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Governance Approaches on Social
Inclusion and Sustainability in
Latin America
Science, Technology,
and Higher Education
Edited by
Luis Antonio Orozco ·
Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros ·
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González ·
Javier García-Estévez · Isabel Bortagaray
PALGRAVE STUDIES IN DEMOCRACY, INNOVATION,
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR GROWTH
SERIES EDITOR: ELIAS G. CARAYANNIS
Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth
Series Editor
Elias G. Carayannis, The George Washington University, Washington,
DC, USA
The central theme of this series is to explore why some areas grow and others stagnate,
and to measure the effects and implications in a trans-disciplinary context that takes
both historical evolution and geographical location into account. In other words,
when, how and why does the nature and dynamics of a political regime inform
and shape the drivers of growth and especially innovation and entrepreneurship? In
this socio-economic and socio-technical context, how could we best achieve growth,
financially and environmentally?
This series aims to address such issues as:
•How does technological advance occur, and what are the strategic processes
and institutions involved?
•How are new businesses created? To what extent is intellectual property
protected?
•Which cultural characteristics serve to promote or impede innovation? In what
ways is wealth distributed or concentrated?
These are among the key questions framing policy and strategic decision-making at
firm, industry, national, and regional levels.
A primary feature of the series is to consider the dynamics of innovation and
entrepreneurship in the context of globalization, with particular respect to emerging
markets, such as China, India, Russia, and Latin America. (For example, what are the
implications of China’s rapid transition from providing low-cost manufacturing and
services to becoming an innovation powerhouse? How do the perspectives of history
and geography explain this phenomenon?)
Contributions from researchers in a wide variety of fields will connect and relate
the relationships and inter-dependencies among (1) Innovation, (2) Political Regime,
and (3) Economic and Social Development. We will consider whether innovation
is demonstrated differently across sectors (e.g., health, education, technology) and
disciplines (e.g., social sciences, physical sciences), with an emphasis on discovering
emerging patterns, factors, triggers, catalysts, and accelerators to innovation, and their
impact on future research, practice, and policy.
This series will delve into what are the sustainable and sufficient growth mecha-
nisms for the foreseeable future for developed, knowledge-based economies and soci-
eties (such as the EU and the US) in the context of multiple, concurrent and inter-
connected “tipping-point” effects with short (MENA) as well as long (China, India)
term effects from a geo-strategic, geo-economic, geo-political and geo-technological
set of perspectives.
This conceptualization lies at the heart of the series, and offers to explore the
correlation between democracy, innovation and growth.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14635
Luis Antonio Orozco ·
Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros ·
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González ·
Javier García-Estévez ·Isabel Bortagaray
Editors
Science, Technology,
and Higher Education
Governance Approaches on Social Inclusion
and Sustainability in Latin America
Editors
Luis Antonio Orozco
School of Management
Universidad Externado de Colombia
Bogota, Colombia
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Bogota, Colombia
Isabel Bortagaray
Universidad de la República
Montevideo, Uruguay
Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros
Universidad Externado de Colombia
Bogota, Colombia
Javier García-Estévez
Universidad de Los Andes
Bogota, Colombia
ISSN 2662-3641 ISSN 2662-365X (electronic)
Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship for Growth
ISBN 978-3-030-80719-1 ISBN 978-3-030-80720-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
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Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
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the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents
1 Science, Technology, and Innovation Governance
for Social Inclusion and Sustainable Development
in Latin America 1
Luis Antonio Orozco, Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros,
Javier García-Estévez, Jaime Humberto Sierra-González,
and Isabel Bortagaray
Part I Cases on STI Capacities for Inclusion and
Sustainable Development
2 Relevance of Science, Technology and Innovation
Diplomacy for STI Capacity Building in Central
America: The Cases of Guatemala, El Salvador
and Honduras 21
Kleinsy Bonilla and Milena Serafim
3 Transdisciplinary Citizen Science Connects Caribbean
Hope Spots of Colombia to Improve Coral Reefs
Governance 55
Nohora Galvis and Rosa Helena Galvis
4 Community-Based Innovation Ecosystems
in Peace-Building and Resilience Contexts 85
Juan David Reina-Rozo
v
vi CONTENTS
5 Local Economic Development and the Colombian
Strategy for a Sustainable and Inclusive Bioeconomy 115
Hector Heraldo Rojas-Jimenez
6 Sharing Economies and Digital Platforms: Between
Access and Social Inclusion in Colombia 151
John Alirio Sanabria and Luis Antonio Orozco
Part II Cases on Higher Education as an Agent for STI
Governance
7 Developing Transformative Innovation Through
Policy Experimentation in Two Colombian
Universities 181
Diana Velasco, Alejandra Boni, and Salim Chalela
8 The Contribution in STI of the Higher Education
Institutions of Cauca for the Peace Building
and Social Inclusion 205
Alexander Castillo-Garcés, William Chará-Ordóñez,
and Paula Andrea Mora-Pedreros
9 A Classification Model to Analyze Inclusion
in Higher Education Systems: An Approximation
from Contingency Theory 227
Cristhian Fabián Ruiz Ramos, Ricardo Bonilla Jiménez,
Javier García-Estévez, and Luis Antonio Orozco
10 Methodology for the Governance and Management
of the University as a Complex Adaptive System
Based on the Three Missions: Research, Education,
and Connecting with Its Surroundings 253
Ronald Cancino, Luis Antonio Orozco, Javier Medina,
Mauricio García, José Coloma, Felipe Bustos,
and Cristian Alister
11 Science, Technology, Innovation, and Inclusive
Development: A Country Comparison Between
Colombia and Mexico 287
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González
and Carlos Eugenio Ramos-Pérez
Index 345
Notes on Contributors
Cristian Alister Sanhueza is a Ph.D. candidate in intercultural studies
at the Catholic University of Temuco. He is a computer engineer and
sociologist. His areas of research are sociology of science and technology,
sociology of development and sociology of work. He is currently working
on the development of his Ph.D. research on the processes of indigenous
consultations as devices for approaching socio-technical controversies and
strategies of ethnogovernance.
Alejandra Boni is professor at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)
and deputy director of Ingenio (CSIC-UPV). She is honorary professor
at the University of the Free State in South Africa. Her research interest
focus on human development, higher education, global citizenship and
transformative innovation. She is leading the formative evaluation compo-
nent of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium.
Kleinsy Bonilla is an Associate Researcher, Department of Science and
Technology DPCT, University of Campinas UNICAMP—Brazil. Her
areas of interest are: Science and Technology Policy, International Coop-
eration, Science Diplomacy, S&T Capacity Building.
Ricardo Bonilla is a Professor at Corporación Universitaria Minuto de
Dios UNIMINUTO, Bogotá—Colombia. He is an expert in quantitative
modelling for decision-making in complex social systems. He is a Physi-
cist with Master of Science, and a Doctor of Engineering with application
in Operations Research, Complexity Sciences and Information Theories.
vii
viii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
He is a consultant in visual, predictive and prescriptive analytics, and a
Leader in data quality management projects, conceptual and quantita-
tive updating of indicators, models for prospective. He is a Teacher of
Complex Thinking, Operations Research and Business Analytics, and a
Researcher with publications on applied probabilistic models.
Isabel Bortagaray is a sociologist, who holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy,
with a focus on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy from the
Georgia Institute of Technology. She is Professor at the University of the
Republic in Uruguay; and Honorary Research Fellow at the Center for
Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII), of the Human
Sciences Research Council of South Africa.
Felipe Bustos Mg (c) on the Social Science Department of the Univer-
sidad de la Frontera, Chile. He graduated as Sociologist in The Univer-
sity of the Frontera. His theoretical–methodological developments are
inscribed in the general field of social studies of science and technology,
especially in science and technology policies, bibliometrics and political
economy of science.
Ronald Cancino Salas is an anthropologist, a Lecturer at Social Sciences
Department and Researcher at Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas
(CIS), Universidad de la Frontera, Chile. He is a Ph.D. in Social Sciences
from the University of Chile. His main area of research is contempo-
rary science from the perspective of Complex Adaptive Systems, espe-
cially regarding the relationship between the structure and evolution of
lines of research as emerging phenomena and the forms of collabora-
tion and regulation of scientific activity. Along with this, he works on
the modelling of science, technology and innovation systems, the anal-
ysis of conflicts and socio-technical controversies, and science, technology
and innovation policies in Latin America. Methodologically, he employs
Agent-based models, bibliometrics and network analysis, and qualitative
and ethnographic research in science and technology studies. Member at
the board of ESOCITE Latin American Association of Social Studies in
Science and Technology.
Alexander Castillo Garcés is a Political scientist, Mg. in Public Policies.
Professor at the Faculty of Law, Political and Social Sciences of the Cauca
University, and a member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Inter-
disciplinary Research Group—GIISCH. He is Professor of the Faculty of
Law, Social and Political Sciences of the Cauca Autonomous University
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ix
Corporation, a member of GIICSH. He is a postgraduate professor at
the School of Social Work and the Administration Sciences Faculty of the
Universidad del Valle. He is also a Consultant for UNDP, Transparency
Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Ministry of Justice and Law,
National Planning Department.
José Coloma Zapata is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology from the Alberto
Hurtado University, Chile. He graduated as a Master in Applied Social
Sciences and also graduated in Sociology at Universidad de la Frontera.
He is working for more than eight years in bibliometrics and social studies
of science. He has recently started working on the role of technological
mediators in solidarity economy companies.
Salim Chalela Naffah is Ph.D. in Education at the Autonomous
University of Barcelona from the Applied Pedagogy Department. He
is the Chief of Research Promotion at Universidad del Rosario—
Colombia. His research field is research management in Higher Education
Institutions. He was Vice-Chancellor for Research at the Autonomous
Latin American University—UNAULA, and the Administrative Coordi-
nator of the Latin American and Caribbean HUB for Transformative
Innovation linked to Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium—
TPC.
William Chará Ordoñez is a political scientist, with a master’s degree
in Sociology. He is Professor of the Faculty of Law, Social and Polit-
ical Sciences of the Cauca Autonomous University Corporation, and a
member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Interdisciplinary Research
Group—GIISCH. He is a Consultant at the National Planning Depart-
ment, Save The Children, Transparency Secretariat of the Presidency
of the Republic, UNDP, Ministry of Justice and Law and Verification
Mechanism FF.MM.
Nohora Galvis is a marine biologist who has dedicated her 30-year
career to study how to improve coral reefs conservation effectiveness.
Her multidisciplinary background reaches Ph.D. Studies from ecological
sciences towards the social involvement and economic valuations of coral
reefs.
Rosa Helena Galvis has her Doctorate studies in Social and Environ-
mental Psychology and an expertise working with fishers communities.
xNOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Mauricio García Ojeda is Lecturer at Department of Social Sciences and
Researcher at Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), Universidad
de la Frontera, Chile. He is currently completing his Ph.D. at Depart-
ment of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His main
area of research is the governance of public policy enforcement at local
and regional level. He is mainly interested in the role of trust, reputa-
tion, social networks and formal institutions, and their effect on expected
outcomes in public policy, specifically those having to do with effi-
ciency, citizens’ participation, citizens’ control and technological innova-
tion. Mauricio Garcia Ojeda specializes in behaviourally enriched rational
choice theory, principal-agent theory, social capital theory, institutional
design theory, social network theory, new institutional economics and
new economic sociology. Methodologically, he employs social networks
analysis, game theory and analytic narratives.
Javier García-Estévez is an Associate Professor in planning and territo-
rial development at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Development Studies
at the University of Los Andes. His area of research is regional and
local economic development with particular emphasis in science, tech-
nology and innovation. He is the principal investigator of the “Contri-
bution of Universities to Regional Development” project, participates in
the “Transformative Innovation Policy in Colombia” project led by the
University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research (SPRU), and is a researcher
on the “Regional Development Index - Latin America” Project in collab-
oration with researchers from the Autonomous University of Chile, the
Inter-American Development Bank and the University of the Republic of
Uruguay. He is an economist from the Industrial University of Santander
(Colombia) and has a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from
the University of Barcelona (Spain).
Javier Medina is Doctor of Social Sciences, Gregorian University. He is
a Coordinator of the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean
Foresight Networks, CYTED Program. Full Professor, Universidad del
Valle, Cali, Colombia. He has designed and executed around 50 prospec-
tive exercises since 1989. He has published 134 texts, including books,
articles and institutional documents as author, co-author and editor.
Author of the “Prospective and Strategic Decision Manual”, published
by ECLAC, Santiago de Chile (2006), “Prospective and Public Policy for
structural change in Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2014)”
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xi
and “Opening paths in the prospect of Latin America” (Universidad del
Valle - Usach, 2020).
Paula Andrea Mora Pedreros holds a Degree in Philosophy and Letters
and Master in Etnoliteratura, University of Nariño; is a Specialist in
Pedagogy of Autonomous Learning and specialist in Higher Education,
UNAD; has a Master’s Degree in Educational Technology Tecnológico de
Monterrey; is a Candidate for Doctor of Philosophy, Universidad Ponti-
ficia Bolivariana. He is also a Teacher Researcher of the Corporación
Autónoma del Cauca. GIICSH group.
Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros is a Ph.D. in Public Policy of the
Georgia Institute of Technology and the Georgia State University, USA.
He is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Behavioural, Management
and Social Sciences at the University of Twente, The Netherlands, and
Dean at the Faculty of Finance, Government and International Relations
at the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá.
Luis Antonio Orozco is a Ph.D. in management at Universidad de los
Andes and business administrator at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
He is a Full Professor in the School of Management at Universidad
Externado de Colombia and senior researcher at Colombian Ministry
of Science, Technology and Innovation. He is a member at Asociación
Colombiana para el Avance de la Ciencia—Avanciencia. He is an edito-
rial advisory board member at the Journal of Management History and
a member at the scientific committee at the International Conference on
Scientometrics and Infometrics. He was adjoined researcher at Univer-
sity of Twente (The Netherlands), University of Massachusetts (United
States) and Observatorio Colombiano de Ciencia y Tecnología—OCyT.
Cristhian Fabián Ruiz Ramos is a Ph.D. candidate in Universidad
Católica de Perú. He is a Mechanical and environmental engineer. He is
the author of different books and articles in scientific journals on planning,
knowledge management, and data and information analysis. His areas of
research are data analysis of science, technology and innovation Systems.
He is the Director of Organizational Development in Governorate of
Cundinamarca.
Carlos Eugenio Ramos-Pérez is an Adjunct Professor at the Business
Department, School of Business and Economics—Pontificia Universidad
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Javeriana (Col). He is a Ph.D. in Business and Management, The Univer-
sity of Manchester (UK); and a Master in Economics and Innova-
tion Management, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana—Xochimilco
(Mex); with a B.Sc. in Management, Universidad del Pedregal (Mex).
Juan David Reina Rozo is an Industrial Engineer, is a Magister in
Environment and Development, and a Candidate to Doctorate in
Engineering—Industry and Organizations at Universidad Nacional de
Colombia. He is also a Researcher of the Technologies and Innovation
for Community Development Research Group. He had participated in co-
design processes of technologies in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Uganda and
Nepal. He is editor of the International Journal of Engineering, Social
Justice and Peace. His main topics of interest are community innovation,
socio-technical change, community-based innovation ecosystems, popular
engineering and peacebuilding.
Hector Heraldo Rojas Jiménez is a Researcher and lecturer at the
Faculty of Finance, Government and International Relations of the
Universidad Externado de Colombia, also a Professional in Finance and
International Relations from the same university; a lawyer, he holds a
M.Sc. in Economic Development in Latin America, M.Sc. sciences poli-
tiques spécialité idées politiques et intelligence du monde contemporain,
and Ph D. in sciences politiques of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle,
Paris III. Under the auspices of the Externado University of Colombia
and the Rutherford Scholarship, he advanced a postdoctoral research stay
at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research of the University of
Manchester researching about Bioeconomy.
John Sanabria is a Ph.D. candidate at School of Management—Univer-
sidad Externado de Colombia. He has a master’s in industrial engi-
neering (Universidad de los Andes—Colombia), and is a business admin-
istrator (UNIMIMUTO). He is a Teacher, Researcher and Consultant
in management, strategy, entrepreneurial and business networks. He is
the Director of the Business Administration program at Universidad de la
Salle—Bogotá, Colombia.
Milena Serafim is Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Sciences
FCA—University of Campinas UNICAMP—Brazil. Her areas of interest
are: Analysis of Public Policies and Institutions; Actor, Governance and
Decision Process; and Higher Education.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González is Associate Professor at the Business
Department, School of Business and Economics—Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana (Col). He is a Ph.D. in Business and Management, The Univer-
sity of Manchester (UK); He has Master’s in economics of the Interna-
tionalization of Business and Finance, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”,
Rome (Ita); a Master in Economics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana;
Diploma in International Relations, Academia Diplomática (Col); B.A. in
Education, Universidad Distrital (Col). He is Professor at the Master in
Economics, Master in Strategy, Innovation and Competitiveness, Diploma
in Technology Management, and the Diploma in Management of Social
and Solidarity Enterprises at PUJ.
Diana Velasco is adjunct professor of the Universidad de Ibagué in
Colombia and research fellow in Ingenio (CSIC-UPV), Spain. She is a
Ph.D. in innovation studies from Edinburgh University and an active
member of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium with field
work in Sweden, Colombia, South Africa and Catalonia. Her research
interest focus on human development, higher education and transforma-
tive innovation.
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Online survey respondents by country 31
Fig. 3.1 Map of Colombian case studies 60
Fig. 3.2 Map of the case studies Corales del Rosario
and Varadero 61
Fig. 3.3 Map of the fishers´communities of Varadero Coral
Reef 62
Fig. 3.4 Fishing and diving sites in the non-protected area
declared Hope Spot Coral Reef Capurganá and Cabo
Tiburón 68
Fig. 3.5 Change of fisheries productivity of main commercial
and invasive species in Capurganá between 2009
and 2019 70
Fig. 4.1 Communal innovation (Source Reina-Rozo [2019a:
9]) 88
Fig. 4.2 STI co-design spaces (Source Reina-Rozo [2019b: 4]) 89
Fig. 4.3 Community-based innovation ecosystem (Source
Based on Hoffecker [2019]) 94
Fig. 4.4 San Antonio township (Source Author) 99
Fig. 4.5 Relations between actors in the Guajuí river
innovation ecosystem (Source Author) 101
Fig. 4.6 Point to point wifi network maintenance (Source
Author) 103
Fig. 4.7 Guajuí river community-based innovation ecosystem
(Source Reina-Rozo [2019b]) 104
Fig. 5.1 Monetary poverty (Based on DANE [2017]) 119
xv
xvi LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 5.2 “Laissez-faire”. Model
of government–industry–university relations
(Source Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 1996 in Piñeres
[2016]) 123
Fig. 5.3 Relations between the actors of the TH 123
Fig. 5.4 Master’s and doctoral students graduated in areas
of bioeconomy (2006–2015) Source Observatorio
Colombiano de Ciencia y Tecnología (2016) 132
Fig. 5.5 Scientific articles on bioeconomy (Source Based
on Web of Science [2018]) 133
Fig. 5.6 Some production processes based on bioeconomy 137
Fig. 5.7 Where the bioeconomy and the LED intersect 142
Fig. 7.1 Participative identification of organisational
capabilities 191
Fig. 7.2 Universidad de Ibagué path-dependancy 194
Fig. 7.3 Experiment methodology phases 196
Fig. 8.1 Percentage of institutional activities carried
out in terms of territorial peace during 2012–2019
(Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,
www.uniautonoma.edu.co, www.fup.edu.co,
www.unicomfacauca.edu.co, www.unimayor.edu.co) 218
Fig. 8.2 Percentage of institutional activities carried
out in terms of territorial peace by the HEI
of the department of Cauca. 2012–2019
(Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,
www.uniautonoma.edu.co, www.fup.edu.co,
www.unicomfacauca.edu.co, www.unimayor.edu.co) 219
Fig. 8.3 Percentage of classification of institutional
activities carried out in terms of territorial
peace by the HEI of the department of Cauca.
2012–2019 (Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,
www.uniautonoma.edu.co, www.fup.edu.co,
www.unicomfacauca.edu.co, www.unimayor.edu.co) 219
Fig. 8.4 STI strategies in research, interaction and social
intervention carried out by IES of the department
of Cauca (Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,
www.uniautonoma.edu.co, www.fup.edu.co,
www.unicomfacauca.edu.co, www.unimayor.edu.co) 221
Fig. 9.1 Gini Index of Undergraduate Enrollment in Colombia
from 2006 to 2015 (Source SNIES - MEN 2016, p. 3) 231
LIST OF FIGURES xvii
Fig. 9.2 Complementary cumulative distribution function
of the number of students enrolled by HEI (Source
Education Information System [SNIES], January
2018. Dashed vertical lines show the change
in the stepwise function at 10,000 freshmen. The
KS-test gives a pValue =0.36 greater than 0.05,
then the null hypothesis the data follow a specified
distribution is accepted) 240
Fig. 9.3 Complementary cumulative distribution function
of PhDs hired by HEI (Source Education Information
System [SNIES], January 2018. Dashed vertical
lines show the change in the stepwise function so
in the underlying dynamic at 130 PhDs. The KS-test
gives a pValue =0.18 greater than 0.05, then the null
hypothesis the data follow a specified distribution is
accepted) 241
Fig. 9.4 Clusters that determine HEI on statistical order
or disorder state 242
Fig. 9.5 Average Change in freshman vs. Change in PhDs
by Region and Development Between 2017–2018
at Colombian HEIs 243
Fig. 9.6 Change in Freshman vs. Change in PhDs Between
2017–2018 for each Colombian HEI by Region
and Development level 245
Fig. 10.1 The university as a CAS (Source BasedonCancino
and Univalle [2017]) 262
Fig. 10.2 Method for information processing (Source based
on Cancino et al./Univalle [2017]) 264
Graphic 11.1 Composition of the Colombian, Mexican, LAC,
and OECD member economies (2017). Notes Data
for OECD members (average) and LAC (average)
as reported in original statistics. Differences in data
correspond to either unreported values or incomplete
information (Source Own elaboration with data
from World Bank [2020a] and CIA [2020]) 310
Graphic 11.2 Technological composition of exports
(2018)—selected economies (Source CPC
[2020, p. 280]. Our emphasis) 318
Graphic 11.3 Evolution of exports from Colombia and Mexico
(1991–2018) to selected partners (Source Own
elaboration based on WITS [2020a, 2020b]) 319
List of Tables
Table 2.1 STI international cooperation vs STID 47
Table 4.1 Characteristics of innovation ecosystems 92
Table 4.2 Semi-structured interview information 97
Table 4.3 Methods used and data collected 98
Table 4.4 Communal innovations of the CBIE Rio
Guajuí—Colombia 102
Table 5.1 Analysis summary by dimension 125
Table 5.2 Antecedent of the initiative of Green growth 130
Table 5.3 Why document CONPES 3934 130
Table 5.4 Main scientific universities and its research groups 134
Table 5.5 To synthesize the answers to the main questions 141
Table 6.1 ICT-related programs for social inclusion in Colombia 161
Table 7.1 Characteristics of transformative innovation 187
Table 7.2 Modes of experimental engagements (Schot et al.,
2019: 2) 188
Table 7.3 Unaula narrative for STI 192
Table 7.4 UI capabilities list 197
Table 10.1 Micro level 265
Table 10.2 Macro level 268
Table 10.3 Indicators of volume and intensity 271
Table 10.4 Factoria study indicators 276
Table 11.1 A snapshot of the top four Latin American countries 290
Table 11.2 Colombia and Mexico compared—selected indicators
2015–2019 291
xix
xx LIST OF TABLES
Table 11.3 Inclusive innovation policies: Aims, targets, and related
instruments 300
Table 11.4 Inclusive innovation policies in Colombia and Mexico
(selected examples) 304
Table 11.5 GDP and GDP per capita at current prices
(2019)—selected economies 310
Table 11.6 Colombian and Mexican chief exports to main trade
partners (2019) 320
Table 11.7 Number and percentage of graduates
from HEIs—Colombia and Mexico (selected
regions) 326
CHAPTER 1
Science, Technology, and Innovation
Governance for Social Inclusion
and Sustainable Development in Latin America
Luis Antonio Orozco, Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros,
Javier García-Estévez, Jaime Humberto Sierra-González,
and Isabel Bortagaray
1.1 Introduction
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a plural and diverse region
endowed with wide munificence of natural resources, peoples, and
L. A. Orozco (B)
School of Management, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá,
Colombia
e-mail: luis.orozco@uexternado.edu.co
G. Ordóñez-Matamoros
Universidad Externado de Colombia, University of Twente, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: gonzalo.ordonez@uexternado.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_1
1
2L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
culture. This involves high heterogeneity across countries and several
differences in terms of policy orientations, the capacity to create economic
growth, and the way to meet social and environmental needs. The region
has been improving in terms of GDP growth since 2016 but without
substantially improving the existing income gap, poverty rate, and Gini
coefficient (ECLAC et al., 2019).
