vol. 22 núm. 105 (2014)

This article identifies and characterizes the different styles of directing management used at educational institutions (herein referred to as x and y). At each institution, the style of leadership and implications of its use within the processes of school life is examined, because its specific contexts facilitate a differentiated recognition. The article also analyzes diverse interactions that occur in the daily lives of institutions, showing a close connection between, on the one hand, directing styles, leadership, management and communication, and on the other hand, personality, ethical and professional training, style, formulas for treating those who are directed, and basic factors when directing the destinies of those under the institution’s charge. In this realm, the management of interests, conflicts, needs, expectations, attitudes, etc. among those who share and “coexist” within the institution produces a unique social and cultural construction that benefits and affects the training processes that take place.

This article presents the results of research that was part of the celebration of the International Year of Family Farming in 2014, in the specific case of the Association of Women Coffee Growers (Asociación de Mujeres Cafeteras) in the municipality of La Plata, Huila. The article shows the many contributions of family farming in Colombia, while stressing its potential to face the challenges of agriculture and food in the country, which can be boosted when dealt with through a social and solidarity organization. The research shows how family farming systems fulfil the following characteristics: legal landholding, hiring of labor at harvest times (the rest of the time they use family labor), the production system mixes the traditional with the innovative or technical, there is concern over soil conservation and environmental preservation, they have a commercial product as their economic backbone and simultaneously develop other productive systems for self-consumption and/or the market, also because multi-functionality requires them to have simultaneous access to multiple sources of resources, among others. Also, when shared needs are identified and there is a commitment to satisfy them, awareness is generated that family farming signifies great wealth for households. However, the work becomes more visible when there is a contribution to the development of each family and community through social and solidarity associativity.

Various proposals arise from this issue of the journal Cooperativismo y Desa­rrollo, which point to the discussion about new challenges and perspectives regarding cooperativism and development. Conventional development models, which have only generated erosion in the structures and systems within Latin America, are being questioned, so that with respect to the Western idea of development, alternatives arise that rescue the wisdom, customs and dialogs that mainly come from the original peoples of the South of the continent.

This article presents reflections (resulting from a Master’s dissertation in sociology) about diversecontributions by the solidarity economy networks in the construction of a solidarity market in Brazil.The first part of the article is a discussion about the different characteristics of the networks in terms ofmore general social theories, such as networks in the field of the solidarity economy. The second partbriefly characterizes the Redes Bodega, acs Amazonia, Rede Ecovida, Central do Cerrado and JustaTrama networks, showing their fair trade and solidarity trade practices, history and the actors involved.Finally, the considerations present certain challenges faced by the networks, along with impacts that theactors in the networks experience within them.

The competitive success of companies, according to Navas and Urbina (2002), comes from the identification and management of intangible assets, which has become indispensable for organizations when making a correct assessment of their productive processes. The valuation of productive processes in the field of cooperative management has not remained aloof from this procedure, but nor does it receive the value that it deserves, because the cooperative sector has also failed to value its positioning in the productive realm in which it works and what this leads to. However, the strategies of companies and cooperatives todayrequire a correct and sure knowledge of the intangibility of their own products, and of the effects of their activities in the areas in which they move. Intangible assets are becoming the key to the competitive success of companies, so that their identification, measurement and assessment is a relevant field of study that is now even indispensable for an organization. In this article, the cooperatives in the province of Toledo have been chosen as an example of the potential for the application of strategies for valuation of intangibles, and as a tool for competitive advantage in the context of the opening of new international commercialization channels.

The evolutionary context of the agrarian sector in France led the agrarian cooperatives to create groups of companies that combine the traditional cooperatives, responsible for the production process, with subsidiaries to add value to production. This article shows the specificity of the agrarian cooperative groups in France. The new cooperative structure leads to a connection between the associative governance mode of the traditional structure and the equity governance mode of the subsidiaries in a hybrid mode that gives rise to an identity crisis for this type of company.

The project for generational renewal for the sustainability of coffee culture in northern Tolima began as a strategy designed by the Coffee Growers Cooperative of Northern Tolima (Cooperativa de Caficultores del Norte del Tolima, Cafinorte), aimed at stopping the mass migration of young farmers to the cities. It promotes participation by the rural community, particularly students, in the building and cohesion of the social fabric. It does so through a process of education and training in which young people discover the potential opportunities that their farms can provide as organizations and companies. The context in which the research is carried out is determined by the radius of action of the cooperative in the municipalities of Fresno, where the head office of Cafinorte is located, and in Herveo, Palocabildo and Falán in the department of Tolima. The process for learning entrepreneurship consists of education and training in associative culture and solidarity entrepreneurship with support from the rural schools in the area of influence of the cooperative. The goal is to change paradigms learned from their parents to enable them to interpret their reality and find possible alternatives that would make their farms productive.

The article proposes a shift in traditional economic theory based on contributions from the field of comprehensive economic theory by Luis Razeto Migliario (1994). To do so, in addition to showing important aspects of the proposed theory, the results are given from an approach based on the experience of associativity in certain agricultural and livestock raising organizations in three municipalities in eastern Antioquia. These organizations, rather than focusing on growth of the capital factor, are strengthened through growth of the community factor by boosting the other factors (work, financial means, material means, technology and management). The research takes place in the context of the farming economy, which is examined using the Forero approach (2003), and stresses the family farming nature of theorganizations. It is clear from the characteristics of the association under study that, although they have not developed strong financial and material factors, they are held together by values that strengthen the community factor.