vol. 14 núm. 22 (2007): enero - junio

La responsabilidad social es una expresión que cobra fuerza desde las publicaciones que sobre este tema se han realizado en el ámbito empresarial. A partir de ello, en el mundo de los negocios se crearon instrumentos y estándares para reportarle a sus stakeholders su desempeño responsable. Con el auge de este concepto, se ha venido pensando el tema para la institución universitaria, dando como posibilidad que se acoja el mismo esquema de las empresas para la universidad, situación a la que hay que ponerle cuidado, porque el esquema empresarial refuerza la imagen de las organizaciones económicas y la mejora de la rentabilidad.Desde una visión crítica, la responsabilidad social universitaria debe ser pensada de manera distinta, a partir de una cultura de la esperanza que critique el actual sistema económico y promueva la formación de ciudadanos responsables y capaces de transformar el mundo.

This writing has a double aim. On one hand, it aims at talking about the role that civil participation may play in the construction of the Educating City; on the other hand, it aims at contributing, if possible, with some methodological elements that be useful in its construction. Nevertheless, all aspects expressed here with reference to the participative dimension about the educating city are considered within a wider conceptual and argumentative framework, that will be presented in a very concise way.

The Platonic Academy, of which the current university institution feels very proud, -- with the pride inherent to a high-origin glory --, was endowed with a spirit that is currently foreign to most of its immensurable offspring. A number of promoters, authorities, directives, faculty staff and students, lost nowadays in themarvelously globalized confusion, not only ignore the existence and nature of Academy, but also understand it as an impossibility for our times, refuse it as a foreign entity for the interests of “majorities” and label it with pejorative “idealism” or simple they ignore it as its presence does not mean anything to them. When they do not scorn them – in an elegant, flowery, “wise” and erudite manner – they critique the possibility of truth, the very existence of knowledge, the hope that feeds searches that do not aim at material rewards,prestige, position, power… This happens when the constellation of meanings about knowledge disinterest ad its contemplative end invade their minds, when the untiring prosecution of knowledge that only aims at comprehension – and maybe at beauty – of the Academy object, and when maybe they are dazzled by a grandeur they cannot understand and which turns out to be a novelty (university life appears to be very diverse).The author is concerned with the need of loyalty to that teacher and with the search of those ideals that became foundations of the Western Hemisphere, maybe as a remedy to a diffuse, concrete and progressively corrosive malaise. He is also convinced that the betrayal to that noble origin results in misunderstandings,frustrations, lack of hope and degradations in the “current university market.”

This article aims at approaching globalization as a historical-objective process. Accordingly, globalization will be approached as context or world scenario, as an ideology and it will also be considered in its normative-political or prescriptive dimension by trying to relate it with the establishment of the so-called regional blocks and adjustment structural policies. The need to study these issues from the perspective of their economic, political and social complexity is also evident.

An analysis about the concepts of human development and competitiveness as well as the inseparable relationship between them as an organic loop are the initial issues in this article. To achieve competitiveness, human development is crucial and, reciprocally, to achieve human development, competitiveness is quintessential. Then, the current situation of development and competitiveness in the Colombian Coffee growing Zone is presented, followed by the topic concerning indicators and competitiveness as well as theircurrent trends. Finally, a series of hypotheses and leading questions is presented with the aim to propose the elaboration of a joint agenda dealing with the quality of life of the Coffee Growing Zone inhabitants and regional competitiveness.