Latin America is one of the most unequal regions in the world, as
ascertained by several indicators concerning education, health, and social
security services, as well as income and wealth distribution (ECLAC,
2019). The Inter-American Development Bank Research Network project
on social exclusion in Latin American and the Caribbean has long
stated that inequalities are associated with the absence of opportunities
(Behrman et al., 2002).
Several initiatives like those led by the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) regard projects intended to
defeat poverty and enhance social inclusion (Cepal, 2006)inaneffortto
boost the region into the route to Agenda 2030 for sustainable devel-
opment (Sustainable Development Goals—SDGs1). Such initiatives have
promoted the enactment of better policies for social development through
inclusive economic growth that includes social protection and the creation
of work opportunities with dignifying jobs (Cepal, 2016). Likewise, the
OECD LAC Regional Program (LACRP) has tried to enhance social
inclusion through efforts to strengthen institutions, improve governance,
and increase productivity (OCDE, 2017).
J. García-Estévez
Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: jh.garcia@uniandes.edu.co
J. H. Sierra-González
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: jhsierra@javeriana.edu.co
I. Bortagaray
Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
1See SDG #10 goal 10.2 that stated “by 2030 empower and promote the social,
economic and political inclusion of all irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity,
origin, religion or economic or other status”.
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 3
The concept of governance began to be used in the neoliberal ratio-
nale to refer to the bargaining process and agreements between public
and private organizations in the realm of issues that governments cannot
face alone (Bevir, 2008). The concept appeared in New Institutional
Economics’ frame to mean the agreements that infuse order, mitigate
the conflict, and realize mutual gains in the contractual or hybrid forms
between markets and hierarchies (Williamson, 1996,2005). Rhodes
(1996, p. 652) extends this vision claiming that “governance refers to
‘self-organizing interorganizational networks’ (that) complement markets
and hierarchies as governing structures for authoritatively allocating
resources and exercising control and coordination”.
Governance includes not only a bargaining process and agreements
between public and private actors, but also civil society and different
regions and jurisdictions as happening in the European Union. In the
realm of multilateral agencies like the United Nations, the World Bank,
or the OCDE emerged the idea of global governance, promoting the
coordination of policies among countries to pursue common goals like
social and environmental development and sustainability. Then, aware-
ness about poverty eradication for improving social inclusion and justice
has been embedded in the concept of governance or good governance
(Bevir, 2008).
Governance for social inclusion means that public policy does not
exclusively belong to the State. Instead, several if not all actors belonging
to civil society can participate in the definition of problems and the ways
to solve them. Thus, governance implies hybrid structures that organize
multiple stakeholders’ participation in a multi-jurisdictional and multi-
regional scenario in which formal and informal spaces and mechanisms
of relationships and accountability can be performed (Bevir, 2008).
The idea of governance was introduced in Latin America by multi-
lateral agencies like The World Bank, The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), and the Inter-American Development Bank based
on their interest to improve the management of international aid and
funding across the region (Zurbriggen, 2011). The aid programs that
want to alleviate poverty have been one of the most important efforts to
introduce governance as a means to coordinate public, private, and civil
organizations for social inclusion.
Here it is valuable to remember the ideas of Zygmunt Bauman
about the social exclusion. He stated that “Uncertainty, insecurity’s prin-
cipal cause, is by far the most decisive tool of power—indeed, its very
4L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
substance” (Bauman, 2011, p. 42). In fact “Human vulnerability and
uncertainty is the foundation of all political power” (Bauman, 2011,
p. 122). Then, the manipulation of uncertainty is an instrument for
discrimination between us and them. Bauman understands that “The fear
which democracy and its offspring, the social state, promised to uproot
has returned with a vengeance. Most of us, from the bottom to the
top, nowadays fear the threat, however unspecified and vague, of being
excluded, proved inadequate to the challenge, snubbed, refused dignity
and humiliated... On the diffuse and misty fears that saturate present-
day society, politicians as much as the consumer markets are eager to
capitalize”. And continues “The risks to which democracies are currently
exposed are only partly due to the way state governments desperately
seek to legitimize their right to rule and to demand discipline by flexing
their muscles and showing their determination to stand firm in the face
of the endless, genuine or putative, threats to human bodies – instead of
(as they did before) protecting their citizens’ social usefulness, respected
places in society, and insurance against exclusion, the denial of dignity
and humiliation”. (Bauman, 2011, pp. 18–20). Finally, he proposed the
alternative in terms of provision of security and safety using fear as a
channel to engage voters and costumers. He saw “That alternative seems
to have been recently located (…) in the issue of personal safety: current
or portending, overt or hidden, genuine or putative fears of the threats to
human bodies, possessions and habitats—whether arising from pandemics
and unhealthy diets or lifestyle regimes, or from criminal activities, anti-
social conduct by the ‘underclass’, or most recently global terrorism”
(Bauman, 2011,p.54).
In LAC countries, several initiatives began to provide support to
vulnerable families to alleviate poverty and exclusion. The management
of fears and uncertainty with the discourse of governance as a tool to
promote democracy with social inclusion began to monger the policy
and its social programs. However, the creation of collateral damages, as
Bauman (2011) conceptualized the unintended consequences of policies,
emerged in the region. As Zurbriggen (2011) pointed out, programs
such as Familias por la Inclusión Social in Argentina; Puente-Chile Soli-
dario;Bolsa Família in Brazil; Panes in Uruguay; Red de Protección Social
in Nicaragua; Familias en Acción in Colombia; Programa de Asignación
Familiar in Honduras, and Bono Solidario in Ecuador do not contribute
to improve governance and democracy with the empowerment of citi-
zenship and social capital. These programs just created a market for
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 5
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to deliver social assistance and
allowed private organizations to become providers of social services such
as health care and food supply.
With the governance discourse, the first case of privatization in Latin
America was the infrastructure development and public services as water
and sanitary issues. The State was in charge of coordinating several actors’
efforts to warranty the quality and efficiency in social services provided
by privates and controlled by civil organizations. In Colombia, a group
of contractors began to centralize the water services due to their capacity
to sell the idea that they will be able to provide a more efficient adminis-
tration. However, the entrepreneurs began to be corrupt and civil society
and unions were not taken into account. The losses for mismanagement
created more and more profound problems, showing that private interest
could lead to more trouble for social and economic development (Ardila,
2013; Colmenares, 2013), damaging not only public services, also, in this
case, the financial markets (Orozco et al., 2018). In Argentina, private
multinational corporations faced several shortcomings in terms of the lack
of previous studies, badly designed biddings, and deficient contracts in an
inadequate regulatory framework that finalized in international judiciary
tribunals and expensive lawsuits. In Honduras and Peru there is not an
organized market, the tanks cars abuse with their power, the quality of
the liquid is not trustworthy and the water became an expensive good
(Zurbriggen, 2011). The decentralization also carried out more chal-
lenges in terms of controls and disputes for the access and management
of resources, widening the gap in the concentration of wealth.
The STI policies in LAC have disjunctives between social and envi-
ronmental needs and economic growth with scarce resources for creating
opportunities with science, technology, and innovation (STI). It is not
easy for policymakers to go beyond statistics and create with the available
information new meanings to foster the decision-making that encom-
passes the restrictions and limitations in productivity and industrial
evolution with the problems around poverty and environmental degra-
dation. With scare resources, dilemmas like investing in STI for the oil
industry that assure several jobs instead to recover a river damaged by
oil extraction, a river that in the long term assure survival, surround
the policymakers that need more insight to understand ways to improve
governance and straight institutions to assure social justice, environmental
protection, reduce corruption and create opportunities for enhancing the
quality of life.
6L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
The ideology that STI is a tool to achieve competitiveness for the
nations created more damages than benefits. As the Nobel Price Paul
Krugman noted many years ago, “competitiveness is a meaningless word
when applied to national economies. And the obsession with competi-
tiveness is both wrong and dangerous” (Krugman, 1994, p. 44). The
ideology was developed mainly by Michael Porter in which the US’s
neoliberal interest spread a model that nations must be managed as a
private corporation instead of creating conditions for welfare (Aktouf,
2008). Aktouf et al., (2005, p. 184) stated that “For Habermas, the
morality of a given utterance depends on the dialogical exchange made
up of a claim to validity by a speaker, objections to this claim by other
speakers, and arguments by the speaker in response to these objections,
all of which occurs within the framework of a space of free speech.
The problem here is that Porter’s positivism imposes the number and
nature of competitive forces and the result of the ensuing analysis of
industries as scientific and therefore non-debatable truths. It is in this
sense that Porter’s model is a formidable instrument of domination".
Then, Aktouf (2008, p. 170) questioned “¿Se puede impunemente trans-
formar de esta manera a los Estados en comités de gestión de los intereses
financieros transnacionales, y a las naciones en espacios dedicados única-
mente a la competencia entre gigantes empresariales obstinados en acaparar
el único resultado presentado como deseable en todo lo que hacen: la multi-
plicación más rápida posible del dinero por el dinero mismo?”Porter’s
framework cannot explain the reality of market dynamics and, instead,
provided simplistic toolkits for managers—diamonds, forces, and chains—
to promote the creation of profits in a struggle between firms and
countries in wild capitalism (Aktouf, 2004).2Aktouf (2008, p. 177)
concludes that “Al convertir al planeta en un gran campo de batalla
para la competitividad infinita, bajo el sólo apremio de la maximización de
los beneficios y los dividendos, Porter nos conduce tan simplemente a hacer
depender lo macroeconómico de lo microeconómico y las políticas nacionales
2“The determinants in the diamond model are a necessary reduction to enable the
continuity of Porter’s reasoning, in that he attempts to compare different economies
without having to concern himself with their differences. It is not easy to compare the
maximalist financial logic of the self-regulated, American-styled capitalist market (which in
recent times has moved towards unimaginable and irrational summits of speculation since
the heady rush engendered and maintained by Internet businesses and the Enron and
Worldcom scandals) to the kinds of ‘stale-regulated, social-market’ industrial capitalism
found in Germany and Japan” (Aktouf, 2004,p.28).
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 7
de las decisiones del mundo de los negocios. El tratamiento de la economía
sólo se concibe en un muy corto plazo, agravando exponencialmente los dese-
quilibrios, ya desastrosos, entre el Norte y el Sur, y entre los factores de
producción mismos (capital, trabajo y naturaleza)”.
The movement of competitiveness and public policies’ orientation
includes STI as a key tool to achieve better indicators in terms of market
shares and corporative profits, instead of addressing social and environ-
mental challenges such as poverty, social inclusion, and climate change.
The movement of automation and the application of management science
and operation research in the name of the advancement of science has
been helping entrepreneurs to cut costs in re-engineering process and low
wages (as the gospel of Porter instigates), firing people in downsized hier-
archies and replaced humans with machines and algorithms. The damage
created with the promotion of this ideology sells more than others the
belief that competitiveness through STI is the main goal for countries,
and the wealth created is distributed around the nation (Gough, 1996).
However, the analysis of the crisis of capitalism reveals that the concen-
tration of wealth has been increasing with income inequality (Goda et al.,
2017). As Dutrénit and Sutz (2014) show, there is no linear correlation
between innovation and international competitiveness, growth, and equal
income distribution. The governance of STI between public policy and
private corporations with the proposal to make profits and pay more taxes
did not improve human development. We agree with the distinguished
professor Deirdre McCloskey that “Competitiveness is not a word that a
serious economist ever uses” (McCloskey, 2019, p. 2) and the fact that
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) does not include the term
competitiveness in their discourse.3
The United Nations stated that “social inclusion is defined as the
process of improving the terms of participation in society, particularly for
people who are disadvantaged, through enhancing opportunities, access
to resources, voice and respect for rights” (UN, 2016,p.17).Thereare
several issues in the field of STI to discuss to better understand the process
of social inclusion due to the advancement of scientific knowledge. Knor-
ringa et al. (2016) present the debate around frugal innovation. This
concept emerged to refer to the new product and services created to solve
problems or attending needs for a lot of poor people at the bottom of the
3https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/bac
kground/.
8L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
pyramid, creating a “win–win” business in which companies contribute
to poverty alleviation at the same time that creates profits, instead of
that “frugal innovation will merely exacerbate capitalist exploitation and
inequality” (Knorringa et al., 2016, p. 143). Kuhlmann and Ordonez-
Matamoros (2017) edited a Handbook that addressed a well-known
critique of the questionable links between economic growth and social
welfare. This might be well known and discussed by this research commu-
nity but much less popular to a significant part of the science and
policy community, especially those involved in developing and governing
emerging technologies. For example, do social inclusion results from the
transfer of new technologies that communities cannot control? Devel-
oping the concept of social value as a result of the creation and use
knowledge to develop communities with their own capacities to solve
their problems and improve their possibilities to enjoy welfare with
dignity, Orozco and Chavarro (2011) showed that solutions imposed
in a top-down scheme by the government failed in the case of Chagas
disease in Colombia. The scientific solutions supported in the co-design
with the community using a bottom-up schema emerged and showed
how shared governance of STI could promote welfare and social inclu-
sion. Another example shows how the integration of techno-economic
networks in which government, researchers from public and private
institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and local communities translate
the advancements in biotechnologies to improvements in productivity,
increasing the social inclusion for peasant families to the potatoes corps in
Colombia (Orozco et al., 2007). Analyzing national innovation systems
and social inclusion, Dutrénit and Sutz (2014) evidenced that clear incen-
tive is needed to introduce social inclusion research in research centres
and universities and concludes that greater involvement of the innovation
beneficiaries is crucial to the success of any social policy. Then the research
founded that a multidisciplinary and beneficiary participatory approach to
design effective inclusive innovation policies is needed to improve results.
In this way, Bortagaray and Gras (2014) show the cases from Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in the light of the general discussion of STI
for inclusive development. The chapter highlights how traditional knowl-
edge and know-how toward searching for solutions for national and local
problems are at the center of the discussion. These shifts in STI policy
frameworks are still in the planning phases, but deliberation and partic-
ipation seem crucial for building capabilities and expanding the choices
about STI policies for development goals.
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 9
Another example is provided by the different points of view for poli-
cies that promote social inclusion. For example, formalizing employment
for public agencies means the dignification of work and access to social
security and statal support and protection. For informal vendors, it means
the loss of dignity due to new conditions of schedules, accountabilities,
and less freedom to perform work by their own will. Another issue in
STI is the differentiation between users and beneficiaries of scientific
and technological advancements. Researchers in molecular biology and
biotechnologies could develop new techniques to produce milk with more
nutritional compounds. The users are the enterprises in the business of
breeding and growing cows, and the beneficiaries could be the children
who receive, probably in public dietary programs, the new milk.
The governance and management of STI (GMSTI) and their role
in explaining both economic development and social transformation is
a growing topic of interest in the international literature, attracting
academic, policy, and practitioners’ attention alike. In this field, questions
increasingly arise regarding GMSTI main features, challenges, and posi-
tive and negative effects in Latin America as a developing region that has
some valuable lessons to offer. We claim that Latin American scholarly
work on the topic has been dramatically underexploited, while its rele-
vance is acknowledged for a better understanding of GMSTI challenges
and opportunities in the global north.
Efforts in the investment and promotion of STI, which can create
opportunities to overcome social exclusion and advance in sustainability,
are modest in Latin American countries. According to the RICyT (2019),
the investment in STI, which means just 3% of the world, reach 0,64%
of the GDP in 2017 and is characterized by the high concentration.
Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico represent 86% of LAC investment. In
terms of human capacity, the LAC countries present 1,73 researchers
for every one thousand economically active populations, while countries
like Spain are near 10 (RICyT, 2019). In terms of education, only 1% of
students belonging to LAC countries presents results at the highest levels
of proficiency in mathematics, according to the Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA) (ECLAC et al., 2019). Between 2009 and
2015, the mean PISA score in science performance increased from 406
to 412, almost 100 points below OCDE countries. In general, the enrol-
ment in STI is low, and it is clear the mismatch between the professional
skills with the technical requirements that have been reframing in the
10 L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
context of the fourth industrial revolution (Ordoñez-Matamoros et al.,
2021).
The governance between policy networks defined by law that steer
guidelines to create cross-agency collaboration between several actors—
government, scientists, universities, firms, able to invest and perform
R&D, and the evaluation and accountability in online social networks has
been one of the key advancements in understanding national innovation
systems (Orozco et al., 2019). The main question is how STI gover-
nance has been developed to include sustainability with social inclusion
regarding the silenced voice of those that contribute to STI governance.
Governance as a means of shared administration in which the State must
assure the stability of justice and force, and private organizations must
attend the rest of the affairs like social services (health, education among
others) using the market mechanisms, respond to the neoliberal interest
of making more efficient public policy in the division of tasks in which law
enforcement and incentives prevent and punish corruption and promote
transparency and democracy. However, this top-down approach can be
discussed with several cases in the field of STI studies. The way to over-
come the social exclusion, understood as a collateral damage that takes
advantage of the fears and risks, as Bauman (2011) pointed out, is to
develop governance mechanisms in which STI lead to opportunities that
dignify the work with the creation of social value that empowers the
community to solve their own problems and attend their needs (Orozco
& Chavarro, 2011).
One of the most valuable contributions to advance in critical thinking
to imagine and create new governance models is with cases, explanations,
and theoretical insights that allow studying the efforts to steer governance
toward social inclusion and sustainability. Policymakers and practitioners,
in general, need to learn from more cases and experiences to figure out
how to rethink their own systems. Thus, this book is a tool to find theo-
retical approaches and empirical analyses that shed light on broad and
specific features in several topics such as sustainability, higher education
policy, and institutional models, and funding experiences and challenges,
among others. Furthermore, scholars will find some novel methodolog-
ical approaches and theoretical debates that help improve future research
while learning from experiences in the Latin American context. Scholars
can also find academic material to support their teaching activities, using
cases to enrich their approaches on GMSTI.
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 11
This work is a product of the Network on Governance and Manage-
ment of Science, Technology, and Innovation—(Red GCTI) from a
congress “Governance of science, technology and innovation for inclu-
sive and sustainable development in Latin America” organized in 2019 by
Universidad Externado de Colombia, Universidad de los Andes, Pontif-
icia Universidad Javeriana, and the Colombian Association for Scientific
Advancement (ACAC), with the support of Colombian Observatory
of Science and Technology (OCyT), ACUA Foundation and Fondo
Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA).
In October 2014 professors Gonzalo Ordoñez-Matamoros and Luis
Antonio Orozco understood that there was a time to give a name of
an informal research team that has worked 12 years ago, led by one
of the most influential scientists in Colombia, José Luis Villaveces, in
the topics of STI in policy, sociology, management, and scientometrics.
They organized using the name of Thinking Center for STI Governance,
with the PhD program’s support in public policy from the Universidad
Externado de Colombia, the forum: Science, technology, and innovation
as a tool for development. The main idea was to enhance the relation-
ships between Universidad Externado de Colombia and the University
of Twente. With the visit of Stefan Kuhlmann, president at that time of
EU-SPRI Forum, the idea was to invite the people, not only researchers,
interested in STI governance to promote the creation of a community
for sharing knowledge, experiences, ideas, and alliances to work together.
Also, the idea was to create a space like EU-SPRI in Latin America.
The suggestion of an open network began to operate with the support
of Diego Andrés Chavarro and María Alejandra Tejada that steered a
space for PhD students to show their results in the field of STI. Between
January and March 2015 began the discussion about PhD research. The
first presentation was Diego Chavarro thesis at SPRU—Sussex Univer-
sity in UK; followed by María Alejandra Tejada and Ernesto Andrade
from Twente University in The Netherlands. In April 2015 María Piedad
Villaveces contributed to open a space to invite people to plan the
Network’s activities. Then, several scholars such as Astrid Jaimes, Mónica
Salazar, Alejandro Balanzó, Iván Montenegro, Galo Tovar, and Jaime
Sierra, among others, began to interact with the idea to perform several
activities to promote the research and public discussion of governance and
management of STI.
After five years with the interaction of more than 100 persons, in
summer 2019 the Red GCTI, integrated by members from academia,
12 L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
government, and Civil Society Organizations in Colombia, organized the
first conference on this subject in Latin America. More than 700 persons
were inscribed for the conference, with 282 attendants. Near 90 papers
were submitted from more than 15 countries, including Argentina, Chile,
Uruguay, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama, Spain, Canada,
United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. We
selected 20 works that offer an original reflection and results, highlighting
in one way or another current trend, challenges and opportunities char-
acterizing STI governance in terms of social inclusion and sustainable
development in Latin America.
This effort is organized in two books according to the orientation of
the chapters. In this compilation, several researchers bring an academic
perspective of institutional arrangements and goal definitions around
sustainable development in the context of Latin American countries and
the challenges of developing absorptive STI capacities for social inclusion.
Chapters tackle the important role of citizen science, science diplomacy,
peace building, mission-oriented policies, public innovation, institutional
entrepreneurs, and policy networks. In the second volume “Policy and
Governance of Science, Technology, and Innovation Social Inclusion and
Sustainable Development in Latin América”, the chapters show specific
features of innovation policies in the framework of Latin American
contexts, analyzing the barriers and opportunities for STI governance
in the region. In so doing, the books cover both novel and studied
topics, but from renewed perspectives that address issues related with
the role of institutions, innovation funding, technological trajectories,
regional innovation policies, innovation ecosystems, universities, knowl-
edge appropriation, and markets with insights that deal with a new
STI framework called the Transformative Innovation Policy, which are
approached from both a top-down and bottom-up perspectives.
Thus, the chapters that make up this volume offer a varied and concep-
tually rich landscape in which cases, contexts, actors, and relationships are
used to broaden and deepen relevant discussions. The chapters incorpo-
rate new elements and views to renew traditional stances, offer fertile
insights about relevant realities, and propose new research and action
avenues to face the challenges that Latin American communities confront
daily.
The chapters cover two main topics. The first part shows cases that
illustrated the STI governance in diplomacy, ecosystems conservation,
peace, agricultural production, and sharing economy in which civil society
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 13
and triple-helix interactions are the main issues analyzed in the section.
The second part focuses on higher education institutions as the main actor
in STI governance for social inclusion. Some works advance in method-
ological proposals as well as cases in which the STI governance is shown
in the frame of transformative innovation and their contribution to peace
and social inclusion.
In chapter two Bonilla and Serafim’s “Relevance of Science, Technology
and Innovation Diplomacy for STI Capacity Building in Central America:
the cases of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras” text illustrates how
latecomers to science, technology, and innovation diplomacy (STID)
discussions and analyses in peripheral regions, such as Central America,
are, however, taking important steps to build STI capacities for inclusive
development. This also provides evidence on the relevance of STID to
strengthen capacity building in such a particular context and draws some
relevant policy implications for the roads that lay ahead.
In the next chapter, Galvis and Galvis discuss how an effective gover-
nance model to protect coral reefs in Colombia was developed bottom-up
during the past decade, thanks to the joint efforts and trust of govern-
ment, civil society, and communities. In fact, “Transdisciplinary Citizen
Science connect Caribbean Hope Spots of Colombia to improve Coral Reefs
Governance” showcases a citizen’s science program associated with scuba
diving operators, fishermen, and other volunteer observers, which helped
gather massive data based on geo-referenced reports of observations and
semi-structured interviews with videos and photos. As a direct outcome
of such coordinated effort, the target geographical regions boast substan-
tially higher healthy coral cover and more frequent sightings of vulnerable
species listed on the IUCN Red List, higher fishermen’s community stew-
ardship, more effective bottom-up schemes of protection, and less visitors
in contrast with the Park. This talks loudly about the positive scheme
results and the ensuing need to connect case studies within effective
protection frameworks to increase governance that guarantees ecological
connectivity.
Reina’s chapter forwards a conceptual proposal related to Community-
Based Innovation Ecosystems, which he deems an appropriate framework
to study processes of communal and transformative innovation in territo-
ries affected by heavy social conflict. Thus, “Community-Based Innovation
Ecosystems in Peace-building and Resilience Contexts” challenges the
notion of innovation “as a transactional process to open new markets
in capitalism” and pivots around a socio-technical process of collective
14 L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
transformation linked to actions carried out by grassroots organizations
and communities. This proposal is embodied by the case study of a
community located in a South-Western region (Guapi, Cauca) where
diverse social actors, that have been usually excluded, build collaborative
interactions in post-conflict/post-agreement contexts.
Likewise, Rojas analyzes the main challenges faced by a developing
country such as Colombia in an attempt to organically link local economic
development strategies to the manifold opportunities arising from a
richly endowed bioeconomy expressed in several regions within the same
country. Thus, “Local economic development and the Colombian strategy
for a sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy” explores the traits of triple-
helix actors related to the progress of development supported by a
bioeconomy-based strategy and offers a stance based on local territories
and bottom-up participation.
