productividad académica y fue abordada a través un grupo de análisis exploratorios, usando Modelos Jerárquicos de Regresión Logística (HGLM). Para modelar el comportamiento productivo de la muestra se identificaron tres factores: inflación, producción individual y producción colectiva, los cuales se constituyeron en la variable dependiente para la segunda pregunta de investigación. Múltiples variables, tales como, rango académico y tipo de institución, entre otras, fueron relacionadas de manera positiva o negativa a las tres variables dependientes. El efecto de las variables explicativas fue diferencial en cada uno de los factores. Estos resultados sugieren cierto nivel de independencia en las variables asociadas con cada uno de los factores en el modelo de producción académica. Adicionalmente, un segundo resultado de este estudio es el desarrollo de una nueva ruta analítica para entender la roductividad académica como una variable latente.  Los resultados del estudio tienen implicaciones importantes para la generación de políticas y estrategias para el desarrollo profesional de profesores universitarios. Adicionalmente, provee de información valiosa a investigadores en el área de superdotación y desarrollo del talento que están abordando el problema de cómo favorecer los procesos de producción creativa y de desarrollo del talento en adultos. Futuras investigaciones sobre productividad académica deberían incluir indicadores más amplios que permitan abordar otras dimensiones de las responsabilidades académicas de profesores universitarios como por ejemplo la docencia. Estos estudios permitirán tener una comprensión mas precisa de una concepción más amplia de lo que es la académica en instituciones de educación superior.

This thesis aims to increase the understanding about leadership in social innovation projects since they constitute an efficient alternative to merge the social and business arenas. In order to do so it identifies, describes and analyzes the characteristics that shape the perceived leadership style of the formal leader (Project Manager) of financially sustainable social innovation projects, departing from the challenges that this leaders face and the previous literature. The study begins examining the literature of social innovation projects to demonstrate that due to their specific nature, they constitute an interesting and particular context to study leadership. Then, the extensive leadership literature is explored in order to understand that different schools have described leadership styles using a diverse number of elements and that the different leadership schools have agreed that leadership is contingent to the context. Consequently, a framework of twelve unified characteristics was created to allow the re-definition of the existent leadership styles in a common language. Additionally, leadership in neighboring contexts (leadership in innovation and leadership in projects) was reviewed to identify common challenges with leaders of social innovation projects and the possible implications in terms of characteristics of their leaders. The study had an inductive approach and is cross-sectional, focusing on the most common challenges faced by the leaders of social innovation projects and the perceived characteristics present in leaders of social innovation projects. Semi-structured interviews were used to get the insights of eleven interviewees in ten financially sustainable social innovation projects in the UK. The analysis was developed using a series of templates which provided the flexibility to interpret and categorize the findings in order to answer the research question and accomplish the objective, combining both deductive and inductive reasoning. The results evidence six common challenges that those leaders of financially sustainable social innovation projects face as well as a set of twelve common characteristics that contains behaviors, knowledge, skills or emotional attributes that shape the leadership style. These are: the ability to build and maintain relationships, idealized influence, self-awareness of the leader, flexibility, delegation – Freedom, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, motivated by emotional reward, an awareness social need – personal motive, the ability to use business tools and understand social need, the ability to show evidence of social impact, and the ability to raise awareness of their cause and explain their business model. The results of the thesis contribute to the existing literature of the field and could have constructive implications in the selection of leaders for this type of projects, in the design of study programs, and in a clarification of the both the nature and the boundaries of field. Furthermore, the application of the results could impact positively giving hints on how to lead social innovation projects in order to obtain better results for both the project and society.

It is now widely acknowledged that is indispensable to address disaster risk in order to advance development efforts. Alongside other issues such as poverty, food security and land use planning, disaster risk needs to be mainstreamed into the development agendas of urban centres worldwide. The indissoluble bond between disasters and climate change has encouraged this mainstreaming to be carried out through the coordination of efforts between Disaster Risk Reduction DRR and Climate Change Adaptation CCA. The unequal paths of evolution and institutional arrangements for DRR and CCA in Colombia have rendered obstacles for their coordination. DRM started by focusing on response and recovery while forgoing the discourse about the social construction of disasters. In regards to CCA, an initial and needless focus on mitigation rather than adaptation, delayed the development of the adaptation agenda in Colombia. However, the recent acknowledgment of concepts such as vulnerability and resilience in the equation of risk have begun to pave the way for framing disasters as an issue of development. The linkage between climate change and disasters in Colombia, although with previous experiences, became evident with the extensive damages that the country experienced during La Niña 2010-2011. This series of events prompted the most recent efforts for development policy and practice that have targeted the coordination of DRR and CCA in the country to achieve sustainable development. Efforts for DRM at the city level have emerged as examples with the potential to prepare the Colombian urban settings for the challenges and uncertainties of future climate change impacts. For this potential to be materialised it is necessary to take advantage of the existing entry points for coordination of DRR and CCA and their mainstreaming into development planning. Since the same body in Colombia, the National Planning Department, leads the development of the guidelines for the advancement of the two fields, there are parallel levels of intervention amongst them that can facilitate joint actions. Targeting the vulnerability and the resilience building of populations in urban contexts must be the main objective of such efforts to effectively deal with disaster risk in Colombia as a way to advance development. 

Vista de la Torre del reloj, en Cartagena. La Torre del Reloj fue construida sobre la entrada principal de la muralla. Ha sufrido varias intervenciones arquitectónicas. La torre actual (2017), fue construida en las últimas décadas del siglo XVIII, por Luis Felipe Jaspe Franco, quien modificó la estructura original.

Vista del Castillo de San Felipe, en Cartagena. El Castillo o Fuerte de San Felipe de Barajas fue construido en el siglo XVI, dentro del proyecto general de amurallar la ciudad-puerto de Cartagena, con el fin de protegerla y defenderla de la invasión de tropas inglesas, francesas y holandesas, así como de asaltos de piratas. La construcción inició en 1586, a cargo del ingeniero italiano Bautista Antonelli. Posteriormente, en el siglo XVII, trabajaron en el proyecto Cristóbal de Roda, Francisco de Murga, Juan Betín, y Juan de Herrera y Sotomayor. En 1762, inició un proceso de intervención a cargo del militar Antonio de Arévalo. Estas obras culminaron a fines del siglo XVIII. En 1984, el Castillo de San Felipe fue incluido en la lista de Patrimonio de la Humanidad, por la UNESCO, y en 1995 fue declarado Bien de Interés Cultural del ámbito nacional, por Decreto 1911 del 2 de noviembre.

Vista frontal de la Capilla de Santa Isabel de Hungría, patrona de la Arquidiócesis de Bogotá. Se observa el Retablo en mármol, tallado por Giuseppe Cassioli, en el siglo XIX. En el retablo se encuentra el óleo de Santa Isabel de Hungría." La Catedral Primada de Colombia está ubicada en el costado oriental de la Plaza de Bolívar, en Bogotá. La edificación registrada en esta fotografía corresponde a la cuarta construcción. Fue diseñada y construida por Fray Domingo de Petrés y Nicolás León, entre 1807 y 1823. Posteriormente, entre 1943 y 1950 fue reformada por Alfredo Rodríguez Orgaz; A finales del siglo XX, entre 1993 y 1998, se adelantó la restauración, a cargo del arquitecto Jaime Salcedo y del canónigo Juan Miguel Huertas.

Comparsa en los Carnavales estudiantiles de Bogotá. Se desconoce el año, pero lo más probable es que corresponda a los carnavales de los años 1928, 1929 o 1930, registrados por Gumersindo Cuéllar.