This paper develops a common agency problem using a two stages menu auction game to show how pressure groups can aid in deciding how much public good should be provided. By sorting people into different pressure groups that represent the individuals’ preferences for the public good, the interaction among the pressure groups is an important element that could improve the provision of public goods.This paper sketches a very simple mechanism to provide a general contribution to finance a public good. In this model, the presence of pressure groups improves the undersupply of public goods typical in voluntary contribution models, while avoiding the distortionary effects of non-lump-sum transfers of the involuntary contributions models.

An analysis of the slum grading processes of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Bogotá, Ciudad Bolívar. Many efforts of the municipality and the Colombian government to solve poverty issues in this area of Bogotá have not been proposed in the best manner. The government efforts have been implemented with a silo approach instead of foster changes in this marginal part of the Colombian society in a multidimensional way.Therefore this document uses two case studies. First, the case studies CODI (Community Organizations Development Institute) of Thailand as a governmental institution having a holistic view of the problematic as well as a holistic solution for the poverty problems. And second, the case of Medellín and the implementation of the MetroCable as a trigger for the development of housing and urban regeneration strategies in marginal areas.This documents analyses how Bogotá and its institutions are wasting a lot of efforts and opportunities to solve in a more effective manner poverty problems within its territory. Moreover, this thesis recognises the proposal of the MetroCable of Ciudad Bolívar as the perfect scenario to apply the PMR tool (Polígonos de Modalidad Reestructurante – Restructuring Nodules) to suggest a multidimensional slum upgrading process around this major urban intervention.

Este documento estudia el tema penitencia y nueve piezas penitenciales en las Canciones y villanescas espirituales de Francisco Guerrero (España, 1528 – 1599). Este cuerpo específico de repertorio, único en la España del siglo XVI, sirve como medio para hacer un análisis más global del tema penitencial en la música y la poesía de la época. El resultado es un análisis de los elementos textuales y musicales de estas obras penitenciales, acompañado por una investigación del contexto en el cual fuero creadas, publicadas e interpretadas.

Financial inclusion has become an important objective for policy makers and regulators around the world. This is perhaps due to greater access to financial services has been associated with promote more economic growth and sustainable development, therefore, greater inclusion is being considered as a fundamental tool to reduce poverty and as a key element to boost the economy, particularly in developing countries.However, despite the apparent benefits that it can bring to society, there are some aspects that are worth being considered in order to frame a clear vision that inspires better policies towards financial inclusion. An important question that emerges is what would be the challenges and the best alternatives to reach inclusion without going beyond what is necessary. Answering this question is perhaps the key point that regulators and policymakers should carefully consider before setting out new policies that seek better and greater access to financial services.The aim of this work is therefore highlight the emerging challenges and the possible alternatives that might have a positive impact in the enhancement of financial inclusion. To this end, it will provide a general overview of the current state of inclusion and it will present some figures of the progress achieved so far. It will also address two of the main issues that need to be overcome, specifically the shortcomings of regulations and the lack of financial literacy.This document will argue that the main challenge is to strike a balance between the interests of the different actors involved in the provision of financial services; therefore, the main role for regulators and policy makers should be set out a framework with fair condition for all participants and particular for those new actors, such as mobile network operators and correspondent banks, which are playing a fundamental role in the enhancement of financial inclusion. However, the shift towards proper inclusion might also require that these interventions are complemented by adequate education policies that promote a better use of financial services.

Previous studies have shown that residential water consumption in Phoenix, Arizona is significantly related to changes in climate, although that sensitivity varies substantially from one census tract to another. In this investigation, we determine the empirical relationship between water consumption and variations in temperature and precipitation. We find the sensitivity of consumption to either climate variable is positively related to the percent of land covered in mesic irrigated landscaping, mean household income, lot size, and percent of single-family residential lots containing swimming pools. We use estimated changes in temperature and precipitation for 50 model – scenario combinations presented by the IPCC, and we determined that mean water consumption should increase by an average of over three percent by 2050, but the climate-induced change in consumption varies considerably across the census tracts. 

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.

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.