The chapter by Sanabria and Orozco, “Sharing economies and digital
platforms: Between access and social inclusion in Colombia”, analyzes
several cases, performed in collaboration with Connecting the Dots and
Sharecollab, the dilemma of platforms that could generate social inclusion
and may help disrupt traditional non-inclusive dynamics for market mech-
anisms, or creating new forms of mega-corporations that exert power and
dominance with the new digital technologies in a new wave of capitalism.
The cases help to understand the technology as a mediated agent in the
frame of Actor Network Theory, to be analyzed by its capacity to traduce
the new business models into practices for social inclusion or marginal-
ization. This research extends a previous analysis of the transformation of
capitalism with the discourse of sharing economy (Sanabria & Orozco,
2021).
In the second part of the book, chapter six presents universities as key
actors in Chalela, Boni, and Velasco’s “Developing transformative inno-
vation through policy experimentation in two Colombian Universities”, in
which two experiences are examined under the light of transformative
innovation. The cases of two regional, privately owned universities are
brought forward to illustrate “inclusive and participatory processes that
have taken into account voices that are usually excluded in the formu-
lation of university policies”. Although the two processes examined are
still unfinished, the authors trust that such an approach can offer useful
alternatives to improve university governance.
Along the same line, in “The STI contribution of higher education insti-
tutions of Cauca to peace building and social inclusion”, Castillo and
1 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION … 15
co-authors analyze the implementation of territorial peace conceived as
the return of the State to territories (e.g., Cauca state) where govern-
mental institutional presence is neglected. The study uses quantitative
and qualitative analysis to establish how, despite understandable short-
comings, Caucan universities do develop joint STI initiatives that foster
social inclusion with/of social organizations through knowledge diffu-
sion to counter specific problems (e.g., digital divide) and by supporting
the design, implementation, and assessment of public policies aimed at
boosting human talent in the region.
The next two chapters cover the advancements in methodological
issues. “A classification model to analyze inclusion in higher educa-
tion systems: an approximation from contingency theory ” by Ruiz and
co-authors examines Colombia’s national science, technology, and inno-
vation system plans to include more students in the higher education
system as a condition to create the human capital needed to boost
socio-economic development. Their concern regards a supply–demand
imbalance that creates a governance problem by pressing the inclu-
sion of human capital in higher education organizations, which adds
to regional inequalities. Ruiz et al. propose a model to study such a
problem and present results showing that shifts in inclusion depend on
the development level of regions.
Another case scenario is presented by Cancino et al. in “Methodology
for the governance and management of the university as a complex adaptive
system based on the three missions: research, education and connecting with
its surroundings”. The authors propose to examine the sustainability and
governance of university-based capacities by redefining the very notion of
science, technology, and innovation capabilities in terms of the hetero-
geneity that characterizes the different types of universities’ scientific and
technological activities. That is achieved by examining the case of a high-
standing public university in Colombia and putting forward a proposal to
strengthen the governance and management of its mission.
In the last chapter, Sierra and Ramos’ “Science, Technology, Inno-
vation and inclusive development: A country comparison between
Colombia and Mexico” discusses the key historical elements that have
produced the current situation in both nations and the, consequently,
long way to go to for the two countries to build strong knowledge-based
economies where opportunities and performance help drive a change
in equality and wealth concentration into greater and better distributed
resources, opportunities, and social welfare in general. Universities and
16 L. A. OROZCO ET AL.
their relationships are showed as an important factor in both cases,
giving a framework to understand the governance for STI in the inclusive
development.
The books convey original reflections from the science, technology,
and innovation policy and governance studies and those related to the
development studies field with an approach to social inclusion and
sustainability. Social inclusion and sustainable development supported by
STI governance have been an essential topic in Latin America, though
understudied so far. Then, more than an academic discussion about the
conception of governance, in Latin America, the term tends to be more a
fashion than a scientific construction using evidence about the changes in
the way to understand the relationships between several actors to define
and control policies. The books produced by the Red GCTI are an effort
to contribute to the academic and practical vision about STI governance.
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PART I
Cases on STI Capacities for Inclusion
and Sustainable Development
CHAPTER 2
Relevance of Science, Technology
and Innovation Diplomacy for STI Capacity
Building in Central America: The Cases
of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras
Kleinsy Bonilla and Milena Serafim
2.1 Introduction
In the world of today international science entails a double-edge
approach. In one hand, scientific knowledge has become an important
factor for the growth of economies, leading to an increasing competi-
tion among countries based on innovation (Gilpin, 2001). On the other
K. Bonilla (B)
Group for Studies of Organization of Research and Innovation GEOPI,
Department of Science and Technology Policy DPCT, Institute of Geosciences
IG, University of Campinas UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil
M. Serafim
School of Applied Sciences—FCA, University of Campinas, UNICAMP,
Campinas, SP, Brazil
e-mail: milenaps@unicamp.br
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_2
21
22 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
hand, science is a common ground in which nations can work together to
solve global problems, such as climate change, migration flows, transna-
tional diseases, and threats to security, among others. Economic growth
is not enough for a society to progress, instead inclusive development
requires that knowledge and innovation should enable environmentally
sound prosperity in due respect of human labor rights and social protec-
tion. Moreover, in societies with the levels of poverty, inequality and
exclusionary structures (based on gender, territory, ethnic, wealth) such
as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, the generation and impact of
scientific, technological and innovation activities have to be interpreted
accordingly. In addition, the international engagement of these nations is
also affected by the indicated elements present in their population. The
processes toward development should be integral and inclusive.
Due to the importance of science in global affairs, theorists and
practitioners of International Relations and Science, Technology and
Innovation studies have been building an emerging field in the inter-
section between foreign policy and science. In this interface, two types
of diplomacy are proposed: Science Diplomacy and Innovation Diplo-
macy. The first is understood as a mechanism in which science is used
to foster scientific collaborations among nations with the explicit goal
of addressing common challenges and with the implicit goal of lever-
aging influence through soft power (Fedoroff, 2009). The American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2010: 34) proposed
breaking out Science Diplomacy into three types of practice resulting in a
seminal taxonomy: scientists offering advice in the design of foreign poli-
cies (science in diplomacy); the diplomatic apparatus promoting scientific
cooperation (diplomacy for science); and scientific cooperation to better
relations among countries (science for diplomacy). On the other hand,
Innovation Diplomacy is understood as a set of diplomatic strategies and
tools to defend national interests in the international arena and streamline
innovation systems through international cooperation (Leijten, 2017).
The concept and practices of Innovation Diplomacy are still under
construction; however, according to Bound (2016) nations use diplo-
matic bodies to attract human resources, ideas and investments; establish
pre-commercial or commercial cooperation between home companies
with foreign firms and universities; actively participate in the formula-
tion of frameworks that crosscut innovation (e.g. intellectual property
regime or migration rules); and foster collaboration among different
actors to solve global challenges. Currently, most of the discussions of
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 23
science and innovation diplomacy are taking place in European coun-
tries and the United States, while scholars from regions such as Latin
America are joining the building of this emerging field at a slower pace.
In the context of Latin America rather than considering separately Science
Diplomacy and Innovation Diplomacy, the literature refers to the field in
general as Science Diplomacy (Fecyt, 2017; Fernández-Poluch, 2015),
or to a more comprehensive terminology including Science, Technology
and Innovation Diplomacy (Barañao, 2016; SENACYT-MINEX Panamá,
2019).
Barañao (2016) sustains that science can be a helpful platform
to facilitate integration among Latin American countries, particularly
through interdisciplinary collaboration and mobility among scientists and
researchers. His scope, though is mainly focused on the southern part of
the continent. This perspective is also shared by Soler (2014)whoempha-
sizes the role that inter-governmental scientific networks can play in the
regional integration of the Latin American continent. Fernández-Poluch
(2015) calls the attention to relying on science diplomacy activities to
strengthen capacities in countries with wider gaps in terms of scientific
and technological progress of Latin America, although he emphasizes the
challenges in the STI governance experienced in the region. Once again,
the geographic focus of his work refers to experiences in major coun-
tries and blocks within Latin America such as MERCOSUR (Southern
Common Market, for the initials in Spanish), and Central America is once
again absent from this discussion.
From this perspective, Brazil is probably the Latin American country
where further scholars and practitioners are discussing the relevance of
science, technology and innovation (STI) in its foreign policy as well
as in its participation in international engagement (da Silva, 2018). In
the case of Central America few discussions can be found, mostly in
Panamá (SENACYT-MINEX Panamá, 2019)andCostaRica(Castro,
2018;Soler,2014). As a matter of fact, Panamá is among the few coun-
tries in the world with a published national strategy in science, technology
and innovation diplomacy (SENACYT-MINEX Panamá, 2019). Other-
wise, as it was stated before, Central American countries are often absent
from studies related to the state of science, technology and innovation
in Latin America. This occurs more markedly with the three coun-
tries included in this work, which are located in the northern part of
the isthmus: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The commonali-
ties among Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in their STI general
24 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
contexts and their similar policy trajectory justify the delimitation of this
work, leaving Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamá as subjects for a separate
analysis.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras share common features that
place them as scientific and technologically lagging behind countries
(Wagner et al., 2001). These features include the precariousness of their
higher education systems (and education in general), the institutional
weakness of public bodies and governance relevant to science, tech-
nology and innovation and a private (industrial) sector disconnected from
the greater national development project. These elements among other
characteristics have resulted in fragmented national innovation systems
showing fragile (often nearly nonexistent) science, technology and inno-
vation capacities. This context implies that, while other regions in the
world are advancing rapidly in their integration into the global knowl-
edge economy, the gap between these three Central American countries
and the more advanced countries continues to widen. Moreover, the
low priority given to scientific research in the public agendas of these
three nations as well as the limited investment in science and technology
(both historically and as a current trend) results in a perpetuation of STI
backwardness.
One of the mechanisms followed by the governments of these coun-
tries to narrow down such gaps and to foster advancement of the building
of their STI capacities has been international cooperation. For decades,
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have received cooperation from
partner countries and the international community in different modalities
such as multilateral, bilateral and triangular cooperation, as well as official
development assistance and technical cooperation.
In terms of STI international cooperation initiatives (design, imple-
mentation, results and impact) have been difficult to be systematized as
data is often not available. Moreover, political volatility and the lack of
stable and long-term national development plans have made it extremely
complex to organize STI capacity building efforts with the support of
international cooperation. In this scenario, the emergence of a new field
of knowledge in the interface of international relations and science, tech-
nology and innovation (Weiss, 2005,2015) may offer new possibilities for
these Central American societies to engage with more advanced countries,
and foster their STI capacity building processes.
This framework is still under construction, known with different
terminologies and approaches such as Science Diplomacy, Innovation
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 25
Diplomacy, Diplomacy of Science, Scientific Diplomacy, and others. For
the purpose of this text we will use STID, understood as initiatives
aimed at promoting the advancement of these areas involving actors
from different countries, including governments, scientific communities,
universities, research centers, and a wider variety of stakeholders. The
literature suggests that STID can play a meaningful role in response to
the challenges faced by Central American societies in their process of
building their STI capacities (human, institutional, organizational, soci-
etal), particularly in the cases of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras
confronting common challenges with shared socio-economic developing
context (Bonilla & Serafim, 2019).
This work presents findings of an ongoing investigation on the rele-
vance of STID in the building of STI capacity in Guatemala, El Salvador
and Honduras. Through a qualitative research methodology, the research
focused on systematizing the perspectives of local actors from the scien-
tific and research communities of these three Central American countries.
Complementarily, the study of a practical experience of STID from the
Guatemala foreign policy implement in their Embassy involving a bilateral
relation with the Republic of Korea provides relevant inputs to enhance
the analysis. From the study of the collected data and the sustained
discussions with relevant actors in the Central American region, evidence
suggest that STID might be relevant in the process of construction of
STI capacities for inclusive development. On the other hand, challenges
and obstacles for the successful international engagement of Guatemala,
El Salvador and Honduras have been also identified. The construction
of research agendas of these three countries deserves special attention,
in which the absence of evidence-based decision-making, the limited
production of data and good quality indicators, as well as the lack of inter-
sector interactions have made it difficult to establish common grounds
that could allow greater efficiency and impact in STID practices. Inter-
national STI engagement with scientifically more advanced countries,
both within Latin America and with extra-regional partner countries, has
proven to be puzzling. The framework is complex and has multiple edges;
therefore, further discussions and studies are critical to advance the field.
2.2 STI Context in Central America
Latin America as a region shows significant gaps in terms of STI capaci-
ties when compared to other blocks in the globe such as Western Europe,
North-East Asia, the United States and Canada. Admittedly, this regards
the use of conventional science and technology standards and main stream
26 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
metrics (as opposed to traditional knowledge from native populations, for
example). Wagner et al. (2001), using a composite index of science and
technology assessment, propose a categorization of countries based on
their scientific and technological capacity. This index classifies countries
into four categories: Scientifically Advanced, Scientifically Competent,
Scientifically Developing and Scientifically Lagging. In the Latin Amer-
ican region, there is no single country in the first category. The most STI
advanced countries comprise 22 nations responsible for 86% of all scien-
tific articles published internationally, and finance between 85 and 90% of
all research and development activities (R&D) of the world. The second
category includes two Latin American countries: Cuba and Brazil (out
of 24). Countries in this category are considered competent from the
scientific point of view since some of their index values of scientific and
technological capacity are above the international average, while in others
they may fall below the average. In addition, Brazil and Cuba show world
class standards in particular areas or sub-fields of science. In particular, in
the case of Brazil, investments in infrastructure and investment in R&D
have increased, which has generated accumulated improvement in its STI
context over time.
The third category is composed of 24 countries classified as scientif-
ically developing. In this group some nations have made certain invest-
ments in science and technology. However, their general scientific capacity
is below the world average. Here are found six Latin American coun-
tries: Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Bolivia.
It is relevant to call attention to the inclusion of Costa Rica in this cate-
gory, the best positioned Central American country. Finally, all the rest
of the Central American countries are included in the fourth category—
the scientific lagging behind. According to Wagner et al. (2001: 15)
“These countries have little or no ability to conduct science at the inter-
national level which offer opportunities for building STI capacity”. These
countries are: Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Nicaragua and
the three Central American countries that are the object of the present
analysis: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Different measures and indicators in the latter three countries lead to
believe they share a dismissive attitude toward science, technology and
innovation; in other words, the level of investment, the quality and scope
of its science and technology policies, the participation of the govern-
ment, the private sector and the organized civil society in STI activities
demonstrate that science and technology do not hold a priority position
in their agendas. This helps to explain their limited performance and poor
STI indicators.
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 27
2.2.1 STI Context in Guatemala
In Guatemala, the number of full-time researchers is 27 per million inhab-
itants, a Figure 16 times lower than the average for Latin America and 262
times lower than the average in developed nations (UNESCO, 2017). It
is widely accepted that economies in developing countries require more
research and innovation activities. Nevertheless, in the case of Guatemala,
the size of the scientific community should be at least 45 times larger
(between 1,000 and 1,200 full-time researchers). As for the investment
in science and technology, it becomes another limitation that negatively
affects the scientific and technological progress. Guatemala dedicates only
0.029% of its GDP to R&D activities. This is 14 times lower than the
investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, 25 times less than the average for Latin
America and the Caribbean, 85 times less than the average in Western
Europe and almost 200 times less than what is invested in Korea or Israel.
As a consequence of the minimum investment, scientific production in
terms of international specialized journals indicate Guatemala produced
11 articles per million inhabitants. The same figure in Chile, a relatively
more advanced Latin American country, is 45 times higher.
This complicated scenario is also evident in the formation and accu-
mulation of highly educated human resources. According to Bonilla
and Kwak (2014), up to 96.5% of the population in Guatemala lacks
complete tertiary education. Furthermore, from those few who manage
to complete tertiary education, an overwhelming majority concentrate
in undergraduate and technical programs, with restricted access to grad-
uate programs. Few specializations and master’s programs are available
in Guatemala, and only a handful of doctoral programs are offered by
local institutions. Regarding the field of study, a generalized emphasis
in activities exclusively oriented to teaching (without research) perpetu-
ates the reproduction of knowledge rather than the generation of new
knowledge. Research, science and technology are fields not yet explored
or prioritized in higher education institutions in the country. Guatemala
desperately needs to double its efforts to accumulate a trained and well-
trained workforce, capable of responding to the increasing pressures of
globalization and changing productive paradigms. It is worrying that the
national higher education system in Guatemala has proved insufficient
to produce the workforce with advanced education to meet the market
demand (Bonilla & Kwak, 2014). And beyond the market, inclusive
development remains elusive in this context in which enormous disparities
28 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
are observed between men and women, between the indigenous popula-
tion and the European descendants, and between the rural and the urban
areas.
2.2.2 STI Context in El Salvador
In El Salvador, the number of full-time researchers is 65 per million
inhabitants, which is higher than in the case of Guatemala, yet signifi-
cantly lower than the average of 547 observed in Latin America. From
the small group of full-time researchers, a great concentration can be
found in the social sciences (CONACYT, 2017). Up to 55% of researchers
have full tertiary education only at the bachelor’s level, while 38% have a
master’s degree and 7% have a doctorate. This Central American country
in 2016 allocated 0, 14% of its GDP to R&D activities, which consid-
ering the expenditure on scientific and technological activities at 1.18%
of GDP remains insufficient to generate relevant improvements in the
development process of local capacities of STI. Regarding the produc-
tion of highly educated human resources, while Brazil has five Ph.D.
graduates per 100,000 inhabitants, El Salvador does not reach one.
According to Duriez (2016: 28), the adult population that has access
to higher education is estimated at 5.7%. Of this figure, a very small
portion of undergraduate studies, with a minimum number of Salvado-
rian completing masters or doctorate programs. More strikingly, the areas
of knowledge that dominate the spectrum belong to the social sciences,
particularly Law, Administration and Commerce. In terms of academic
production, in 2014 Salvador produced 5.4 scientific articles per million
inhabitants. As for the governance and the strength in the STI insti-
tutional configuration, El Salvador showed certain progress compared
to Guatemala and Honduras by elevating to vice-ministerial level the
mandate for science and technology public policies (under the Ministry
of Education); however, the constant changes and reorganization process
according to the replacement in the leadership of the country make it
difficult to successfully achieve long-term goals.
2.2.3 STI Context in Honduras
The case of Honduras presents an even more complicated STI context
because accessing up-to-date information and indicators has proven prob-
lematic. A systematic practice of keeping records and good quality
registries has not been observed in nearly every aspect of the public
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 29
agenda, and science occupying a marginal position in the national
agenda offers no exception. Frequently regional and sub-regional reports
published by UNESCO, The United Nations Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), for example, leave the space of Honduras
empty when analyzing science, technology and innovation indicators.
With a population of almost 8.5 million, the number of full-time
researchers in this country in Central America is 24 per million people.
The government’s investment in science and technology is almost negli-
gible, approximately 0.04% of GDP and the R&D figure in 0.02%, one of
the lowest in the Latin American region. The responsibility for scientific
research has traditionally been assigned to higher education institutions,
especially the National Autonomous University of Honduras. According
to Duriez, Lopez and Moncada (2016) until 2014, of the adult popula-
tion in Honduras, 3.8% completed at least one level of higher education.
However, without clear records, most of them remain at the technical or
bachelor’s level, while a small number do master’s or doctoral studies.
Higher education is still considered elitist in terms of coverage and acces-
sibility. Regarding academic production, Honduras shows a figure of three
scientific articles per million inhabitants.
The preparation of the research process that resulted in the present
work offers an illustrative example of the precariousness of the Honduras
STI scenario. While Guatemala and El Salvador presented registries
with national coverage of communities of researchers and scientists, in
Honduras such data bases were not possible to locate. Universities and
research centers keep isolated registries or catalogs and the main body
with the mandate of public policies in STI, the Honduras Institute of
Science and Technology, does not produce such information.
2.3 Methodology
This exploratory and qualitative research was structured following a
methodological approach of triangulation1applying a survey and a case
1Methodological triangulation involves using more than one mechanism/instrument to
collect data, such as interviews, observations, questionnaires and desk review.
30 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
study. The survey2was filled by members of the research communities
in the three Central American countries—Guatemala, El Salvador and
Honduras—who provided information on their perspective about their
country’s international engagement in STI projects, processes or initia-
tives. Complementarily, a case study was carried out involving science
diplomacy already implemented by the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. This case study provided in-depth details on a practical initia-
tive that involved concrete foreign policy actions addressing science,
technology and research collaboration within a bilateral agenda between
Guatemala and the Republic of Korea. In addition, a permanent corrob-
orating exercise took place through the use of secondary data and
alternative sources.
In order to implement the survey, the first step consisted in identifying
databases with information of the researchers in the three countries. In
this process it was found that, while Guatemala and El Salvador have
registries of researchers with nationwide coverage, Honduras has only
partial catalogs of researchers such as the one maintained by the National
Autonomous University of Honduras—UNAH.3Once the mapping of
researchers was completed, the survey was sent to the members of such
research communities including the following question:
How can the international engagement of your country in science,
technology and innovation (STID)contribute to the building of STI capac-
ities? [Please consider the diversity of actors including those from the
government, universities and research organizations, private sector or civil
society]
In the case of Guatemala, the survey was sent to the members of two
public registries: The National Directory of Researchers4(DNI acronym
in Spanish) and the Guatemala Science and Technology Network5
(RedCTI). In the case of El Salvador, the survey was sent to the Network
2The design and application of the research instruments followed all the recommen-
dations of the ethics council, regarding anonymity, free and informed consent, and the
prospect of withdrawal from the data collection exercise at any time.
3See https://dicu.unah.edu.hn/inveS&Tgacion-cientifica/publicacion-comunicacion-y-
difusion/inveS&Tgadores-unah/catalogo-de-inveS&Tgadores/.
4See https://nis.senacyt.gob.gt/portal/index.php/inveS&Tgadores.
5See https://redcti.senacyt.gob.gt/portal/index.php/inveS&Tgadores/directoriocti.
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 31
Fig. 2.1 Online survey respondents by country
of Researchers of El Salvador6(Redisal). In the case of Honduras, the
survey was shared with the members of the UNAH catalog and was
also sent to the members of the National Directory for Scientific and
Technological Research in Higher Education7(SICES) which includes
participants at a national level.
The number of responses to the online survey varied as multiple obsta-
cles were encountered. In the case of the DNI of Guatemala, and Redisal
of El Salvador a significant number of members did not have an email
address available; therefore, it was not possible to send them the instru-
ment through an email communication. On the other hand, an important
number of the registries had outdated email addresses which resulted in
the bouncing back of the electronic communication. In view of this, a
complementary search was done to reach the highest possible number of
updated email addresses, particularly searching in public repositories of
published academic articles which included contact information. In the
case of Honduras, a similar exercise was implemented.
As observed in Fig. 2.1, the online respondents achieved a total
number of 360, which based on their country of origin amounted to
148 from Guatemala, 151 from El Salvador and 56 from Honduras; all
of them active researchers in different fields of knowledge. Five reported
6See https://www.redisal.org.sv/directorio.php.
7Seehttps://des.unah.edu.hn/sistema-de-educacion-superior/sices/.
32 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
being from other nationalities, yet engaged in research activities located
in the three studied Central American countries.
Researchers shared their perspectives on the role of international
engagement of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in science, tech-
nology and innovation initiatives with actors from STI advanced coun-
tries, either located within the Latin America region or in other parts of
the planet. For the sake of organization, we present the relevance of STID
for capacity building in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in four
categories: relevance to governments, relevance to scientific and research
communities, relevance to firms and relevance to social movements and
the organized civil society. Relevant answers were incorporated based on
their elaboration and completion regardless of the order in which they
were registered.
As for the selection of the case study,an exploratory consultation was
carried out in order to identify cases of foreign policy guidelines or foreign
policy actions already implemented in any of the three Central Amer-
ican countries involving STID. Three regional organizations were also
contacted: The Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration
(SIECA), the Central America Council for Higher Education (CSUCA)
and the Commission for Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Tech-
nology of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). At the same
time, consultations were done with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
three countries. As a result of this exploratory exercise, only one case was
identified in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, more precisely
in the diplomatic representation of Guatemala before the Government
of the Republic of Korea. Therefore, the case study was based on the
study of the pilot program: Appointment of a Knowledge Transfer and
Education, Science and Technology Officer in the Guatemala Diplomatic
Mission in the Republic of Korea. Details of the case study are presented
in Sect. 2.5.
2.4 Relevance of STI Diplomacy for STI
Capacity Building in Guatemala, El Salvador
and Honduras from the perspective
of their Research Communities
In this section, following the organization suggested in FECYT (2017),
we present findings from the primary data in four categories: a. Rele-
vance of STID to the governments, b. Relevance of STID to the academic
sector and scientific communities, c. Relevance of STID at the firm level
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 33
(private/industrial sector), and d. Relevance of STID to the organized
civil society. Some of the most relevant responses from the researchers are
presented throughout these categories in order to illustrate the shared
arguments. The answers are identified only with the number of the
respondent, implying no level of importance, rank or priority.
2.4.1 Relevance of STI Diplomacy to the Governments
The STID framework aims at placing science, technology and inno-
vation among the priorities of the countries´ agenda as well as the
diversification of their interest promoted within their international rela-
tions with the inclusion of scientific and research endeavors. In addition,
for STID it is a fundamental element to ensure the design of public
policies and the making of political decisions considering the scientific
evidence (Fernández-Poluch, 2015; Selleslaghs, 2017). In this sense, it
is imperative to consider STID as a collaborative interaction of multiple
agents (governmental and non-governmental, public and private) with
governments and political representatives called to engage in leading
roles. That is why, according to the members of the surveyed research
communities, the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras
have to first recognize the value of research, knowledge production and
innovation as key elements that contribute to the prosperity of their soci-
eties; otherwise the worrisome STI indicators discussed previously would
remain unchanged and the gaps with advanced countries and regions
will continue widening. Below, in these excerpts, we can see how the
respondents elaborated in their answers.
A first group related their responses to the significance of moving STI
capacity building to a higher priority in the social and institutional setting
in order to achieve better results
It is important that the government provides all the necessary support and
show interest in knowing the progress and development of the research
carried out in the country and that it is not only reflected in a document, it
is important to look for alternative solutions to measure the social impact.
(Respondent No. 18)
All of the government policies must have a STI component. Professionals
and civil servants should have among their profiles the abilities to identify
strategic alliances, external partners and international networks with exper-
tise in STI. In general, public institutions, but also the Ministry of Foreign
34 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
Affairs should, improve the capacities of their officers and staff who are
involved in STI affairs to become less bureaucratic institutions with better
results. (Respondent No. 20)
Allocate the state budget to enhance research cooperation efforts with
countries with shared interests but higher research standards. (Respondent
No. 65)
STID could facilitate the reduction of bureaucracy and the simplifica-
tion of procedures, in addition to the improvement of inter-institutional
interactions. (Respondent No. 70)
Another fundamental issue in the case of governments is their role as
responsible for the foreign policy shaping international relations. Various
respondents expressed their concerns about the structural weaknesses in
the organization of the foreign services in the three countries.
Institutional shortcomings, misconceived incentives in the recruitment
of diplomats and inexistence of a stable and evolving career in Foreign
Service have allowed administrations to appoint family members, political
party aids and other inadequate representatives in high, middle and lower
positions in foreign missions. This is consistent with documented experi-
ences of nepotism (Gavarrete, 2019), incompetence and poor practices in
the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras
(Alpirez, 2014;ECLAC,1995). In order to advance STI initiatives in
international collaboration, diplomats and the staff in foreign missions are
required to meet high qualifications and clear understanding of the value
of science and technology projects involving a diversity of actors in their
society. It is necessary to “provide official training [advise] to the Presi-
dent of the Republic and his/her ministers on STI issues” (Respondent
No. 231) and also “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should work closer
with public and private universities” (Respondent No. 288).
A deeper involvement of relevant public institutions with actors from
the industrial sector for the advancement of science, technological devel-
opment and innovation is mandatory. Coordinated efforts with Ministries
of Economy, Trade and Production and their equivalents are to meet their
peers in Ministries of Education and Official Bodies in the governance of
STI. It is important to prioritize R & D policies at national and regional
level by providing such initiatives with appropriate and timely resources
and budgets, for the development of activities in the scientific field.
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 35
Governments are responsible to facilitate formal and informal mecha-
nisms to foster linkages between scientists, politicians, firm managers and
the society in general so that the scientific knowledge enriches public
administration and decision-making based on evidence. Governments
should facilitate the contribution of society during the entire cycle of
the research (definition of problems and priorities, design, exploitation
of results, evaluation, etc.).
Governments can also facilitate the mobility and integration of scien-
tists in administration and advising positions of public organizations.
“The Government is responsible for having a database of researchers
and their research strengths and skills in areas of knowledge, invite
them to participate in national and international research, conduct it and
invite researchers” (Respondent No. 122). Collaborate with associations
of national scientists in each country, promoting open communication
channels so that your experience and advice can reverse in the national
system of science, technology and innovation. “A collaborative agenda
based on initiatives of the Central American isthmus should be prioritized
by the government” (Respondent No. 245). Encourage the Ministries
of Foreign Affairs, the need of universities and research centers in the
formation of their influence and in the public policies of its competition.
Below, in these excerpts, it can be seen how the respondents elaborated
in their replies:
I think it is of greater benefit for science, technology and innova-
tion that collective efforts can take place between universities, firms and
non-governmental organization assuming that the government is fully
committed through its Science and Technology Council. (Respondent No.
87)
Our governments should establish clear programs and make it avail-
able their counterpart contribution (financial resources, human capital,
infrastructure, equipment) proportional to STI international initiatives.
(Respondent No. 131)
Also in this cooperation, horizontal and equitable cooperation rela-
tions are important and reinforces the government’s need to prioritize
these relations. “Decolonize North–South cooperation relations. Estab-
lish horizontal and equitable cooperation relationships. Diversify our
36 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
foreign relations traditionally focused on Europe and North America.
Think of Asia with the impressive stories of STI catching up…” (Respon-
dent No. 348).
2.4.2 Relevance of STI Diplomacy to the Academic Sector
and the Scientific Communities
The communities of researchers are scattered, fragmented and there is
lack of systemic and cohesive collaborations. International collaborations
are scarce among researchers from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Monge-Nájera and Ho (2018: 315) point out that in cases such as
Guatemala a more optimistic outcome is expected as “collaboration with
foreign institution is on the rise, particularly with collaborators from the
United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom”. It is important to
visualize the value of this indicator, whether it is relevant to promote
the authors of a country to engage in co-authorship with researchers
and institutions of other countries and consider the risk of neglecting
the quantity and quality of the national publications. By not only
concentrating efforts in promoting international co-authorship, but also
contributing to the expansion of knowledge, considering the quality of
journals and quantity and quality of national publications to promote the
inclusion of national production in regional and comprehensive databases
with high visibility. Institutional collaboration can also occur; however,
the patterns shown in Central America indicate that quality research is
dependent on particular individual researchers rather than on institutions.
However, “In the case of El Salvador, there is only one public university;
there are over 50 private universities. Many programs, especially the Euro-
peans, do not allow the participation of private HEIs [Higher Education
Institutions]. It is very important that this is changed” (Respondent No.
29).
Another aspect pointed out, in relation to the structuring of capacity
generation in STD, refers to the mechanisms of mobility (students,
professors, scholars, decision-makers in academia, leaders). Respondent
No. 33 highlights the need to “encouraging mechanisms for mobility
of scholars on systematic and regular basis”. Corroborating this aspect,
respondent No. 41 also reinforces the inclusion of “researchers who are
[living] outside of their countries of origin and who perform research
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 37
activities in international institutions”, in other words the Central Amer-
ican scientific diaspora engaging with the international scientific dias-
pora would facilitate the strengthening of international and national
networks of scientists and national science academies in proposing tech-
nical solutions for common problems in Latin America and the Caribbean.
However, it is worth emphasizing here the need of reinforcing the role
of the STI Policy in each country, integral approach in their design and
implementation with other specific policies (health, environment, educa-
tion policy, etc.). Thus, politicians and policy-makers need, in addition
to having this clarity, to direct demands and projects to the STI Policy
(Serafim & Dagnino, 2011). Otherwise, the scientific community, imbued
with its intrinsic logic to its academic ethos, can align itself much more
with the social problems of the central countries than with the local prob-
lems of its countries. The phenomenon of the emulation of the research
agenda of the central countries has been present consistently in the coun-
tries of Latin America. In fact, this phenomenon—of the colonization of
the global south—is quite common in Latin American countries, causing
anomaly and atypical science and technology policy (Dagnino, 2014).
Expanding the training of students, scientists and researchers beyond
technical–scientific skills, including communication, management, leader-
ship, multidisciplinary teamwork, negotiation, emotional intelligence and
other qualities, could be areas in which STID would provide an adequate
structure. Promoting the exchange of experiences and training practices
between scientists and public managers is essential so that the anomaly
and atypicality of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy do
not occur. This aspect is important for the creation and strengthening
of scientific capacities that support the governance and scientific diplo-
macy of the Central American countries in a horizontal cooperation with
developing or developed countries.
Along with this, another aspect concerning the generation of scien-
tific and technological capacities involves strengthening international
and national networks of scientists and national science academies to
propose technical and scientific solutions to common problems in Latin
America and the Caribbean to politicians and policy-makers. Thus, the
involvement of scientists in strengthening national systems of science and
technology and in the governance of universities and research centers,
through flexible formulas, is necessary.
Besides that, it is desirable to promote the association university
and research organizations, with industry and private firms throughout
38 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
the Central American region, to develop research processes that allow
producing, disseminating and transferring scientific and technolog-
ical knowledge. Disseminate research results (knowledge management),
emphasizing the evidence, to elicit the engagement and support of
decision-makers as strengthening and promoting contact and exchange
programs between scientists and political and diplomatic authorities are
important measures.
The academic sector could engage in the curricular design and content
of disciplines, academic events, courses and specialties on scientific diplo-
macy in university, and university policies research centers would be
valuable to encourage research, teaching and extension initiatives in this
new field. Advance the idea of Central America Research initiative that
allows free circulation of scientific talent in the region and greater scien-
tific collaboration between countries. A mechanism highly successful
in international experiences consists in promoting scientific collabora-
tion. Through collaboration between researchers from different countries,
interdisciplinary research and a complex approach to common problems
of equally wide complexity can be enhanced.
The opportunities to pursue a career in research (which in Central
America is still incipient) and complete dedication to these activities are
considered as factors that influence negatively the prospects for national
and international collaborations and scientific productivity. Some of the
most relevant responses in this category from surveyed researchers are
placed below:
Create instruments for cooperation between different sectors so that
research has an impact and benefit to society university-university and
international networks of researchers. Although it would help a lot that
in the agendas of international cooperation agencies they consider the
local capacity to do research and do not consider a non-approach issue
in cooperation, since the assistance approach predominates which favors
underdevelopment and dependence; an opportunity is needed for local
talents to generate knowledge and evidence that can influence politically in
each country. (Respondent No. 45)
Explore opportunities to reach out networks of Guatemalan [Salvadorian
and Honduran] scientists living abroad or engaged in research activities
in other countries interested in collaborating with scientists residing in
their home countries. Some may have the ability to contribute applying
for grants and getting funding, some others leading research projects. We
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 39
can procure the transfer of capacities among researchers. (Respondent No.
194)
At the Central American level, networks should be formed between univer-
sities that have equal or related areas of knowledge to strengthen research
and exchange of research. (Respondent No. 197)
In terms of language for the publication of scientific works and influen-
tial scientific research is still English, and communication technologies are
easier to access and at lower cost. The command of English language also
impacts chances of mobility and generates additional channels of scientific
collaboration. It is undeniable that science is global and that the forma-
tion of knowledge networks at the sub-regional level could strengthen
integration efforts with researchers from Guatemala, El Salvador and
Honduras having stronger English language skills. The prevalent trend is
still the use of Spanish which certainly could be the language to commu-
nicate and disseminate findings from research; also, it is useful in research
collaboration with other countries in the Latin American region and
Spain; however, the importance of English language is critical for the
advancement of STID initiatives.
2.4.3 Relevance of STI Diplomacy at the Firm Level (Private Sector)
The economic sector of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras still rely
on conservative structures based on agribusinesses with extremely limited
number of new firms being created. Most of the production in the
three countries come from large companies that perform few activi-
ties in research and innovation. At the same time, Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) are the largest source of employment, many of them
micro-enterprises or small traditional businesses. There is an incipient new
business sector, with motivated young entrepreneurs who are willing to
engage in activities to transform their economies (using science and tech-
nology); however, their activities face obstacles due to several factors:
there are still few emerging companies that inject new ideas and opportu-
nities into the sector; existing companies that lack local and international
connections with specialized research, services and financing; compa-
nies with connections that can find bureaucratic processes that slow
40 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
down the speed of doing business which could benefit from STID-
oriented networks and after being exposed to better practices, update
their processes and systems.
It is worthy to remark that responses in the survey incorporated
significantly fewer mentions to firms, private sector or actors from the
industry compared to those referring to the role of governments, research
communities (universities or research organizations) and civil society
(social movements, activism). Some mentions could be seen in these two
excerpts: “Promote the triad of R&D systems: Government +Compa-
nies +Universities. Leaving the trenches that confront the sectors, focus
on collaborative activities” (Respondent No. 9) and “Closer interactions
between private firms, government and higher education institutions”
(Respondent No. 144).
Private firms could improve by investing in sustainable and steady
R&D initiatives considering both aspects of financial return as social
impact. One constructive action would be the incorporation of graduates
from graduate education programs (master/doctors) who have been left
out with restricted access to professional development opportunities in
the industrial structures of the country. “Provide employment opportuni-
ties to highly educated human resources (masters/Ph.D.) in the industry
and avoid the common excuse: you are overqualified” (Respondent No.
154).
STID could be relevant to the private sector in the creation and
strengthening of business networks with science and technology inten-
sive counterparties at the country, region level and international levels.
A recurrent mention by respondents is not only considering the business
integration among Central American countries, but expand relations with
firms located in non-traditional country partners in other regions of the
world.
Fostering public–private cooperation alliances to promote R&D
projects would facilitate dialogue between industry, public administration
and actors from the academia, to achieve cooperation and mutual benefit
through the education and training. Some successful, although isolated
cases of good practices in the interaction of research and industry are:
the Guatemalan Center for Sugarcane Research and Training (CENGI-
CAÑA), the National Association of Coffee ANACAFE in Guatemala, the
Foundation for the Research about Coffee in El Salvador PROCAFE and
the Honduras Foundation for Agriculture Research FHIA in Honduras
(Stads et al., 2008). One suggestion from the survey respondent could
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 41
be addressed: “Use instruments to promote participation of researchers
in multinationals based in Central American territory. With this approach
we can achieve transfer of knowledge and access to know how from local
researchers to advanced technological capacities” (Respondent No. 357).
Fostering interactions between the industry and universities could be
pursued along with international engagement mechanisms. Further inter-
actions between these sectors could decrease the gaps in terms of technical
training and the existence of capabilities required in the labor market.
It is critical for representatives of the private sector to participate in the
public policy debate and become key agents of the society to contribute
to prosperity and social welfare through the promotion of R&D. Finally,
the engagement of organizations of actors from the industry in the three
countries such as the Chamber of Industry (Guatemala) and the Chamber
of Industry and Commerce (El Salvador and Honduras) could also be
meaningful to promote STID projects and processes.
2.4.4 Relevance of STI Diplomacy to Social Movements
and Organized Civil Societies
Common cultural roots and shared historical and economic history along
with unstable democracies and weak institutions in the three countries
have resulted in a significant number of organized groups from the civil
society and social movements playing significant roles in the develop-
ment process. Non-government organizations (NGOs) have for decades
occupied institutional vacuums left unattended by the public and private
sectors, and they have also acted in STI activities. The presence and activ-
ities of these type of organizations have even frequently involved in the
provision of public services, activism in human rights, poverty alleviation
and promoted incipient exercises of citizenry. In some cases, NGOs have
shown higher scientific productivity compared to universities and research
organizations, such as the case of the Center for Studies of Sensory
Impairment (CeSSIAM), an NGO with steady production about food
and health sciences (Monge-Nájera & Ho, 2018). Fields of critical rele-
vance such as climate change, biodiversity, conservationism, environment,
public health have also involved active participation of NGO in research
activities.
Social organizations could play a role in the STI capacity building
process as there are concrete examples of their contribution tending
bridges between society and actors from the national innovation systems.
42 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
The Institute for the Development of Higher Education in Guatemala
(INDESGUA)8founded in 2007 offers evidence on an active role
in providing counseling and mentoring to excluded groups from the
Guatemalan population to access to training and education programs with
scholarships and various schemes of financial aid. According to public
registries, over 1,000 of beneficiaries from Guatemala and its neighbors
have been able to engage in educational and training programs mostly
supported by international cooperation resources. Here is the summary of
the results achieved by INDESGUA between June 2007 and June 2020
(INDESGUA, 2020):
•1,025 Guatemalan beneficiaries from the 22 provinces of the country
and 76 people from other countries.
•451 are men and 650 are women.
•Of the total, 903 consider themselves having mixed Spanish-native
ethnic origins, and 198 from other ethnic backgrounds.
•As for the level of education 24 processes have supported tech-
nical secondary education, 286 specialization short courses, 240
undergraduate or bachelor’s degrees, 505 in masters, and 22 in
doctorates.
•The orientation process has benefited applicants obtaining scholar-
ships and financial aid to 240 to education/training programs taking
place in Guatemalan educational institutions and 604 abroad (in 52
countries, 5 continents) and 52 remotely (on line).
Various other NGOs have participated actively in the promotion of
scientific evidence for activism such as data observatories and record
keeping organizations, filling gaps left unattended by responsible public
institutions. NGOs have assumed co-responsibility both in the identifica-
tion of problems, as well as their causes as possible solutions. Respondents
of the survey indicated their perspectives:
I think it is a priority for the country to have a prospective vision of what
it wants to do, not only do what the economic system has to do, we
need democratic governments, governance, respect for human rights, more
8See http://www.indesgua.org.gt/.
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 43
funds for education and health and to restrict the military expenses that
are unproductive. (Respondent No. 239)
Develop processes to encourage mission-oriented applied research for its
results to be meaningful for the entire society. I mean, countries at the
current stage of socio-economic development of Honduras cannot afford
to invest already meager available resources to attempt science discoveries
at the frontier…we need first to promote problem-solving research and
this demands collaborative work between activists from the organized civil
society and the academy. (Respondent No. 271)
Civil society can also participate in the creation of a scientific and
research-oriented culture through philanthropy. The respondent No. 42
points out the importance to “generate an inclusive training center for
researchers from the most unprotected social sectors”. Having regular
citizens interested in science and research, who eventually co-sponsor STI
activities result in social awakening toward scientific and technological
vocations. It is important for the entire society to participate broadly in
STI activities in the form of civil associations, foundations and labora-
tories that connect local knowledge with their community reality. This is
particularly relevant in cases such as Guatemala in which indigenous popu-
lation’s traditional peoples have been excluded. In the cases of El Salvador
and Honduras it also regards contrasting participation between urban and
rural civil society. Of course, we have to understand that “the results of
the investigations are not an immediate solution, but that you have to
allow time to obtain an immediate response to the needs demanded by
society” (Respondent No. 47).
All sectors, especially the public sector, need to realize that in addi-
tion to time and maturation of research and development, the scientific
community needs to establish.
inter-institutional, regional and national research networks to propose
comprehensive solutions to serious national problems. Engagement with
communities at the local level, not only national level, but more focused
on smaller units of social organization. (Respondent No. 92)
That is, the power of Central American countries is derived from the
plurality of social actors involved not only in the process of diagnosing
social demands/problems, but also in the process of building scientific
44 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
knowledge applied in the context in which it is produced. Traditional
knowledge can be better exploited.
2.5 Case study: Appointment of the Knowledge
Transfer and Education, Science
and Technology Officer in the Guatemala
Diplomatic Mission in the Republic of Korea
The Guatemala National Development Plan K´atun 2032 (SEGEPLAN,
2015: 12) highlights the need to “guarantee the coverage and quality
of education, as well as the stimulation of science and technology as
generators of knowledge and bases for the development of people”. This
policy instrument has provided the frame for the National Science and
Technology National Policy Development (SENACYT, 2017).
In this scenario the Government of Guatemala through the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (MINEX) designed and implemented a pilot STID initia-
tive creating the position of “Coordinator of Cooperation and Knowledge
Transfer” in the Embassy of Guatemala to the Republic of Korea. This
initiative was designed and implemented by the then Ambassador Herbert
Estuardo Meneses Coronado (Meneses, 2020) who built up over the
bases laid by former Ambassador Rafael Salazar Galvez. From March
2017 to August 2019, the person in charge of the referred position
would devote specific efforts to promote cooperation projects in science,
technology, higher education and innovation within the bilateral relation
between both countries. The definition of the profile required for the
position, the establishment of indicators of performance and the moni-
toring and constant evaluation of results were clearly separated from the
conventional (and more traditional) forms of bilateral agendas such as the
commercial and cultural diplomacy.
Some of the duties of the referred position included: “…search,
management and promotion of scholarships at the undergraduate and
graduate level as a priority within the activities of diplomatic mission in
order to foster joint cooperative efforts between Korea and Guatemala
in this area and support the country’s [Guatemala] progress in tech-
nology, innovation and competitiveness” (Villagran, 2017). From 2005
to 2017, at least 180 Guatemalan nationals engaged in long-term schol-
arships in 48 specializations, which involved three large areas of knowl-
edge: Natural Sciences and Engineering, Political, Administrative and
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 45
Economic Sciences, Humanistic and Social Sciences. This precedent justi-
fied the action taken by the MINEX in devoting specific human power
in its Embassy of Guatemala before the government of Korea. In this
context the newly appointed person would be in charge of promoting
academic exchange between scholars in the two countries, participation of
Guatemalans in relevant scientific networks, pursuing Guatemala–Korea
joint research projects, among others.
Most of the cooperation projects in STI between Korea and Guatemala
corresponded to higher education programs taught by 27 universi-
ties located within the Korean territory and received funding from 15
public and private partner institutions, among which were: The Korea
International Development Agency (KOICA), The National Institute of
International Education (NIIED), and the agreements signed between
the Guatemala National Secretariat Science and Technology (SENACYT)
and Kyung Hee and Chonbuk universities. This cooperation has been esti-
mated at nearly 10 million US dollars within a range of 12 years. In the
STI cooperation experience between Guatemala and Korea it is worthy
highlighting that 53% of the funding was provided by sources from the
public sector while 46% came from sources of the private sector.
The STI cooperation initiatives between Guatemala and Korea experi-
enced a considerable increase between 2014 and 2015, in view of which
the Embassy of Guatemala in Korea created the position equivalent to a
Science attaché as part of its personnel. According to Villagrán (2017:3),
some of the challenges faced by the officer in this this position while in
functions included:
– Dispersion of information related to STI cooperation between Korea
and Guatemala;
– Limited effort of dissemination of the available information;
– Lack of follow up on behalf of the Guatemalan government in the
implementation of STI cooperation initiatives;
– Limited knowledge and reduced understanding about the operation
of mechanisms such as: scholarships, fellowships, joint research initia-
tives, other forms of scholar mobility among the higher education
institutions, their authorities;
– Poor data collection and production of statistics;
– Limited promotion of two-way cooperation programs;
– Difficulties in nominating suitable candidates: student as well as scien-
tist/researchers mobility (lack of command of English or Korean
language, insufficient number of interested candidates);
46 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
– Insufficient understanding of the culture, language and potential win-
win opportunities offer by the partner country (success in STI policies
and indicators in Korea are not fully grasped in Guatemala, still
Europe and North America are seen as prevalent or ideal);
– Prevailing of the vertical concept of international STI engagement
as ‘assistance’ instead of a horizontal cooperation between equals (in
Guatemala we tend to expect the partner will provide the human,
financial and technical resources without a counterpart.
Part of these limitations were pointed out by the survey respondents.
Anyway, they are not exclusive to a difficulty in Central American coun-
tries. There may be particularities, but issues about gap implementation,
poor data collection, prevailing of vertical cooperation (instead hori-
zontal cooperation), etc. are very common in different countries in Latin
America.
The prevailing idea in the Guatemalan side (public institutions,
researchers, students), by which as a less advanced STI country there
dominates the “recipient” attitude rather than “a partner” attitude, was
highlighted as a major hindrance for STID initiatives to succeed. In
order for the country to engage in meaningful exchange, a shift in the
mindset of authorities and individuals as well as the existence of basic STI
capacities become conditions.
As for achievements, the appointment of a Science attaché in the Diplo-
matic Mission in Guatemala resulted, among others, in the following
positive outcomes (Villagrán, 2017: 21):
The production of relevant databases and building of statistics and good
quality indicators: including relevant information about the fellows, details
on their study programs, universities, donor entities, updated status of their
programs... For the first time in more than a decade of STI cooperation in
the form of scholarships between Korea and Guatemala, a consistent esti-
mation of costs of each and every one of the types of scholarships offered
by the 15 donor institutions becomes available. Having a clear idea of the
amount and quality of cooperation is of vital importance, in order to eval-
uate each of the programs offered and prioritize outreach efforts...Thanks
to the work done by the appointed specific attaché discussions about
cooperation and decisions are made based on good quality information
and evidence. Evaluation exercises are being proposed on the coopera-
tion instruments framing the STI cooperation initiatives...Communication
and dissemination of opportunities arising from STI cooperation initiatives
is relevant in order to reach those interested parties and other potential
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 47
participants, even before the calls have been officially opened. This was
achieved thanks to the collection of early information through universities,
and thanks to the scheduling that has been defined keeping records of
discussions and agreements.
An extremely important measure was “the appointment of a science
attaché fostered interactions and fluent communication between different
parties from the two countries including public institutions, universities,
higher education students and researchers, and even firms from the private
sector” (Villagrán, 2017: 21).The person was responsible to promote STI
International Cooperation approach experienced in Guatemala and the
structure minimum basis for a new approach in the perspective of STID.
It is insightful to emphasize on some of the key differences between
STI International Cooperation approach experienced in the Guatemala
for the past few decades to a new approach enabled by STID (Table 2.1).
The Guatemala Diplomatic Mission in South Korea also presented to
the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs the initiative of a project called
“Educational, Scientific and Technological Center” (Meneses, 2020),
which was intended to be developed with the cooperation of Korean busi-
ness consortiums and the universities of that country. They would interact
with their counterparties in Guatemala, with the possible extension to the
rest of Central American countries. Such initiatives had several compo-
nents that ranged from research (Guatemala biodiversity is one of the
natural reserves in the world), the exchange and mobility of professors
Table 2.1 STI international cooperation vs STID
STI international cooperation STID
– Vertical relations of cooperation
– Isolated and fragmented interventions
– Aid-oriented approach
– Absence of basic local STI capacities in
less developed parties
– Receiving–giving logic
– Predominance of
government– government cooperation
– Horizontal relations of cooperation
– Integrative role of science and research
– Empowering approach
– Requirement of basic local STI
capacities in all parties
– Win–win logic
– Diversity of participants involved:
universities, individuals and organized
researchers, official institutions, private
firms
Source Based on Villagran (2018)
48 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
and young scholars engaging with companies and R&D and the provi-
sion of fiscal incentives (free zones) for investments aiming at building
industrial plants for the production of medicines, laboratories and clinics
working with social health services and universities. Certainly, property
rights would be negotiated in a later stage. In principle, the San Carlos
of Guatemala University (USAC) agreed to host the Center offering as
counterparty their Technological Institute locating in Palín and in that
place the Center could be built, which was promising as it is located
close to the major logistic maritime facilities in the shores of the Pacific
Ocean. However, the change in authorities of USAC resulted in the
discontinuation of the negotiation, ultimately bringing the initiative to
a termination.
The rotation of authorities, the lack of long-term planning and the
inability to maintain sound STI initiatives for extended periods were
pointed out as significant obstacles to promote successful STID initia-
tives in the case of Guatemala. Notwithstanding, with the incorporation of
STID discussions in the Guatemalan Foreign Service through the work of
the Diplomatic Academy (Meneses, 2020) further understanding will be
enabled, consequently engaging in meaningful international STI projects
is foreseeable.
The experience of the case study—Diplomatic Mission of Guatemala
in the Republic of Korea—and also the researchers’ perceptions, through
applied research, made it possible to raise questions and address some
learnings about STID dynamics within the particular contexts of the
nations located in northern Central America.
2.6 Conclusions
The analyzed evidence suggests that STID framework could provide a
helpful structure to organize STI capacity building projects in the three
Central American countries—Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras on
the grounds that such nations have strategies or country development
plans; otherwise, the shortcomings experienced with the implementa-
tion of the conventional STI international cooperation approach would
persist. In addition, the limitations of the conventional STI international
cooperation approach may result in isolated and fragmented interventions
with limited results, instead of meaningful impacts in the reduction of
STI capacities. STI diplomacy incorporates more complexity and diversity
in the origins, characteristics and interests of a variety of participating
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 49
actors. Promoting the interactions of a more diverse range of stake-
holders could enhance the possibilities of addressing specific inclusive
development challenges through a more integrated perspective.
In the traditional approach of STI international cooperation, the preva-
lence of government-to-government assistance has tended to limit the
incorporation of other parties from the civil society, as well as, the private
sector (firms) and the academia. A systemic approach and coordinated
efforts among official institutions with an explicit mandate in STI could
enable further achievements. Yet, efforts from the governments are to be
accompanied by active engagement from the academia, the private sector
and the organized civil society. It is also noteworthy how actors of great
relevance have had limited interactions and showed a dismissive in their
attitudes toward STI activities. An example of this involves the media
and its responsibility to communicate science. Communicating scientific
advances to society and the importance of science and technology in
solving everyday problems is of critical importance to increase public
awareness. It is also worthwhile calling for attention to the scarce partici-
pation of companies and private firms in these discussions. In sum, specific
efforts ought to be devoted to the promotion of constant interactions
between all these actors considering the separated paths the stakeholders
have taken, instead of converging in common interests within the STI
context in their societies.
Strong and sound public policies that involve the governments of
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and the different international
cooperation platforms (bilateral, multilateral, sub-regional and triangular)
can enable accelerated steps to be taken in the pursuit of STID projects
aiming at building STI capacities. Therefore, it is important to work on
integration throughout a variety of channels and mechanisms simultane-
ously. Governments must establish priorities and ensure that their STI
systems are diversified and decentralized, resources provided to centers of
excellence with large-, medium- and small-scale stimuli are dispersed and
which in turn make it difficult to measure the research or achievements.
Central America must reach out and engage with its already formed scien-
tific diaspora and connect scientists who live within the borders of their
countries with the research human power scattered around the globe.
In addition, regional integration efforts could build closer collaborative
bonds among different scientific communities across Central America.
One natural partnership that should be explored involves the Central
America System for Regional Integration—SICA.
50 K. BONILLA AND M. SERAFIM
The case study of STID practice between Guatemala and Korea
provides evidence of the benefits arising from devoting separate and
specific diplomatic efforts to advance STI cooperation ties based on a
win–win perspective. While Guatemala greatly benefited from different
mechanisms of engagement between local actors (graduate students,
higher education institutions, public officers and entrepreneurs) and their
Korean counterparties. Likewise, the mobility to Korea and the interac-
tions achieved between such actors enriched possibilities to be exposed
to better practices. Admittedly, the pilot STID program faced numerous
obstacles which diminished the opportunities of obtaining greater results
and at the same time precipitated its termination. The institutionaliza-
tion of innovative practices in diplomacy requires a greater period of time
and resources which require clear foreign policy guidelines and protocols
yet to be designed. Meneses (2020) acknowledged “resistance from the
established organizational structures against innovative STID practices,
with the prevalence of more conventional and conservative approaches”
which increases the value of increasing the exposure to different thinking
and better global practices.
The STI gaps clearly observed in the depicted Central American
national contexts require of assertive international engagement strategies
in order to reduce their extent. Admittedly, the support provided by inter-
national cooperation efforts has been helpful in the process of building
STI capacities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras; notwithstanding,
the impact in the inclusive development in these countries has been
limited due to different characteristics and structural impediments for
social progress experience by extended groups of their societies.
In summary, STID offers a helpful framework for countries with chal-
lenging STI context such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. These
societies can use these constructs and logics to promote further engage-
ment in international STI initiatives. The involvement of a wider diversity
of actors from multiple sectors represents an enhancement compared with
the traditional STI international cooperation approach, which offered a
more restrictive framework. Understanding STID as a set of strategies and
diplomatic tools to promote the national interest in the global sphere and
to rationalize innovation systems through international cooperation, its
application for STI capacity building and capacity development is relevant
for the three Central American nations.
2 RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION … 51
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CHAPTER 3
Transdisciplinary Citizen Science Connects
Caribbean Hope Spots of Colombia
to Improve Coral Reefs Governance
Nohora Galvis and Rosa Helena Galvis
3.1 Introduction
The United Nations (UN) has called on governments, the private sector,
academia, civil society and the public to join forces for achieving sustain-
able development as “the development that meets the needs of the
present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs” (WCED, 1987: 8). UN members alongside civil
society, stakeholders and major groups can help the implementation
of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainability considers the
ecological, social and economic systems searching for mathematical theory
embodying these concepts to integrated perspectives comprising humans
N. Galvis (B)·R. H. Galvis
International Coral Reefs Observatory, Fundacion ICRI Colombia, Bogota,
Colombia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_3
55
56 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
and the natural ecosystem trophic linkages, biodiversity and biogeochem-
ical cycles (Cabezas et al., 2004). Mauser et al. (2013) clarifies that
scientific disciplines from natural and social science will collaborate with
relevant societal groups based on transdisciplinary and integrated research
concepts to achieve the three different dimensions of the integration of
ecological, social and economic sciences to explore together successful
pathways toward global sustainability. In agreement with Tress et al.
(2004), the strength of integration varies across research concepts, from
low (participatory, multidisciplinary) to fully integrated (interdisciplinary,
transdisciplinary), stresses that transdisciplinary, in comparison to inter-
disciplinary, is also characterized by the involvement of non-academic
actors in the research process. For Nicolescu (2002)theprefix“trans”
from transdisciplinarity means working between the disciplines, across the
different disciplines and beyond all disciplines. Lang et al. (2012)defines
transdisciplinarity as a reflexive principle that aims at the solution or tran-
sition of societal problems by differentiating and integrating knowledge
from various scientific and societal bodies of knowledge. Mauser et al.
(2013) focus on integration as an iterative process that involves reflection
among all stakeholders based on three stages: co-design, co-production
and co-dissemination. In order to solve scientific ecological problems
associated to global change and sustainability it is necessary to ensure
collaboration and a “wise and efficient coordination” of a broad range of
disciplines from the natural science and humanities.
The Sustainable Development Goal 14 refers to the protection of Life
Below Water. Millions of species depend on the ecosystem integrity of
coral reefs—including human beings. However, coral reefs face degrada-
tion in all the regions of the world. According to Anthony et al. (2011)
and Burke et al. (2011), approximately 75% of coral reefs worldwide
are currently threatened by a combination of local and global stressors.
Without actions taken to minimize local stressors, this figure will increase
to 90% by 2030 and close to 100% by 2050. Ocean acidification and
warming will lower coral reef resilience and local stressors reduce coral
resilience to bleaching (Carilli et al., 2009). Thus, effective local-scale
stressors management is critical to keep reefs healthy in the trend of
increasing global stressors.
Two international studies (Hocking, et al., 2000; Pomeroy et al.,
2004) have attempted to develop tools for assessing coral reef manage-
ment effectiveness, although to date such measures have only been
applied to a few sites. Most focus is given to Marine Protected Areas
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 57
(MPAs), coastal or oceanic management areas designed to conserve
ecosystems together with their functions and resources. Specifically, coral
reefs are the mega-diversity areas of the ocean targeted for protection
from land-based sources of pollution, with use restrictions and regula-
tion of resources use to ensure sustainability (Fontaubert et al., 1996:
47–48). Site level data with adequate detail would be ideal to evaluate
MPA performance and provide information on potentially explanatory
variables but it is not yet available at the global level, as the cost and
effort would be prohibitive (Hargreaves-Allen et al., 2017). Many MPAs
are failing to meet their aims, and the majority of reefs, including those
inside MPAs, remain threatened (Christie & White, 2007; Jameson et al.,
2002). Dalton et al. (2015) in the wider Caribbean, analyzed social
and ecological data from rapid assessments in thirty-one MPAs associ-
ated to human communities to investigate the extent to which MPAs
are making progress toward their stated social and ecological objec-
tives. Despite the UN focus to implement SDGs, there is still a gap of
understanding assertive communication based on scientific facts to reach
decision-makers, who do not have the political will to consider them.
Assessing coral reef resilience and effective conservation is an increas-
ingly important component of coral reef management. Bachtiar et al.
(2019) selected for the resilience indicators: coral functional group, coral
habitat quality, sand-silt cover, coral cover, coral small-size number and
algae-other-fauna cover using line-intercept-transect (LIT). Colding and
Barthel (2019) noticed that in the twenty years’ course of existence, the
Social-Ecological System SES concept has a descriptive focus or diagnostic
focus that still lacks a more unifying definition to facilitate communication
to a broader multidisciplinary audience.
In Colombia, most coral reefs are included in a governmental protec-
tion framework as it is a mandate to protect coral reefs. However, most
coral reef areas have become deteriorated in the last decades, which
make us wonder why and how the governance should be improved. The
only way to improve governance is to evaluate their effectiveness iden-
tifying what needs to be improved and with whom. Thus, we evaluate
the conservation effectiveness by involving the local communities as a
process to improve the governance. The official monitoring performed
by INVEMAR (Government Marine Research Institution) through its
monitoring program SIMAC (Camargo et al., 2008;Galvis,1989a,1998,
2002 and 2006), have evaluated and monitored the effectiveness of coral
reef management with managers, scientists, divers and fishers. According
58 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
to Bunce and Galvis (2002), socioeconomic assessments are relevant to
identify all the perspectives about the performance of ecological indica-
tors to improve governance for planning improvements in effectiveness of
management. Citizen science is relevant to diminish costs and to consider
reports of hidden international, national and local anthropogenic causes
of coral reef deterioration from their observations on isolated coral reef
areas that do not have permanent surveillance (Galvis & Galvis, 2016;
Shein et al., 2016). The ecosystem integrity in coral reef areas may change
according to the effective management of anthropogenic threats and the
consideration of environmental conditions that may benefit the resilience
of less visited places.
We review the nature of the complex system including its ecolog-
ical, social and economic aspects, and propose an approach to assess
conservation effectiveness based on information theory that bridges the
natural and human systems. These principles are illustrated using a model
system with the identification of indicators, evaluation and monitoring of
their performance. Indicators of Pressure, State, Impact and Management
clarified causes, effects and extent of threats in order to apply assertive
conservation measures (Galvis, 1996,1998,2001 and 2002). From the
start of the ability to monitor permanently, all the indicators in all areas
are constrained by cost, and it requires inter-institutional and expert
multidisciplinary coordination with the involvement of the stakeholders
and volunteer reporters to assure transdisciplinarity and governance. Our
participatory research is based on the conceptual approach of citizen
science combined with transdisciplinarity. We develop specific communi-
cation means for citizen science projects to create and maintain active and
participatory communities to improve coral reef conservation. Shein et al.
(2016) defined as relevant the implementation of citizen science programs
in the planning of improvements of coral reef conservation effective-
ness. Citizen science permanently monitors Colombian coral reefs by
online communication, allowing public participation in scientific research
to increase the public’s understanding of science and engagement with
the potential solutions to the environmental problems.
3.2 Methodologies
The performance of ecological, social and economic indicators was
compared between one protected coral reef area and two non-protected
coral reef areas for twelve years. Monitoring indicators of pressure,
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 59
state, impact and management looking for potential causes, effects and
extent of threats in order to apply assertive conservation measures were
used (Galvis, 1996,1998,2001 and 2002). We received 1958 veri-
fied reports with videos and photos, GPS locations, depths, currents,
turbidity, date and time. Reports were sent through the network of
volunteer observers of the reefs, RENOVOs, within the citizen science
program of the Coral Reefs Observatory created by the Foundation
ICRI Colombia in 2008. All the reporters of observations are commit-
ting to do transdisciplinary science together.Thus, integrated processes
of co-designing research were relevant to co-producing knowledge with
researchers, decision-makers and stakeholders for addressing challenges to
implement Sustainable Development Goal 14 to protect Life below Water
on the Colombian coral reefs. For Galvis and Galvis (2016) to evaluate
the coral reef governance effectiveness, the total area of Colombian coral
reefs should include the 1421.92 Km2protected deep coral formations.
The total area to consider for effective protection is 4281.92 km2from
which only 15 km2are in the Pacific, the rest being in the Caribbean
Sea (Fig. 3.1). Three Caribbean case studies were compared to iden-
tify differences to improve coral reef protection. The Natural National
Park Corales del Rosario and San Bernardo has an area of 1200 km2
that is located between the two Caribbean Hope Spots of Colombia. The
thirty-two Rosario Islands are within 167 km2; at 52 km of the north
of the park, is the south of Cartagena Bay (Fig. 3.2), where is situ-
ated the Coral Reef Varadero that is not protected by the government.
However, it is protected by civil society and the community within an
international framework of Mission Blue1and is approximately 1.12 km2
from which Pizarro et al. (2017) characterized the well-developed coral
reef of 0.44 km2. At the south of the Park is located the other Caribbean
Hope Spot with the coral reefs between Capurganá and Cabo Tiburón.
It has 400 km2of open sea.2We are implementing collaborative forms of
governance including environmental education and involvement in citizen
science for the Hope Spots that are not protected by the government. In
accordance with Clement et al. (2019), these forms of governance are
1See https://mission-blue.org/2018/10/capurgana-and-cabo-tiburon-declared-a-
hope-spot-in-support-of-leatherback-sea-turtles/.
2See https://mission-blue.org/2018/04/corales-de-varadero-varaderos-coral-reef-off-
the-colombian-coast-at-cartagena-is-designated-a-hope-spot/.
60 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
Fig. 3.1 Map of Colombian case studies
increasingly favored in conservation and potentially offer a range of prac-
tical and outcome-based benefits. Stakeholders’ analysis in each case study
and characterization of the Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrity by evaluation
and monitoring ecological indicators of the ecosystem dynamic processes
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 61
Fig. 3.2 Map of the case studies Corales del Rosario and Varadero
assist in the identification of potential changes in function, structure, and
composition (Galvis, 2001).
Healthy coral cover, diseases incidence, predation, herbivory, biodiver-
sity, presence of IUCN listed species measured per hour in geo-referenced
transects at Corales del Rosario Park are compared with others at
the Hope Spot areas: Capurganá-Cabo-Tiburón and Varadero, identi-
fying local threats, management and social arrangements. The means of
communication were direct messages through the social media (Twitter
@ArrecifesCoral @ICRIcolombia, Google-blog ICRI-Colombia and Face-
book ICRI.Colombia), email, WhatsApp, skype and smart phones. The
data was reported systematically per geo-referenced diving and fishing
sites, e.g., Figs. 3.2 and 3.3. These records become scientific evidence
62 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
Fig. 3.3 Map of the fishers´communities of Varadero Coral Reef
verified by the scientists in situ within geo-referenced line-transects (veri-
fications performed in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and
2019).
3.3 Case Studies
3.3.1 Corales Del Rosario Park
Corales del Rosario Park is connected to the coral reefs of San
Bernardo within the same framework of National Parks. However, it
has been protected longer as an underwater area with low enforce-
ment, surrounded by non-protected private islands where crowd activities
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 63
produce littering, sewage pollution, construction on coastline with coral
rubble as construction material, and on boats (fishing, littering, oil pollu-
tion, anchoring). There is freshwater and large sediment charge coming
from the Dique Channel. The protection framework has diminished
dynamite fishing since 1977. The coral cover average for the massive
coral colonies is 18, 83% ±2,47. The fleshy macroalgae cover is >50%.
Low herbivory and high dominance of the fleshy algae, mainly Dictyota
dichotoma (Hudson) J.V. Lamouroux 1809: 42 and Pockiella variegate,
has covered large portions of the dead coral colonies in Corales del
Rosario Park. These two last algae species are not edible, besides that it is
low herbivory at the Park. Acropora cervicornis and Acropora palmata are
critically endangered species in the IUCN-Red-listed and threatened in
Colombia by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
Acropora species have 95% of mortality in the Park (Gutiérrez-Moreno,
et al., 2011). According to Rogers (1990), sedimentation from run-off
and dredging is one of the major sources of reef degradation in the
Caribbean. Due to anthropogenic impact, the protected coral reefs in
the Park have deteriorated. Species in the IUCN Red List were scarce in
the Park. Gutiérrez-Moreno et al. (2011) and Henao (2013)reported
high temperatures, nutrient enrichment and high sedimentation rates.
The sedimentation threshold in coral reefs is 10 mg/cm2which besides
limiting the survival of coral colonies, decreases fertilization success and
inhibits larval settlement of coral species (Erftemeijer et al., 2012). A
combination of high temperatures and high concentrations of nutrients
(e.g., >20 µM NH4) can alter the duration of coral larval competence
time and decrease the dispersal capacity (Bassim & Sammarco, 2003).
As expected from prolonged ocean temperatures of 2°C above the range
of usual coral experience, this has led in the last three decades to the
breakdown of the algal/corals symbiosis, to widespread episodes of coral
bleaching and to mass coral mortality (Norström et al., 2016) during a
period of rapid climate change. Coral reef ecosystems are further impacted
by increasing diverse anthropogenic impacts, that in combination with
climate change drivers, inflict a wide range of profound damages on the
coral reef ecosystems (Norström et al., 2016), with multiple conjoined
effects (Eddy et al., 2018).
The spatial collaborative multicriteria analysis of Corales del Rosario
Park is a participatory decision-making process based on semi-structured
interviews about value judgments indicators weights per perspectives to
evaluate the state of health and use of geo-referenced diving sites. The
64 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
evaluation of conservation effectiveness was calculated with equations
for multicriteria analysis (adapted from Winterfeldt & Edwards, 1986 in
Galvis, 2002) for the systematic selection of relevant indicators as recom-
mended by Galvis (2001). The equations for accumulative evaluations
of the performance indicators per perspective of the governance in the
implementation of the SDG14: Coral Reefs Protection. Few sightings of
species of the IUCN Red List, reported only one to three per month.
The perspectives of managers, fishers, divers and ecologists identified
common indicators per mandate or interest of use. The low performance
is shown in red, and high in green letters under all perspectives as shown
in Fig. 3.2. The closer dive site of the Corales del Rosario National Park
to the Hope Spot Varadero Reef is Pendales (A). It has the higher perfor-
mance indicator under all the perspectives. Thus, Pendales is the evidence
of the ecological connection between the protected coral reefs (Park) and
the resilient coral reef Varadero. However, the two Hope Spots, despite
being resilient, have other threats from dredging plans in Varadero and
also industrial fishing in Capurgana-Cabo Tiburón.
3.3.2 Varadero Coral Reef Hope Spot
The coral reef has grown over the course of 500 million years on the
leeward region of the Draga and Abanico Islands close to Barú with
influence of open sea currents at the bottom and turbid waters at the
surface. Varadero was founded over one hundred years ago for fishers
and has appeared in the government fisheries reports since 1989 (Galvis
1989b). In fact, fishers have defended the coral reef from dredging plans
since 1990 (LA APERTURA NECESITA A EL VARADERO, Archivo
EL TIEMPO, ANA LUCIA DUQUE SALAZAR 09 September 1991,
12:00 a.m.).3The promoters of dredging wanted to create a coral reef
baseline as already negative impacted, at the south of the Abanico and
Draga islands, in order to get the dredging license (Procanal, 2011).
However, Varadero is a resilient coral reef at the north-east of the Park
Corales del Rosario (Figs. 3.2 and 3.3). It is not an “improbable or a
paradoxical” coral reef as described by Pizarro et al. (2017)andLópez
et al. (2015) when invited by AQUA&TERRA, the firm contracted by
Instituto Nacional de Vias (INVIAS) to favor the Environmental Impact
3see https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-151349.
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 65
Assessment (EIA) to dredge on Varadero. These scientists learned then
about its existence, arguing before the media, that they cannot be against
development. That wrong nomination favors the unsustainable developers
interested in destroying the coral reef by allowing dredging on it. In
fact, the Bocachica Channel was enlarged without paying attention to the
strikes of fishers in 2014, who blocked the entrance to Cartagena Bay.
The enlargement was based on the technical support of AQUA&TERRA
affecting at least 100 m2at the western part of Varadero. Our verification
evidenced the total mortality of large Orbicella colonies that took 500
years to grow, close to the enlargement area.
The Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional in 2016 again hired
AQUA&TERRA with US$1.5 million for a positive EIA that would allow
for dredging and thus destroy the remaining coral reef. This project is
not necessary as megaships are already entering the area by the recently
enlarged Bocachica Channel. The government was considering as an
“environmental cost” only the US$1.5 million paid to hire that confi-
dential environmental study to support dredging on Varadero Reef for
the Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA). Nevertheless,
the environmental costs are larger in comparison to other alternatives as
explained by Galvis and Galvis (2016).
According to the valuation of the opportunity cost for the two mutu-
ally exclusive decisions for the resilient Varadero Reef: Dredging vs.
Protecting the 1km2, this is even higher the environmental cost. Consid-
ering the ecosystem integrity within its natural dynamics functioning
within time and spaces scales, the environmental cost will increase, as a
minimum, to the equivalent to the conservative estimate of ecosystem
services loss: US$244 million/Km 2+ >10%/year. If added to the cost of
dredging (US$50 million), the minimum is US$294 million, being the
most expensive alternative in comparison with the cost of other alterna-
tives. Therefore, the best option for the public treasury is the effective
governmental protection of the resilient Varadero Coral Reef. The bene-
fits of effective governance favor present and future generations for the
annual production of coral reefs ecosystem services (Galvis, 1999). The
cost of potential real time needed for recovery (*500 years) cost was
estimated after Spurgeon and Lindahl (2000).
The developers applied the strategy of not asking for a new license, but
using instead the old license of the enlargement of the Bocachica Channel
to argue that it was still valid. Under the previous license they were
allowed to destroy 50% of the Varadero Reef, but they think that they
66 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
only destroyed 10% of it, so they go for the rest. To confuse the public,
they now call the same project “Variante” in relation to the Bocachica
Channel. About a thousand fishers joined a legal petition to the govern-
ment to stop the dredging plan, and to protect the coral reef which is their
food security and also enjoyment for the present and future generations
on behalf of their right to a healthy environment. A popular action from
the community is requiring the government to allow a previous consul-
tation with the seven communities of fishers in Varadero: Ararca, Santa
Ana, Pasacaballos, Bocachica, Tierrabomba, Caño Del Oro and Barú.
However, the government only acknowledges two communities to nego-
tiate the compensations for Bocachica and Caño de Loro, as these were
the only communities consulted for the enlargement of the Bocachica
Channel.
Restoration projects that support dredging, but are based on breaking
fragments of coral colonies are fake promises to “save” Varadero, as they
have a low survival rate and coral growth is very slow in replacing each
5m2of dead coral colonies. The special conditions of Varadero that made
it a resilient coral reef were the “shadow coral colonies” on the surface
formed by turbid current from the Dique Channel and plenty of nutrients
from the bottom open sea currents (Fig. 3.2) that do not allow sedi-
mentation to affect the health of coral colonies. However, the current
impact in Varadero is the frequent navigation of large ships through the
enlarged Bocachica Channel. This may increase the abundance of fine
particles (<125 µm in diameter) that may decrease coral fertilisation rates
due to gamete abrasion (Gilmour, 1999) or obstruction of egg micro
piles (Galbraith et al., 2006; Humprey et al., 2008). Dredging causes
resuspended particles <63 µm) with nutrients affecting coral colonies and
the whole ecosystem (Erftemeijer et al., 2012).
Until now, due to the opposition from fishers’ communities and
support from NGOs (including Foundation ICRI Colombia) and
academia, the plans have been delayed. The civil society requested the
government to stop the dredging plan and include Varadero within the
Colombian Coral Reefs Atlas of INVEMAR and the National Parks
System, during the International Year of the Reef, when declared a Hope
Spot by Mission Blue.
Mejia et al. (2018) found species richness at Varadero Coral Reef: 120
species of thirty-six families in eleven orders. This reef that can serve as
a refuge against climate change is thus at risk due to potential threats of
unsustainable development by dredging plans. The reef has open water
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 67
currents at the bottom and at the surface run-off, which protects the reef
from over-heating in the dry season. Mejia et al. (2018) reported higher
temperatures measured at 29.5°C and particulate organic nutrients that
could be causing heterotrophy in the coral community waters, nowadays
usually look cloudy due to the high content of suspended material and for
being inland waters that reach the bay through the Canal del Dique. The
presence and abundance of herbivores Echinometra viridis and Diadema
antillarum have the important function of grazing to prevent macroalgae
overgrowth. According to Galvis (1989a), the dominant algae was a
natural indicator found in healthy coral reefs: Halimeda spp, (Lamouroux,
1812).
We confirmed these findings by monitoring that the flow of bottom
currents that enter from the open sea to the Cartagena Bay support its
healthy existence. Its massive structure is formed by coral colonies as big
as 5m2(Orbicella sp. among forty-four other species of corals) on the
leeward of the Islands Draga and Abanico close to Barú. The turbidity
from the Dique Channel most of the year goes toward north, or at the
rainy season flows toward south of Cartagena Bay, but always at the
surface on the coral reefs without producing sedimentation. The trade
winds create the turbidity at the first meters of the water column; in
Varadero this may be associated as natural shade to the resilient coral-
algal symbiosis, resembling the characteristics of a climate change refuge.
The healthy coral cover in Varadero is 80%, due to its low incidence of
diseases as reported in other areas of the Caribbean, even in the Park.
These verifications were made in 2017 and 2019. It has low algal cover
(<5%) due to abundant herbivory (58–71 urchins) Diademaantillarum
(Philippi, 1845) and 33–46 parrotfishes (Scaridae) per one-hour line-
transect. Other inhabitants of this resilient reef are large carnivores
e.g., sharks Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre, 1788) and lobsters
(Panulirus Argus; Latreille 1804); as well as endangered species within
IUCN Red List (1–3 per week), e.g. Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas
Linnaeus, 1758). In 2019, the Foundation ICRI Colombia requested the
government to nominate Varadero Coral Reef and the following Hope
Spot (Capurganá-Cabo Tiburón Coral Reef )as World Heritage Sites
because they accomplish UNESCO´s universal criteria.
68 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
3.3.3 Hope Spot Capurganá-Cabo Tiburón Coral Reef
The community of fishers in Capurganá, Caribbean Choco (Fig. 3.4),
contacted the Foundation ICRI Colombia in 2008 to request support to
avoid industrial fishing in the area. The Foundation officially requested
the Fisheries Authority, AUTORIDAD NACIONAL DE ACUICUL-
TURA Y PESCA AUNAP, the Navy and the Association of National
Industries (ANDI) about the situation. They communicated with indus-
tries and the same industries decided to stop their activities in the area
by complaining about the poor fisheries resources in that year. On their
report, the industrial fisheries representatives confess it was convenient for
them to go from Cartagena through the Panama Channel to fish in the
Pacific rather than to stay on the coral reefs.
The Artisanal Fishers Association of Capurganá, PESCAPUR in agree-
ment with the Foundation, started in 2009 to report their fisheries statis-
tics to the Coral Reefs Observatory of the Foundation ICRI Colombia,
before the lionfish appeared in 2010. The evaluation of the state of
the coral reefs from Capurganá-Cabo Tiburón includes written reports
from scientists of Antioquia University, confirming low coral disease inci-
dence and 70% healthy coral cover as well as photos and videos from our
permanent monitoring with scuba diving operators.
This Hope Spot has an area of 400 km2. The area was established
according to the boundaries of the Sanctuary Playona, Acandi. The
Director of the National Parks plans to include this coral reef area within
Fig. 3.4 Fishing and diving sites in the non-protected area declared Hope Spot
Coral Reef Capurganá and Cabo Tiburón
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 69
the system including the same distance of 20 km from the coast, on the
way of the world’s main nesting sea turtle sites. The IUCN International
Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species marks
out as vulnerable the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli,
1761) with only 250 reports per season. Also frequently seen is the crit-
ically endangered Hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata4(Linnaeus,
1766), the endangered Green turtle i (Linnaeus, 1758), and Logger-
head turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758). The reports of sightings
of endangered species within the IUCN Red List are seven to ten per
week, for example, Hawksbill turtles4located per diving or fishing site
of the map (Fig. 3.3). Herbivory include Diadema antillarum (Philippi,
1845), Mithrax spinosissimus (Lamarck, 1818), parrotfishes (Scaridae)
and butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae). There are also sightings of dolphins
Sotalia guianensis (van Bénéden, 1864), Tursiops truncatus (George
Montagu 1821), and carnivores, e.g., sharks Ginglymostoma cirratum
Bonnaterre 1788) and lobsters Panulirus Argus (Latreille 1804). There
was a pattern of depletion of native fisheries after industrial fishing and
from the appearance of the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans since October
of 2010. The Foundation ICRI Colombia promoted lionfish fishing
through environmental campaigns and consumption, since the invasive
species was common in the catches from line fishing, and has to be
enhanced for the interests of fishers for its consumption, and thus a
local and national market was stimulated. This strategy was successful in
controlling the invasive species, nominated with its family Scorpaenidae
in Fig. 3.5.
The strategy of the government to control the invasive species before
2012 was not to involve fishers, only divers with spearguns. However, due
to the progression of the invasion in the Caribbean Sea, it was under-
stood that any kind of hunting / fishing was allowed in coral reefs to
control lionfishes. Reports show direct destruction of coral colonies from
the use of spear guns and illegal lobster collection during the lionfish
derbies with scuba. The lionfish invasive population moved deeper after
2013 to the fishing grounds. Therefore, we continued working with the
local association of artisanal fishers to control lionfishes in the deeper areas
where it was also controlled naturally by the retrieval native fish stocks of
the family Lutjanidae or snappers and Scombridae or tuna after stopping
4See https://youtu.be/IzN0FqOKKFg and and https://www.facebook.com/ICRI.
COLOMBIA/videos/969552076764370/.
70 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
Fig. 3.5 Change of fisheries productivity of main commercial and invasive
species in Capurganá between 2009 and 2019
industrial fisheries as it is evidenced in Fig. 3.5. Reports of groupers and
snappers with lionfishes found in the stomach contents are evidence of
biological control. After 2013, also evident was the positive impact of the
bankruptcy of industrial fisheries enterprises that had stopped activities in
the area due to overfishing and non-profitable activities in 2008–2009.
Gradual retrieval of native species was reported in the following years
while the catches of lionfishes by line fishing, scuba diving operators
and volunteer scuba divers was constant and added to the biological and
social control of the invasive species. We studied the change in fisheries
productivity before and after the appearance of the lionfish Pterois voli-
tans. A decade of quantitative statistical reports from anglers on pounds
as reflected as catches per effort unit (CPEU) in Capurganá were analyzed
for possible P. volitans impact on the reef fisheries. A separate analysis
considered in detail quantitative reports from divers with their catches
after 2010 when the invasion started in this last Colombian coral reef
area in the Caribbean border with Panama (Galvis & Galvis, 2016).
3.3.4 Comparison to Identify Probable Climate Change Refugia
The two Caribbean Hope Spots of Colombia fulfill criteria as climate
change refugia. According to Morelli et al. (2020) climate change refugia
are areas that remain relatively buffered from contemporary climate
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 71
change over time and enable the persistence of valued physical, ecological,
and sociocultural resources. The key attribute of refugia is their rela-
tive persistence, despite changes in the climate; they have shaded coral
reefs caused by turbidity that provides protection from long-term envi-
ronmental change, such as warming oceans. Also long-term buffering;
environmental changes in refugia are not ruled by regional trends from
the rest of the Caribbean Coral Reefs of Colombia. Stability is an
extreme form of decoupling and refers to refugia maintaining near-
constant environmental conditions in the face of regional change. Both
Hope Spots have complex food webs, healthy coral recruitment and
healthy coral cover that resembles the coral reefs described for the 1980s
with controlled biological threats such as diseases, invaders, eroders and
competitors. Successful recruitment has been observed in both refugia,
and coral larvae will need to survive, settle and grow when conditions
surrounding the refugia become inhospitable. For microclimatic hetero-
geneity, we have identified internal currents and deeper parts of coral reefs
with the lower temperatures and subsequent lower bleaching rates of coral
reefs. Also geographical, hydrological and biological barriers and avail-
ability of suitable substrates for coral larval settlement. Action to identify
and protect the Hope Spots will most likely facilitate the survival of coral
reefs in rapidly changing oceans.
The good performance indicators in the non-protected areas are
related to the higher natural coral recruitment, resilient reef growth and
low macroalgal cover in the Hope Spots as the indicators of healthy
coral reefs, mostly Halimeda spp, (J.V. Lamouroux, 1812), with high
herbivory and ecosystem integrity and composition. Low-intensity diving
and constant turbidity with freshwater enrichment from local rivers in
the first meters of the water column combining with permanent flow
from open sea at the bottom, may be beneficial and the key explana-
tion variables for the good coral health and large massive coral colonies.
Tomascik and Sander (1985) explained that sizes of coral colonies might
increase at sites with moderate increments of suspended particulate matter
in the water column, because they are a significant source of additional
food for the polyps. Sediment levels affect coral species according to
their capability to remove sediments (Rogers, 1990). According to Galvis
(1989a) Diploria labyrinthiformis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Diploria strigosa
(Dana, 1846) have shown better capability to remove sediments than
Montastrea annularis (previous nomination; now Orbicella annularis)
72 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
(Ellis & Solander, 1786) and (Orbicella cavernosa var. hirta Verrill, 1901
Montastraea cavernosa (Linnaeus, 1767).
In Varadero there are large live coral colonies (diameter 3–5 m)
specifically Orbicella spp. (López et al., 2015). Also at the Hope Spot
Capurganá-Cabo Tiburón are large colonies that correspond with the
structure, composition and function of highly resilient healthy coral
reef integrity and climate change refugia. Cacciapaglia & Woesik (2016)
describe the characteristics of coral reef climate change refugia as turbid
environments that shade bleaching resilient corals. Furthermore, they
are the living natural nurseries for the Corales del Rosario Park. There-
fore, they should be included urgently within an effective protection
framework, in accordance with the global strategy to assure coral reef
persistence under the current scenario of climate change.
The contrast of reports without lethal coral bleaching in the Hope
Spots (non-protected areas), and frequent signs of diseases and mortality
in the Park related to coral bleaching, favors the nomination of the
resilient coral reefs in the Hope Spots as refugia for climate change. The
key attribute of refugia is their relative persistence, despite changes in
the climate in the surrounding landscape. Morelli et al. (2020)propose
considering refugia in the context of a multifaceted, long-term, network-
based approach, as temporal and spatial gradients of ecological persistence
that can act as “slow lanes” rather than areas of stasis.
The extreme conditions of turbid waters at the surface provide shadow
to the coral reefs of the Hope Spots with low sedimentation rates. The live
coral cover for the Hope Spots (non-protected areas) has been resilient
since 2008, while for the Park it has declined over the past three decades.
According to Eddy et al., (2018), most of the experts in the Caribbean
Sea estimated a good coral cover% for the Caribbean Sea of between 25–
50%. Galvis (1989a) measured in the Park a total coral cover of 34.43%
within a completely mapped Pavitos Island at the south-west of Rosario
Park. In contrast, the environmental conditions of turbid waters caused
by rain and run-off at the surface and low sedimentation produces natural
shadow on the resilient coral reefs of the Hope Spots without lethal coral
bleaching events, which may characterize them as refugia against climate
change.
There is a contrast between healthy coral covers in non-protected areas
(>70%) and the protected area (<30%). Coral species in the IUCN Red
List were scarce in the park, while they are frequently reported at the
Hope Spots. Reef Check Colombia reported for Varadero in August
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 73
2019 42% general coral cover average, 10% algae cover and abundance
of butterflyfishes, grunts and parrotfishes at 33.33% each. The most
exuberant population of Acropora cervicornis (Lamarck, 1816) of the
Caribbean was found in Capurganá5.
The land use threats have not been controlled in the Park, therefore,
the Foundation ICRI Colombia do not recommended the restoration
projects based only in breaking coral colonies. It may be a source of
further stress for coral reefs that have already deteriorated. Coral frag-
ments are likely to be covered by fleshy algae as indicators of reefs under-
taken a natural shift. Mainly Dictyota dichotoma (Hudson) (Lamouroux
1809: 42) and Pockiella variegata covered large portions of the dead
coral colonies in Corales del Rosario Park. Although fleshy macroalgae
cover is low in the Hope Spot areas, these restoration projects should be
forbidden in the resilient coral reefs to keep them as control sites for the
rest of the Caribbean region, were most of the private sector and govern-
ments to promote breaking colonies to justify unsustainable development.
Besides, current restoration projects do not have permanent monitoring
for the survival of original coral colonies from which fragments are
removed. The focus of restoration projects is the survival of fragments that
have a maximum 60% survival rate. The mortality of fragments is higher
in other sites different from the original natural coral reef distribution of
the species, different depths, windward/leeward zones, etc. Colombian
Caribbean Hope Spots should be set aside as coral reef areas without
experimenting with restoration projects. In the Caribbean Sea, there is
no need to manually break coral colonies. Hurricanes produce the corals
of Hope Spots to be used as fragments in mitigation instead of restoration
projects.
The non-protected vs. protected schemes differ, besides the extreme
conditions, in the number of visitors in the rank of hundreds and thou-
sands per week in the Park to less than one hundred per month in the
Hope Spots. The Foundation ICRI Colombia has nominated these Hope
Spots as World Heritage Sites to the UNESCO through the Committee
of the Colombian Government. The National Parks Authority is acknowl-
edging the importance of protecting both Hope Spots within the System
of Marine Protected Areas of Colombia for their high biodiversity and
5(Sistema Información Biodiversidad de Colombia, SIB, Report Number
158B2349043, Garcia, R., 2016–11-29). https://ipt.biodiversidad.co/cr-sib/pdf.
do?r=11_conectividadacroporas_20161129&n=158B2349043.
74 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
for larval connectivity with the parks. Both coral reef areas accomplished
the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization,
UNESCO criteria for selection of World Heritage Sites, as they are natural
marine resilient coral reef areas with universal values.
3.4 Discussion
Mixed methodologies are required to monitor governance effectiveness,
as the main objective is to protect coral reef areas. According to Clement,
Guerrero and Wyborn, (2019) there will inevitably be trade-offs between
depth and breadth with issues of cause-and-effect relationships between
governance and outcomes, but complemented by case study data, and
systematic reviews. The characterization of the coral reef ecosystem
integrity of our three case studies provides evidence about the current
health state of these coral reef areas and contrasts the general belief that
protected areas are in better condition. The protected case study complies
with the findings of Bruno, Côté and Toth (2019); marine areas protected
from fishing and pollution did not reduce how much coral was killed by
extreme temperatures or how quickly coral populations recovered from
coral disease, bleaching and large storms. However, our case studies in
non-government protected areas or Hope Spots, challenge their results
that coral reefs in areas with fishing and pollution regulations had the
same level of decline as the coral reefs in unprotected areas. We found
the opposite: better coral reefs ecosystem integrity in the Hope Spots.
The real governance by the communities, by not allowing unsustainable
development, may explain the more effective protection in Hope Spots.
In contrast, the coral reef areas managed by the government depend on
decisions from land developers and higher political interests. Case studies
contradict generalizations by Bruno and Valdivia (2016) that coral reef
degradation is not correlated with local human population density. The
community protection was effective to avoid unsustainable development
in the Hope Spots.
The government should protect resilient coral reefs at the Hope Spots
as they may act as coral reef refugia against climate change effect. Resilient
coral reefs act as natural laboratories. Local effective protection is needed
to allow coral reef resilience to the regional shifts in ecosystem func-
tioning (Hughes et al., 2007). Strengthening the local effective protection
is worthy while the actions to reduce carbon emissions are also needed.
The coral reef refugia represent a baseline for pristine conditions allowing
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 75
scientists to study climate change impacts separately from human impacts,
thus providing fundamental insights for conservation. Natural shadow on
coral reefs may keep temperatures within ranges that do not place extreme
stress on coral reefs. Refugia can facilitate the persistence of biodiversity
under changing environmental conditions, such as anthropogenic climate
change, and their effective protection is the best chance of survival for
many coral species in the wild. According to Kavousi and Keppel (2018)
refugia have the capacity to facilitate species persistence, including long-
term buffering, protection from multiple climatic stressors, accessibility,
microclimatic heterogeneity, size, and low exposure to non-climate distur-
bances. A healthy self-sustaining ecosystem requires essential structural
(species, habitats) and functional components (Hughes et al., 2005).
Therefore, understanding and protecting the role of local adaptation and
acclimatization will be crucial for evaluating coral accessibility and persis-
tence. Connecting the Hope Spot Varadero with Corales del Rosario and
the Hope Spot Capurganá Cabo-Tiburón forms a larger refuge that can
support more species, larger populations and more genetic variation due
to low exposure to other disturbances. Stressors not caused by climate
change, such as habitat degradation, can have severe impacts. Habitats
constituting refugia for multiple species are likely to be of higher conser-
vation value. The climate change refugia might be the larvae suppliers of
the Caribbean coastal MPAs.
The intrinsic value of coral reefs is indeed priceless. Economic valu-
ations are in fact very poor estimates of the real benefit of effectively
protecting coral reefs. Nevertheless, decision-makers should be provided
with conservative monetary indicators of the high environmental costs
for which they should be responsible when favoring unsustainable devel-
opment. Values are within the hundreds of millions range/Km2. Galvis
(1999) estimate the first total value of the ecosystem services for Colom-
bian coral reefs. Indonesia could lose US$1.9 billion over twenty years
due to overfishing (Burke et al., 2002). Burke and Maidens (2004)
discussed a Caribbean study that projected degradation of Caribbean
reefs from human activities such as overfishing and pollution estimating
annual losses of US$95 million to US$140 million in net revenues from
coral reef-associated fisheries, and US$100 million to US$300 million in
reduced tourism revenue. In addition, degradation of reefs could lead
to annual losses of US$140 million to US$420 million from reduced
coastal protection within the next fifty years. Burke et al. (2011) described
the yield of between 5 and 15 tons/Km2/year of seafood for a healthy,
76 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
well-managed reef. That was the start of fisheries production at Capur-
ganá when the study of Galvis and Galvis (2016) began in 2008. After
the appearance of the lionfish in 2010, the decline was obvious. The
retrieval ocurred when lionfish was fished and consumed as promoted
by the Foundation ICRI Colombia. Galvis and Galvis (2016) calculated
the cost of dredging on Varadero Reef at US$131million. Maldonado
and Cuervo (2016) estimated the economic valuation of the Corales de
Profundidad National Natural Park (1490Km2) with contingent valuation
of US$95 million annually (178 billion COP per year) based on the 2014
exchange rate COP/USD: 1878. For them, the lack of resources assigned
to this area becomes evident as well as the need to identify and imple-
ment alternative funding sources to ensure financial sustainability of the
Park. The most recent valuation in the world was the Deloitte report that
estimated for the Great Barrier Reef a value of US$120.76 million/km2
+>10%/year (Perry et al., 2017). According to the perspectives of
the community of divers, fishers and other stakeholders, researchers and
managers are interested in improving coral reef conservation effectiveness
in all coral reef areas.
The results make evident that the enforcement in the Park does not
target causes of local damage as unsustainable development that is now
also threating the Hope Spots of the Caribbean Sea of Colombia. Our
collaborative decision-support system to evaluate management effective-
ness in the Park shows good robustness, due to the ability to adapt to
changes over time to reach objectives in a constructive focus that provides
insight into how processes and patterns of collaboration influences actors’
abilities to address conservation problems. Structure is important because
certain structural characteristics facilitate processes such as learning and
coordination across governance levels. Morrison (2017) defines effective-
ness as the authority and ability of key actors and instruments to respond
to emergent problems. According to Clement et al. (2019) frameworks
that capture administrative competence and adaptive capacity are essential
to achieving conservation objectives in complex social-ecological systems.
For Morrison (2017) frameworks should capture endogenous factors to
the governance system that impact on environmental outcomes. The need
for collaboration varies depending on the stage of the process (e.g.,
setting of shared goals, trust formation stage), resourcing and political
priorities (McAllister & Taylor, 2015). The protection for the Park should
be improved, and government should protect the Hope Spots according
to their high value and resilient coral reefs within the National Parks
3 TRANSDISCIPLINARY CITIZEN SCIENCE … 77
system. Currently, the communities are requesting the government to
officially support the nomination of the Foundation ICRI Colombia to
declare both Caribbean Hope Spots as World Heritage Natural Marine
Sites by UNESCO.
3.5 Conclusions
Currently, 100% of coral reef areas are within a framework of protec-
tion. Corales del Rosario Park is managed from a top-down manage-
ment approach; however, the Hope Spots are a bottom-up management
scheme. For effective governance, all economic, social and ecological
objectives should be considered in decision-making and participative eval-
uations of sustainable development. The first case explained the relevance
of perspectives in the evaluation to improve governance; the second one
focuses on the economic valuation of protecting or destroying a coral
reef; and the third case evaluates the improvement of fisheries productivity
when overfishing ends and governance improves. In the implementa-
tion of the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically the number 14
or SDG14 and the coral reefs protection, it is necessary to increase
participation with government, civil society, academia and communities
in decision-making for an effective governance.
The efforts to include diving operators and fishers’ communities in
decision-making have been helpful in declaring and protecting Colombian
Caribbean Hope Spots. Researchers gained these people’s trust and thus
benefited from their observations; while the divers and fishers controlled
among themselves their economic activities and requested the researchers
to inform the authorities to act accordingly on the need to improve
the protection of their coral reefs. After twelve years of receiving and
analyzing reports of scuba-diving operators and fishers who participate in
the collection of data (contributory projects), within the citizen science
program of the Observatory of the Foundation ICRI Colombia, we
found improvement of citizen participation and governance. By becoming
involved in the evaluation of conservation effectiveness, citizens improved
their empowerment for protection within a bottom-up scheme for the
Colombian Caribbean Hope Spots.
The resilient coral reefs in the Hope Spots accomplish universal criteria
to be included as World Heritage Marine Sites for UNESCO with the
connotation of potential climate change refugia. The reefs remain rela-
tively buffered from climate change over time, and enable the persistence
78 N. GALVIS AND R. H. GALVIS
of valuable physical, ecological and sociocultural resources due to their
endurance, despite changes in the climate in the surrounding coral reefs.
We studied the Hope Spots in the Colombian Caribbean of in the context
of a multifaceted, long-term, network-based approach, as temporal and
spatial gradients of ecological persistence that can act as “slow lanes”
rather than areas of stasis. At present, researchers and resource managers
are now working together to put refugia conservation into practice,
looking for appropriate conservation frameworks within the national and
international concern about saving coral reefs.
Citizens’ messages were transferred from “bottom to top” using
communication technologies such as social media, phone and e-
communications putting citizens in contact with top decision-makers,
managers and researchers. Related implications go beyond the purely
technological; they constitute a de facto increase in the power of society,
and in the governance of knowledge that can lead to changes in gover-
nance models, especially in the scope of environmental policies. We have
experienced that citizen science can develop early-warning systems, envi-
ronmental management systems, or even collaboratively produce climate
change adaptation strategies. Citizen science measures governance effec-
tiveness in Colombian coral reefs, precisely because collaborative processes
and patterns influence the capacities of actors to contribute to improve
conservation by identifying and solving problems. It is a fact that Hope
Spots are in better ecological condition than government-protected ones,
and their direct relationship between scientists and fishers’ communities
and diving operators favors a permanent monitoring program to improve
governance as a collaborative process that requires appropriate communi-
cation tools, institutional arrangements and tailored funding possibilities.
Successful governance welcomes critical and ethical reflection among
researchers, stakeholders, funders and policy-makers to improve coral reef
conservation effectiveness.
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CHAPTER 4
Community-Based Innovation Ecosystems
in Peace-Building and Resilience Contexts
Juan David Reina-Rozo
4.1 Introduction
Innovation has become a space in conceptual dispute. Different defini-
tions and opposing visions of change gain space in a society of informa-
tion, knowledge, and consumption. In the face of this, authors such as
Leary (2019) maintain that we live in an era of the cult of innovation.
That is, the human being is called (only) to generate innovation to ener-
gize the market machinery, and therefore to sustain capitalism. A system
that seeks to grow indefinitely in a finite world. In this way, questions
emerge such as: Why and for whom is innovation made? Who partic-
ipates in innovation processes? Are innovation processes inclusive? Are
communities considered only as informants in participatory innovation
processes? And, do communities have power over decisions and resources
in innovation processes?
J. D. Reina-Rozo (B)
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: jdreinar@unal.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-030- 80720-7_4
85
86 J. D. REINA-ROZO
Innovation must be re-examined and integrated frameworks sought
in order to generate transformations in the challenges faced by human
groups and natural systems, especially marginalized communities and
ecosystems at risk. Challenging inherited and hegemonic concepts are
therefore necessary to create novel ways of approaching innovation, i.e.
sociotechnical change from, with, and for society as a whole. In addi-
tion to the above, reflections on ideas to decolonize innovation as a
phenomenon that has colonized our thinking and action around neolib-
eral capitalism has recently emerged in the academic literature (Jimenez &
Roberts, 2019). These ideas outside of the hegemonic path are gestated
from autonomous and historical processes of the social movements of
peasants, indigenous people, afro-descendants, and urban groups, and are
closely linked to alternatives to development such as Sumak Kawsay (buen
vivir) in Latin America, Ubuntu in Sub-Saharan Africa, Swaaj in India,
among others.
The relationship between community and innovation is not clear, even
more from an alternative perspective to economic growth. The litera-
ture around processes of communal or community innovation is scarce.
However, even though processes of basic innovation are not sufficiently
visible in the academic field, communities seek to transform their real-
ities and materialize their aspirations and desires from their territories.
That is to say, they generate transitions or transformations from their
reality towards states of collective well-being beyond the development
narrative using techno-science and traditional knowledge. According to
Shiva (2005), the keys to transitions are relocation strategies, for example,
building organic food distribution and energy systems based on the
local environment and biodiversity. These systems are managed based on
ecological integrity, soil conservation, biodiversity, local economies, and
grassroots democracy. Transitions to other forms of living and social rela-
tions are key to solving the present cultural, ecological, and civilization
crises.
Consequently, reflecting on the democratization of innovation is a
priority. That is, access, visibility, and the strengthening of innova-
tions created by people, communities, or social movements that have
historically been excluded from governance processes within science, tech-
nology, and innovation (STI). This serves to allow for the collective the
enjoyment of its benefits. Therefore, the inquiry question focuses on:
how and why do community-based organizations in post-conflict/post-
agreement territories collaborate to generate innovations? This is because
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 87
not much attention is paid to the innovation processes of grassroots
organizations in the literature, particularly the way they collaborate.
Thus, by understanding how grassroots organizations are the managers of
sociotechnical change at the local level, democratization can be enhanced,
especially with the use of advances in information and communica-
tion technologies (ICTs) in key transitions, in this case, in transition to
peaceful communities.
Hence, in many of these transitions, the place of the local in the
conceptions of future is central. For communities that have been victims
of social and armed conflicts, the generation of alternatives to inhabit the
territory based on science, technology, and innovation is key. The local
involves people’s relationships with their environment, culture, and others
in their community. In addition, the role of the place in the processes
of community-centred innovation is definitive, to the extent that it is
the cradle of their experiences, knowledge, social relations, and territory.
Therefore, the main objective of this research is to describe the main
implications of collaboration between community-based organizations at
the local level in post-agreement/post-conflict contexts in Colombia.
In this particular case, through the perspective of community-based
innovation ecosystems and their contribution to grassroots processes.
This chapter is primarily comprised of the conceptual and theoret-
ical framework through which a critique of the conventional concept
of innovation is carried out and a proposal of communal innovation as
an element of collective transformation in the territory. In addition, the
theory of innovation ecology and innovation ecosystems is used as a
framework of analysis for the present investigation and in particular, the
concept of the community-based innovation ecosystem is used. The third
section describes the methodological framework, which is composed of
the techniques and tools used for fieldwork development and the analysis
of the information is described. The fourth section presents the results
of the research, particularly the analysis of the case study of the Guajuí
River Innovation Ecosystem in the Department of Cauca, Southwestern
Colombia. Finally, the fifth part shares the discussion of the results and
conclusions of the present study, accompanied by some future lines of
action.
4.2 Conceptual and Theoretical Framework
The conceptual and theoretical framework used for the present text has its
origins in recent discussions on innovation that have emerged, especially
around grassroots innovation, the inclusion of other actors (traditionally
88 J. D. REINA-ROZO
excluded from innovation practices and policies), and their relation-
ship to peacebuilding. Similarly, the theory of innovation ecosystems is
used to understand the collaborative relationships between collections
of diverse actors. In particular, the community-based innovation ecosys-
tems approach is used to determine the environments where collaborative
relationships and co-created innovations among various actors occur.
4.2.1 Innovation, Territory, and Peace-building
According to the previous discussion on the conventional conception of
innovation, in this part, it is proposed that innovation is a sociotech-
nical change generated by communities themselves, settled in a particular
territory, and mainly, that it aims to strengthen the social fabric, the
collective welfare and therefore the peacebuilding. In this way, the
communal innovation approach emerges as a construct to conceptualize
the processes of collective sociotechnical change. These processes allow
for transforming communities’ futures towards alternatives beyond devel-
opment. Communal innovation is focused on strengthening the social
fabric (Fig. 4.1).
Fig. 4.1 Communal innovation (Source Reina-Rozo [2019a:9])
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 89
Fig. 4.2 STI co-design spaces (Source Reina-Rozo [2019b:4])
Communal innovation is the iterative process of creating new trans-
formative practices by excluded communities, to appropriate them to
their places and strengthen the collective social fabric. It allows for the
autonomous design and creation of relevant, contextual, and collective
solutions to their challenges, opportunities, and aspirations to generate
a common good and, therefore, move towards a future of well-being.
Similarly, this process is mediated by the collaboration of community
members, communities, and organizations in the territory (Reina-Rozo,
2019a). In this way, a series of emerging qualities in the practice of
communal innovation are freedom, disruption, and autonomy, which
operate as key pieces in redefining these sociotechnical processes. These
qualities are intended to transform the structures of innovation processes
and the people themselves.
In terms of the processes of generating STI in post-agreement and
peacebuilding scenarios, the proposal of Reina-Rozo et al. (2018),
regarding spaces of co-design of STI, especially in a Territorial Space
for Training and Reincorporation of former guerrillas, stands out. These
authors propose STI co-design spaces as a complement to traditional
peacebuilding interventions, especially in Colombia. Therefore, these
spaces are based on the concepts of Positive Peace by Galtung (1996),
Humanitarian Engineering (Reina-Rozo & León, 2017), and Peace-
building Engineering (Kleba & Reina-Rozo, 2021; Reina-Rozo, 2020;
Vesilind, 2010). Fig. 4.2 describes the elements of co-design spaces and
their flow of action.
However, these dynamics have not yet been consolidated in Colombia
due to the instability that the peace agreement has generated and the
difficulties in reaching these territories where the state and its services are
not yet present. Additionally, the articulation of this experience with other
grassroots initiatives is necessary but full of challenges. The various efforts
90 J. D. REINA-ROZO
that are being developed in the country must be woven at the systemic
level in order to increase their impact on the population affected by the
conflict.
4.2.2 Towards an Innovation Ecology
Innovation activities have been conceived as an individual process, typical
of an entrepreneur, traditionally isolated from surrounding organizations
and cultural, social, political, and environmental factors. In this way, an
ecosystem approach and one that is oriented towards the interrelations
of human and non-human actors is necessary to understand the innova-
tion processes situated within the context. From this point of view, these
phenomena can be studied from various perspectives. National innovation
systems have been particularly predominant in the investigation of inno-
vation processes and articulation of actors in Latin America (Arocena &
Sutz, 2001; Dutrénit & Sutz, 2014).
This framework of analysis, according to Fagerberg (2003) has two
main aspects to determine the dynamics of the actors in the territory.
The first has been to study innovation systems according to technolog-
ical, industrial, or sectorial factors. In this framework, varying the level
of analysis, other key elements are included such as institutions, polit-
ical processes, public research infrastructure, financial institutions, and
skills. The second approach has focused on the spatial aspect. It uses
national and regional boundaries to distinguish between different systems.
The terms national innovation systems (Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993),
regional innovation systems (Asheim & Gertler, 2004), and local inno-
vation systems (Martin & Simmie, 2008) are often used in the literature
to understand these processes from a geographical point of view. The
main characteristic of this approach is that they are analysed from an
administrative scale perspective.
However, its main limitations are found in the conceptualization
and inclusion of non-formal actors, that is, the participation of these
historically marginalized actors, such as neighbourhood associations and
indigenous, peasant or afro-descendant communities on the innovation
processes. It is necessary to consider that the relationships of the actors,
especially the informal ones, are complex, dynamic, and adaptive, to the
extent that organizations of various kinds participate and emerge as active
actors in their territories, with different interests and political dynamics.
Therefore, the rigid structures of traditional innovation systems fall short
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 91
of these new emerging relationships, especially in peacebuilding contexts
where there is a fragmentation of the social fabric and mistrust of state
institutions and other communities.
Since the first decade of the twenty-first century, many criticisms
and alternatives have been generated to overcome national innovation
systems. These use the ecological analogy taken from the biological
sciences to understand the complex interrelations between actors. Among
the first people who proposed using this type of analogy for the busi-
ness sector was Moore (2005). Likewise, Landry et al. (2002), point
to the transition from the classic notion of innovation towards a rela-
tionship of interdependent creation among actors and the importance
of their interactions. In the face of the above, the concept of innova-
tion ecology emerges from understanding the interactions of each one of
the actors, which may be institutional or not. In this way, Wulf (2007:
1253) defines innovation ecology as “the collection of interdependent and
interactive policies and activities that support innovation..”.
The above perspectives on innovation ecologies are oriented towards
understanding them from the point of view of commercial or productive
innovation, in other words, from visions linked to the search for profit by
companies and government entities. Therefore, alternatives are needed
that seek other ends beyond accumulation and economic growth.
4.2.3 Community-Based Innovation Ecosystems
Innovation from a systemic perspective has encompassed the term systems
to understand the relationships of different actors that interact in the
innovation processes. However, this concept falls short of identifying
successful strategies for local public policy, culture, natural environments,
and tacit knowledge that drive innovation beyond its own bound-
aries, as well as understanding the role of collaboration and value co-
creation (Smorodinskaya et al., 2017). In this sense, the term innovation
ecosystem combines perspectives of open innovation, crowd-sourcing,
digitalization, differential roles or niches, strategic management, co-
evolution, interdependence (Adner & Kapoor, 2010; Martinez et al.,
2017) and structural theories of the biological metaphor, particularly in
various organizational exercises (Montoya etal., 2012).
On the other hand, there are criticisms of the use of the ecolog-
ical metaphor in these collections of actors and innovation relations. In
92 J. D. REINA-ROZO
response, Oh et al., (2016: 4) states that although Moore was consis-
tent in applying the metaphor to the business world, “he did not establish
rigorous rules of correspondence between business and natural ecosystems…”
and they end by remarking “natural ecosystems have no policies”. There-
fore, this concept is a dynamic and current discussion within academic
literature. Thus, the study of innovation ecosystems is observed as the
continuation of the line of research on the relationships of various actors
in processes of creation of sociotechnical change using the ecological
perspective and analogies (Shaw & Allen, 2018; Tsujimoto et al., 2018).
However, being an area in consolidation in the literature, a unanimous
definition of this construct had not been yet found (Oh et al., 2016).
The literature finds that innovation ecosystems are hybrid and interde-
pendent systems with a multiplicity of actors and relationships, i.e., they
are complex adaptive systems (Russell & Smorodinskaya, 2018). In this
sense, as it integrally embraces the phenomenon of collaborative innova-
tion and focuses on two elements: co-creation of value and co-evolution.
Table 4.1 shows the main characteristics of innovation ecosystems:
However, Durst and Poutanen (2013) argue that for innovation to
occur properly in an innovation ecosystem, it must overcome several
conditions, as it must address environmental, structural, organizational,
and cultural factors. The development of the field of innovation ecosys-
tems has been under discussion since its creation about a decade ago.
Finally, Ritala (2017: 41) suggests that the innovation ecosystem concept
“should ideally be used with respect to systems that focus on innovation activ-
ities (goal/purpose), that involve the logic of actor interdependence within a
particular context (spatial dimension) and address the inherent co-evolution
Table 4.1 Characteristics of innovation ecosystems
• It is composed of a network of interconnected and interdependent actors, which
include a complementary focal organization, customers, suppliers, and innovators
• Some roles of the actors are initiator, specialist, and adopter
• It is sometimes led by a key stakeholder, who provides a common platform, a set of
goals and is responsible for the health of the ecosystem
• They are built on a platform which is composed of tools, services, and technologies
• Members face cooperation and competition
• It has a life cycle which follows a process of co-evolution. In this case, Moore
(1993) proposes four phases: birth, expansion, leadership, and self-renewal
Source Based on Gomes et al. (2018)
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 93
of actors (temporal dimension)”. In this case, it is observed that the debate
still continues in the literature, generating greater elements for the inte-
gral construction of a more complex conceptual model in the future at
both the local and community levels.
Using the previous contributions and focusing them on social
dynamics, the local innovation ecosystems (LIE) seek to understand the
dynamics, actors, and environments to transform the reality of local
contexts. These generate elements to guide future transformation actions,
such as the creation of local alliances and the generation of strategies
oriented to collective well-being. In this sense, for Hoffecker, a local inno-
vation ecosystem is made up of “local communities of actors that interact
and are committed to the production of innovation and the support of inno-
vation processes. In addition to the infrastructure, resources and enabling
environment that allows them to create, adopt and disseminate more effec-
tive ways of doing things”(2019: 4). For the International Development
Innovation Network (2017), there are four main characteristics of this
type of innovation ecosystem: Enabling environment, Broad commitment
to innovation, Development of solutions, and Delivery of solutions.
Taking into account the previous framework, the Community-Based
Innovation Ecosystems (CBIE) construct is used as a particular analyt-
ical perspective within the LIEs with a particular focus on community
contexts, which are key to re-establishing social, economic, and envi-
ronmental relationships. CBIE is defined as the interactive collection
of community-based and local actors who engage in certain activities
and direct their interests towards a communal purpose. These actors are
exposed to contextual environments for the development of communal
innovation activities and, through co-creation and co-evolution, use
various elements to enhance the processes of co-creation of social and
economic value, and thus strengthen the social fabric and collective
welfare (Reina-Rozo, 2019b).
This conceptual framework is focused on visualizing and understanding
the dynamics of the environment, the relationships among the actors,
their roles, and the collective purpose, that is, the processes of communal
innovation in the territories. The CBIE seeks to foster processes of
co-creation of the value of community actors related to sociotech-
nical changes through collaboration and co-evolution. In this way, the
focal organizations of the ecosystem are community-based organizations
related to other public, private, or third sector organizations such as
NGOs. Figure 4.3 presents the conceptual model around the interactions
94 J. D. REINA-ROZO
Fig. 4.3 Community-based innovation ecosystem (Source BasedonHoffecker
[2019])
of community actors that strengthen collective welfare and peacebuilding
initiatives through processes of community innovation.
At the heart of the proposal is the communal purpose, which is the
objective of the innovation ecosystem as a whole, i.e. where the inter-
ests of community-based organizations and other stakeholders converge.
Then, there are the roles or actions identified to facilitate co-creation,
which are innovate, convene and facilitate, train, share knowledge,
finance, advocate, celebrate, and finally connect. In other words, these
actions enable the various actors to achieve the communal purpose. In
terms of actors, the general categories identified are Businesses, NGOs
and CBOs, Research and Education Institutions, Financial Institutions,
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 95
Government Institutions, and stakeholder networks. Thus, it is necessary
to mention that actors can perform multiple actions or only one. On the
other hand, the environment where these dynamics of communal and
transformative innovation take place is characterized by two scenarios:
1. The physical environment, in the lower part, composed of five
elements: natural environments, where actions are carried out,
these can be transformed or even without transformation; previ-
ously generated relations, that is, the social capital; the knowledge,
wisdom, and skills of the organizations and people; the infrastruc-
tures used by the actors, whether these are of private or public use;
and finally, the financial resources, which make many of the innova-
tion processes viable in the sense that they allow sustaining transport
activities, payments for tasks or purchase of materials.
2. The sociocultural environment, at the top, composed of the
economic context, in which social relations are established by a
particular economic model; in addition, there is the institutional
and cultural context, where the various formal or non-formal institu-
tions have their place, as well as values, traditions, and other cultural
aspects; and finally, the legal and regulatory context composed
of public policies of various kinds, which can favour or limit the
innovation processes.
Now, this notion of innovation ecosystems places relevance on community
actors and the relations between them. This is an open, dynamic, co-
evolving ecosystem that can be understood, oriented towards promoting
innovation based on territories that allow the co-creation of social value
from grassroots organizations. Additionally, it is crucial to explicitly state
the limitations and opportunities of the environment, given that these are
elements that can make innovation in the territory viable or hinder its
impact. Therefore, this concept of CBIE is used to describe and analyse
the processes of communal innovation in the territory of the Guajuí River
Community Council in Colombia, as a case study.
4.3 Methodology
This research was carried out using a methodological design based on the
case study as a qualitative approach, in turn, accompanied by a review of
systematic literature and non-participating observation in the territory of
96 J. D. REINA-ROZO
the Guajuí River. The case study as a research method is an intense exam-
ination of an issue in action, i.e. one that is currently being developed
and is beyond the control of the researcher. The main questions that this
tool aims to work with are how and why, as they allow the analysis of
contemporary events.
This research strategy is used in many situations to contribute to
the understanding of social phenomena. In this particular case, it is
used to describe and analyse the processes of communal innovation of
community-based organizations. This originates in the fact that it allows
researchers to retain the characteristics, qualities, and meanings of real-life
events, for example, individual life cycles, organizational and management
processes, change in neighbourhood dynamics, international relations,
and the maturation of industries (Yin, 2009). Hence, the case study
is used, since it is intended to describe reality and to generalize some
conclusions.
The fieldwork was carried out in June 2018 in the municipality of
Guapi, in the territory of the Guajuí River Community Council (GRCC),
and the cities of Popayán and Bogotá in Colombia. For this, the main
information collection techniques were semi-structured interviews based
on understanding the phenomenon of collaboration between grassroots
organizations identified in the territory of the Guajuí River. Table 4.2
describes the 14 semi-structured interviews conducted.
The data was also triangulated with internal and external documents,
non-participating observation, visual information such as videos and
photographs, and finally field notes. Table 4.3 shows the methods, the
treatment of the collected data, and the concepts studied.
The information was analysed with the Nvivo 10 software. Finally,
the analysis strategy consisted of validating an analysis proposal from
the concordance of evidence around the governance of the commu-
nity innovation processes. This establishes community governance as a
process which community-based organizations collaborate based on joint
decision-making (Gates, 1999): Participants who wish to collaborate must
understand how to make decisions jointly about the rules that will govern
their behaviour and relationships. Collaboration is about creating struc-
tures that enable participants to make decisions about how to solve
collective action problems.
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 97
Table 4.2 Semi-structured interview information
ID Age Gender Occupation Place Organization
OBC1 40–50 Female Fisherwoman Quiroga Asociación
construyendo
sueños
OBC2 40–50 Male Fisherman Quiroga Asoagropesqui
GOV1 40–50 Male Public servant Guapi Local government
CCA1 70–80 Male Board member San Antonio Guajuí River
Community
Council
OBC3 30–40 Male Technologist San Antonio Telecomunicaciones
RYV
OBC4 20–30 Male Youth leader San Antonio Centinelas de la
mañana
COM1 Collective Inhabitants Concepción Community
CCA2 50–60 Male Leader Santa Rosa Guajuí River
Community
Council
OBC5 20–30 Male Youth leader San Antonio Cimarrones
INV1 30–40 Female Researcher Guapi Pacific
Environmental
Research Institute
OBC6 50–60 Female Community
organizer
Guapi Fundación
Chiyangua
CCA3 40–50 Female Advisor Guapi
INV2 50–60 Male Researcher Popayán University of
Cauca
INV3 20–30 Female Researcher Bogotá Pontifical Xaverian
University, Bogotá
4.4 Community-Based Innovation
Ecosystem of the Guajuí River Territory
This section describes the CBIE case study for the territory of the Rio
Guajuí Community Council. Hence a brief local and conflict context is
provided, and then the main actors, their relationships, and innovations
studied are highlighted. Finally, some results and implications for local
well-being are shared.
The municipality of Guapi is located on the Pacific coast of Colombia
and is one of the three coastal municipalities of the department of Cauca,
Colombia. According to the Characterization Plan of the Guajuí River
Community Council, the municipality of Guapi has an area of 2,688 km2
98 J. D. REINA-ROZO
Table 4.3 Methods used and data collected
Method Data collected Concepts
Observations Work meetings, production
activities, such as fishing and
agriculture
Collaborative
relationships
Field Notes Relations between various
actors and activities
Community-based
innovation ecosystems
Semi-structured interviews
with CBOs
Main activities of the
organizations, effects of the
armed conflict, communal
innovations, and relations with
other actors
Collaboration and its
dimensions. Process of
Governance
Semi-structured interviews
with Local Government
Main activities of the
organizations, effects of the
armed conflict, site-based
innovations, and relations with
CBOs
Welfare.
Community-based
innovation ecosystems
Semi-structured interviews
with Research Institutions
Main activities of
organizations, effects of the
armed conflict, place-based
innovations, and relations with
CBOs
Community-based
innovation ecosystems
Documentary evidence Publications of the processes
carried out among various
actors
Community-based
innovation ecosystems
Collaboration
(Ministerio del Interior, 2017). The GRCC is made up of eight commu-
nities which, according to their organizational structure, are: Concepción,
Santa Rosa, San Antonio, San José, Carmelo, Limones, Quiroga, and
Joanico. The department of Cauca has been one of the departments most
affected by the armed conflict. This has been due to several factors, such
as its geographical location, ecosystems, high rates of unmet basic needs,
land tenure and ownership processes, and social conflict, among others.
This has led to the presence of illegal armed actors and the reconfigura-
tion of new illegal actors, the presence of illicit economies, and the impact
on the rights of the Caucan population (Ministerio del Interior, 2017).
Specifically, there are three historical dimensions that are currently having
an impact on the Pacific Coast zone, generating risk and a humanitarian
crisis at the regional level: (i) Loss of the territory’s production capacity
and detriment to food security due to degradation and over-exploitation
of nature, (ii) Unsustainability of economic processes in the face of the
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 99
Fig. 4.4 San Antonio township (Source Author)
contradictions and consequences of national economic models, and (iii)
Incomplete development initiatives on the Caucan coast (Defensoría del
Pueblo, 2016).
The fieldwork was carried out in the towns of Quiroga, Concep-
ción, Santa Rosa, and San Antonio (See Fig. 4.4) and in the cities of
Popayán and Bogotá. There, meetings, visits, and interviews were held
with key actors from the various community-based organizations with
the aim of determining the elements of the innovation ecosystem and
the relationships of the various grassroots organizations identified for the
study.
4.4.1 Dynamics of the Community-Based Innovation Ecosystem
Based on the information gathered through interviews, documentation,
and observation, this subsection describes the organizations that are part
of the Guajuí River innovation ecosystem. First, the identified actors and
their roles are characterized. In this sense, nine local actors are found
in the CBIE that are mainly focused around agricultural, fishing, and
territorial activities. One local non-governmental organization and the
community council (convening organizations), four community-based
organizations, two governmental organizations, one local private organi-
zation, and one national non-governmental organization were identified.
100 J. D. REINA-ROZO
It should be noted that the role of the focal organization is carried
out, on the one hand, by the Fundación Chiyangua, which coordinates
the other community-based organizations and relates to governmental
and non-governmental organizations. On the other hand, the role is
performed by the GRCC as the territorial ethnic authority. Additionally,
there are other local and external actors that do not participate directly
in the processes of sociotechnical change in the territory. The nine actors
are described below:
•Fundación Chiyangua (Convenor/Innovating, Facilitating): is a
local NGO. It is dedicated to working towards the vindication of
the rights of Afro-Colombian women living in the rural area.
•Guajuí River Community Council (Convenor/Advocating): It is the
ethnic territorial authority of the lower Guajuí River basin. It was
created in 1994 thanks to Law 70 of 1993.
•Asoagropesqui (No specific role): Association of farmers and fish-
ermen from the townships of Quiroga and Limones at the mouth of
the Guajuí River.
•Construyendo sueños (Innovating): Association of Afro-Colombian
women in the municipality of Guapi. It is dedicated to the trade of
Pianguar.
•Women Community Council (Connecting and Facilitating): A space
for women’s political organization in the municipality of Guapi, it is
not part of the municipality’s institutional framework.
•Comunicaciones pacifico RyV (Innovating, Facilitating, Training):
Non-formal organization that provides Internet communication
services through wifi technology.
•Fundación ACUA (Funding, Connecting): National non-
governmental organization that works with Afro-Colombian
communities in Colombia.
•Pacific Environmental Research Institute (Sharing): Created by law
99 of 1993, where the environmental research centres of the
Republic of Colombia are generated. In this case, its work is focused
on the Colombian Pacific coast.
•Matamba Guasá Women Network (Connecting): The network
comprises Afro-Colombian women from the municipalities of
Timbiquí, López de Micay, and Guapi, on the coast of the Depart-
ment of Cauca.
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 101
From the semi-structured interviews and based on the snowball tech-
nique, a series of relationships between diverse actors are identified in
order to map the ecosystem (Fig. 4.5). Firstly, the convening actors are
identified, which are the organizations that lead and energize the innova-
tion ecosystem. Here, we find on one side the Guajuí River Community
Council, and on the other, the Fundación Chiyangua (Black background).
Additionally, there are other direct actors, who are immersed in the
dynamics of the community innovation processes (Grey background)
and indirect actors, who have previously worked with the community-
based organizations studied (White background). The following figure
shows the relationships between the actors and also the three innovations
studied, which are marked with a dark line.
To understand the dynamics of the community-based innovation
ecosystem, it is necessary to recognize the communal innovations created
collaboratively by the organizations. These allow us to understand the
processes of sociotechnical change at the local level, through the effects
on the population and the opportunities that the territories have. Table
4.4 and photographs describe the innovation processes based on the terri-
tory that has been generated from the collaborations between the base
organizations.
The above elements can enhance resilience, peacebuilding, and trust
between communities through the organizational and ethnic diversity of
Fig. 4.5 Relations between actors in the Guajuí river innovation ecosystem
(Source Author)
102 J. D. REINA-ROZO
Table 4.4 Communal innovations of the CBIE Rio Guajuí—Colombia
Sector Communications Agriculture Nutrition
Actors Comunicaciones
pacífico RYV, Parish
and Guajuí River
Community Council
Fundación
Chiyangua and
Pacific
Environmental
Research Institute
Fundación
Chiyangua,
Construyendo
sueños and
Fundación ACUA
Problem Absence of radio,
cellular, and Internet
communication signal
in the territory
Food and
nutritional insecurity
in the territory
Loss of cultural
traditions linked to
gastronomy and
biodiversity
Solution Point to point wifi
network, through
repeaters from
Popayán (Fig. 4.6)
Production of
Papachina flour as a
replacement for
exogenous products
Recovery of
gastronomic
traditions related to
biodiversity and
culture, through
agriculture based on
Azoteas
Use of the solution A point was
established in the
village of San
Antonio. A daily pin
is sold at 3,000 pesos
Col
Bromatological
research on the
nutritional
properties of
Papachina
(Colocasia
esculenta)
Use of the rooftop
method for family
farming, in
particular, traditional
herbs such as
Chiyangua
(Eryngium
foetidum)
Scaling up It will be extended to
other towns in the
territory. They are
already in Timbiquí
and López de Micay
The Chiyangua
Foundation has
started to produce,
pack, and sell
Papachina flour for
distribution,
especially in
kindergartens
Publication of
several books with
Guapi’s experiences
and traditional
knowledge
the region with Afro-descendant and indigenous groups. These groups
maintain traditional forms of social organization, as well as generating
alternatives for communication, food sovereignty, and the generation of
knowledge of their own traditional foods. These are essential elements for
creating alternatives for collective environment and peacebuilding in the
territory.
Figure 4.7 presents a model where communal purpose is found at
the centre of the ecosystem, moving to the developed roles, relevant
actors, contexts where they are developed, and finally, the opportunities
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 103
Fig. 4.6 Point to point wifi network maintenance (Source Author)
and limitations. At the description level, the communal purpose of this
ecosystem is cantered on resilience, given that the innovation processes in
the territory seek to adapt to the new conditions of the political reality
and of peacebuilding. Through novel strategies of communications, food
sovereignty, and community research, community-based organizations
transform their conditions to generate new futures of collective welfare.
In this way, the two organizations that convene within the ecosystem
energize the innovation processes by connecting dissimilar actors, such
as international cooperation organizations, public institutions at national,
regional, or local level, and public and private universities. However, they
mainly weave a network of community actors around the main challenges
in the territory.
Meanwhile, at the level of the activities carried out by the actors of
the ecosystem, we find that the main ones (yellow) are: connecting, as
many of the organizations maintain or generate new relationships with
other organizations regardless of their nature; innovating, since several of
them have generated new products, services, or knowledge with others in
a collaborative manner when facing a local challenge; advocating, as some
of these organizations facilitate dialogue between the population and
government institutions; financing, since several organizations, especially
the Non-Governmental ones, finance some of the innovation activities
studied; sharing knowledge, for example, some organizations in particular
104 J. D. REINA-ROZO
Fig. 4.7 Guajuí river community-based innovation ecosystem (Source Reina-
Rozo [2019b])
like Fundación Chiyangua share their knowledge by means of publications
such as booklets or books and; to mediate and facilitate, since the orga-
nizations mediate in the innovation processes by allowing close contact
between financing entities, the knowledge generated, and the dialogue
with the population in general.
The environment and the elements can be observed in the blue and
green circles, respectively. As for the first, the economic environment
is governed by a neoliberal model, where illegal economies such as
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 105
unregulated gold-mining and, the cultivation and trafficking of drugs
still continue to be activities in the territory. The cultural context is
related to values such as solidarity, community, brotherhood, and iden-
tity. Meanwhile, at the level of non-formal institutions at the local level,
the highlights are La Mano Cambiada, which is the exchange of work,
La Minga, which is collective work, and La Tonga, which is the division
of individual non-transactional tasks. The regulatory context is governed
mainly by Law 70 of 1993, which is the law of Afro-Colombian commu-
nities, Law 99 of 1993, which regulates the national environmental
system, Law 1448 of 2011, which is the law of victims, and the Acto
legislativo 01 de 2016, which is the Peace Agreement between Presidencia
de la República and FARC-EP.
The main elements where these activities are developed are provided
by a diversity of ecosystems from tropical rainforests, lentic ecosystems
such as rivers, to estuaries, mangroves, and the Pacific Ocean. Relations
with other actors outside the territory are limited and the capacity to
communicate the actions of the grassroots organizations is focused on the
convenors, which have the greatest number of networks. At the knowl-
edge level, according to the interviews, traditional knowledge, midwives,
healers, sobanderos, traditional medicine, alabaos, as well as biocultural
knowledge associated with biodiversity, stand out. As for infrastructure,
the territory has some communication methods, such as the limited
cellular network and local wifi. However, the only means of transport
within the territory is by river, and the educational and health infras-
tructure is lacking. Finally, the financial resources for these communal
innovation activities are mostly provided by international cooperation and
national NGOs which promote these processes.
4.4.2 Constraints and Opportunities of the Community-Based
Innovation Ecosystem
Regarding limitations or barriers to the processes of sociotechnical
change, especially in the post-agreement context of the GRCC territory,
the following are to be found:
•Illegal economies: Faced with this, there is the presence of illegal
economies such as gold-mining and drug trafficking in the terri-
tory, which generate a series of threats to the population in terms
106 J. D. REINA-ROZO
of contamination of water sources and ecosystems, in addition to
the generation of violence related to alkaloid production.
•Speculation in the market of products (marine, agricultural, and
forestry): Production chains in this part of the country are being
monopolized by organizations and individuals. Such is the case of
forest products such as wood, marine products such as Piangua, or
agricultural products such as bananas, where there is already a pre-
established structure of intermediaries and buyers who speculate with
prices in consumer centres such as Guapi, Buenaventura, or Cali.
•Exclusion of women and young people: Women and young people
have been excluded from decision-making and participation spaces
in various scenarios, from the municipal spaces to community coun-
cils and grassroots organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to create
strategies to generate equal opportunities for equal access to these
spaces and their support.
In turn, opportunities in the territory are manifested from various
perspectives, some of which are:
•Tourism: At the economic sectors, tourism is becoming a growth
sector of the national economy in growth. In this sense, tourism
in the municipality has been limited to the Gorgona National
Natural Park. However, several people identify other places with
the capacity to generate such initiatives like the river’s mouth and
upstream in the tropical forest. Therefore, tourism and essentially
community-managed ecotourism is an opportunity for the Guajuí
River territory. In this way, it can coordinate and link the initiatives
that have been generated in the territory around gastronomy, food,
and technological sovereignty.
•Non-timber forest products: Another opportunity is the research and
creation of new environmental knowledge, particularly around non-
timber forest products, that is, regarding the various benefits of fauna
and flora, such as health, food, and products such as handicrafts.
•Agriculture and fisheries: As regards agriculture and fisheries, prod-
ucts identified as Papachina, Achiote, Naidí (known elsewhere
as Azaí), and molluscs have market potential especially at the
national and international level. To this end, experiences such as the
Papachina flour have been developed.
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 107
4.4.3 Governance in the Collaborative Process Within
the Innovation Ecosystem
The governance of collaborative relationships in the community is one
of the most contested dimensions at the inter-organizational level, that
is, between organizations in the territory and at the intra-organizational
level; in other words, within the organizations. To exemplify this, OBC1
states, “the community councils have viewed the organizations like flies in
milk, practically. That is, they have not agreed with the organizations. It is
the first council that now comes to interact with the organizations, because
the others have not”. In other words, the relationship between Community
Councils and community-based organizations has been tense according
to the place. OBC1 suggests that the reason may be “that the organi-
zations pull some resources and those resources that the organizations pull,
they practically need”. This denotes that there is no coordination between
the Community Councils and the organizations, based on the issue of
funding.
At the intra-organizational level, several of the people interviewed
expressed criticism of the internal governance, especially of the commu-
nity council. In this sense, CCA2 states that “the townships, what they
are looking for more than anything else is a union. Why? Because, most
of the young people, talking about the youth, do not have participation in
the townvillage”. And he continues, “what they are looking for, more than
anything else now, is for the youth to participate”. In the face of this, OBC5
backs him up by saying “Eh, in all of them. In other words, young people
are practically excluded”. In the face of this, one of the directors of the
Community Council maintains that “a strategy must be developed to reach
these populations”.
Additionally, other spaces of alternative governance have been gener-
ated in the territory. In response, OBC6 explains, “the creation of women’s
organizations in the municipality of Guapi has helped to make us visible as
women and to empower us”. She continues, “the organization has been a
strategy of collective protection; women alone are defenceless, 10, 20 women
together are a force that not everyone can bring down”. Finally, “meeting
again among women and recovering practices and knowledge has made us
strengthen our ethnic identity, it has made us empower ourselves as black
women”. However, there are also critical voices about social organization
in the territory, COM1 maintains that “community organization here is
108 J. D. REINA-ROZO
very weak, we are working on that, to see if we can convince them where to
walk, but it is not that easy”.
4.5 Discussion and Conclusions
The Colombian Pacific region has been a place not only forgotten
but excluded from the dynamics of the Colombian State. The Afro-
Colombian and indigenous populations settled here have generated their
own ways and plans of life motivated by their own traditions, epistemolo-
gies, and ontologies. However, a milestone was the 1991 constitution and
its progressive promise. In the face of this, among many of its advances
was transitional article number 55, which protected the rights of rural and
riverine communities that had been occupying vacant lands in the Pacific
basin by implementing regulations. Law 70 of 1993 and Decree 1475 of
1995 were created to regulate the right to the land of these communities
and their ethnic authorities. However, in spite of the fact that the second
decade of the twenty-first century is coming to an end, only three of the
seven chapters of the law have been regulated, and many promises remain
unfulfilled.
To add to this, this region has been a scenario of armed conflict
between various subversive groups, paramilitaries, and state forces since
the 1990s. The effects in terms of violence, dispossession, threats, and
environmental damage have been considerable. In this dead-end context,
a peace dialogue emerged that resulted in the Colón Theatre Peace Agree-
ment signed in November 2016, which generated hope and desire for
change in the region. However, today it is not possible to speak of post-
conflict in that territory; it must be considered as post-agreement. The
conflicts have been transformed by illegal economic activities such as
illicit crops and mechanized gold mining, which have changed the social
relations of the population and therefore its materiality.
Thus, from a conventional perspective, it can be understood that this
scenario does not produce science, technology, and innovation in an
autonomous and free way, and in fact, public policy around these elements
does not have a determined focus on these processes of communal inno-
vation. This conception is wrong, since it has been demonstrated that
community-based organizations generate situated innovation initiatives
through collaboration. In other words, sociotechnical changes are gener-
ated from collaboration between different organizations. Experiences of
food and nutritional sovereignty, such as the case of Papachina flour and
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 109
the recovery of gastronomy linked to biodiversity, and the initiative of
technological sovereignty in the case of the point-to-point wifi network,
provide evidence of the re-signification of innovation in terms of who
creates it, for whom it is created, how it is created, and for what purpose.
The above, from a vision of sociotechnical change towards the strength-
ening of the communal social fabric in the territory, in particular, to
strengthen resilience and with this the construction of peace through
changing conditions of communication, food, and agriculture.
Resilience has been identified as the central purpose of this CBIE. In
this sense, Fundación Chiyangua as convener and initiator of this CBIE,
plays a fundamental role in articulating the diverse actors and interests
of some of the organizations in the territory to co-create social value.
Meanwhile, the GRCC, as a local ethnic authority, plays a role of political
and social legitimacy, energizing the ecosystem. However, it is found that
the life cycle of this CBIE is in its early stages, where there are no major
relationships between the actors, so it is necessary to generate more rela-
tionships based on the opportunities and limitations of the context. In
this way, organizations such as Asoagropesqui, the IIAP, Construyendo
Sueños, and Comunicaciones RyV must diversify their collaborations with
other organizations to make the social fabric stronger. Although there are
relationships with organizations outside the territory, they are still singular
experiences, rather than plural.
In particular, this CBIE is in a post-agreement context where the main
constraints are the emerging conflicts around illegal economies in general,
and the exclusion of women and youth from decision-making processes
and access to resources. Meanwhile, local knowledge related to biodiver-
sity, non-timber forest resources, and ecotourism are all found at the level
of opportunities. The above allows us to establish the environment where
communal innovation activities are developed within the framework of
solidarity as a fundamental value, and the collaborative practices of Minga,
Tonga, and Mano Cambiada as potentials, threatened by the hegemonic
notion of monetary exchange within the capitalist economic model.
Since the peace process, Legislative Act number 1 of 2016 and law
1448, provide a legal framework for the victims of the conflict and the
population in these territories. However, the communities are still waiting
for the benefits of this legislation in the territory. An additional element
of analysis is that this legislation is not articulated with laws related to
science, technology, and innovation. Therefore, no state programmes or
interventions were found to be working with these communities around
110 J. D. REINA-ROZO
innovation and peacebuilding. On the other hand, the conditions of
the natural environment provide a scenario to enhance the dynamics of
sociotechnical change, given its complexity, such as the tropical rainforest.
However, the infrastructure to support these processes is lacking in all its
dimensions.
At the level of the epistemologies reproduced by the Afro-Colombian
communities orally in the Guajuí River, traditional medicine (midwives,
sobanderos, and snakebite cure) is observed as fundamental for the local
culture of resistance and resilience for overcoming the effects of the
armed conflict. Regarding the implications of collaboration in innova-
tion processes and analysed dimensions from a qualitative perspective, it
is concluded that governance, collective norms, and administration of the
collaboration processes are weak. This is because there is no inclusion or
diversity in the decision-making process, given that decision spaces in the
innovations studied are mostly composed of men in adulthood.
Additionally, there are no clear rules generated from the collaborations
and very few organizations create formal agreements to determine the
management of the collaboration. In the face of local collective welfare,
there is a critical perspective around the idea of development imposed by
a discourse of progress and economic growth. In this way, the idea of
autonomy becomes more relevant when looking at the futures that this
population can generate if supported within a perspective of innovation
centred on the community, and where sense is found in the resilience of
this population with serious economic and social threats. In this sense, the
futures of the population must take into account the notions of collective
welfare of the population settled there for generations, their relationship
with the territory, and their sociocultural traditions.
Considering knowledge, values, and non-formal institutions as poten-
tialities for generating these futures far from the developmentalist notion
is more necessary than ever. Thus, the relationships that have been woven
between the various actors during the armed conflict are evidence of
the essential organizational processes within the dynamics of the Afro-
Colombian people, such as the processes of community research where
the experience of community members and researchers is taken into
account, including several of these directed at the gender and biodiversity
approach.
Furthermore, comprehensive research can be done related to the
emerging paradigms of community-based innovation. In this same sense,
4 COMMUNITY-BASED INNOVATION … 111
to promote the use of participating methodologies to co-create knowl-
edge and form co-research in the communities, so that these can be
researched in the future from a perspective of cognitive sovereignty.
Finally, this enables researchers to open the theoretical perspective to the
literature in decolonial studies of innovation, in order to understand the
implications of reflections and actions from a position of power in the
research activities.
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CHAPTER 5
Local Economic Development
and the Colombian Strategy for a Sustainable
and Inclusive Bioeconomy
Hector Heraldo Rojas-Jimenez
5.1 Introduction
A particularity in this paper is the translation not from Spanish to
English, but from Pure Sciences to Social Science. In a meeting with
the colleagues of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, the feeling
was that even when everyone was talking English, we all were speaking
different languages. Although all disciplines offer different approaches the
interaction among them, when trying to solve some new problems, is
certainly part of the novelty. Bioeconomy is a novel language for social
science, even if social science has been working on the challenges of
society, as well as pure science, there is an important gap in the knowledge
of terminology.
H. H. Rojas-Jimenez (B)
Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: hector.rojas@uexternado.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_5
115
116 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Ever since coming down from the trees, man has faced the problem
of survival, not only as an individual but also as a member of a social
group. His continued existence is a logical testimony to the fact that he
has succeeded in solving the problem; but the continued existence of want
and misery, even in the richest of nations, is evidence that his solution has
been, at best, a partial one (Heilbroner, 2000,p.18).
In survival, the learning has included manipulating organisms to
improve processes, which resulted in bread, wine, cheese, yogurt, and
even coffee. Thus, humanity has been close to practices in the field
of bioeconomy. Coffee is one of the several products Colombians feel
proud of. On the contrary, there is no pride in the Netflix series about
cartels, drugs, or similar. Coffee is not an American native. It comes from
Africa and came to America with colonization, just as chocolate, avocado,
tomato, and many others arrived in Europe. Probably Jesuit missionaries
were who entered the grain to Nueva Granada in the eighteenth century.
At the end of nineteenth century, coffee was already a representa-
tive source of income for Colombia. By the beginning of the twentieth
century, in 1927, the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC)
was created as an entity that recognizes itself as the largest rural NGO
in the world, which would lead the grain collection process, generating
support mechanisms for the small coffee farmer throughout the country.
However, by having a monopoly of production, distribution, and other
elements linked to the value chain, it became a very powerful entity, where
benefits would soon be delivered to those closest to the governing bodies,
leaving less coverage for small coffee growers. Due to the criticism and the
new realities of coffee at the international level, the FNC has become now
a more efficient entity close to the local coffee grower. Currently, several
other companies and cooperatives of producers have started to improve
their species, production processes, and distribution chains in such a way
that they have achieved market segments important enough to attract the
attention of models of social innovation such as fair trade.
This document searches for an answer whether bioeconomy could have
the capacity to generate economic development in the local environments
in Colombia, acknowledging the case of coffee as a significant element in
the country’s bioeconomic potential. To answer the above, the bottom-
up model will be followed, considering the local spaces as the beginning
point to move towards how the bioeconomy could contribute to the
LED.
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 117
Bioeconomy has existed since the beginning of humanity and today
arises as an academic concept in the pursuit of efficiency. Given the growth
of the population, lack of resources, and search for alternatives to the
use of fossil fuels, bioeconomy, as mechanisms that generate LED in
Colombia, can be an alternative, keeping in mind its important limitations
when looking to apply it in local environments.
The document offers in the first part an approach to (i) the Colombian
context. Afterwards, to frame the understanding of the research trouble in
the bottom-up model suggests some proximity with the (ii) LED focus.
In the next part of the document, (iii) some of the characteristics that
accompany the TH actors of the industry, government, and universities
in Colombia in relation to the bioeconomy. Subsequently, it discusses (iv)
a possible definition of bioeconomy to Colombia, to finalize with (v) a
close up to the case of incorporation of knowledge and innovation in the
local coffee production process in the country.
5.2 Context
With 62,829 registered species in the Biological Information System of
Colombia (SiB, 2018), Colombia is the second country with the highest
biodiversity in the world, surpassed only by Brazil according to Andres
Hurtado (2006), and the most biodiverse of the world in proportion to
its extension. This represents significant opportunities, not only in terms
of preservation and conservation initiatives, but also for the bioeconomy
sector, which promotes the efficient and sustainable use of the natural
resources and biodiversity of the territory.
In Colombia, a public policy definition of bioeconomy is some-
thing new, but the opportunity to generate new growth channels for
the country is recognized, with qualified employment, attracting and
retaining international talent, new knowledge-based companies, valuing
and making sustainable use of the biodiversity, as well as, incorporating
modern biotechnology, among others (Aristizabal, 2017).
According to the System of Information on the Colombian Biodiver-
sity, more than 50% of the country is protected and it is considered a
megadiverse country. Likewise, Colombia has a part and contains two
of the bioregions with the mayor biodiversity of the world: Amazon
(with more than 6 million km2) shared between Brazil, Peru, Colombia,
Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, and the Pacific
118 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
bioregion, which is 99% of Colombia; and the rest is shared with Ecuador
and Panama (Biointropic, Eafit, Silo, 2018,p.1).
On the other hand, is a country with more than 60 years of armed
conflict that arrived at a peace treaty signed with the more ancient guer-
rilla of the world, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia), a
treaty that has been the most important event for Colombians and for a
country in the last 200 years. On the last 30 of May 2018, Colombia
begins to be part of the OECD. On the last 14 of June the DNP,1
Colciencias2was launching the Green Book as the manual to address
sustainability in Colombia oriented to the SDGs 2030, and on the last
10 of July, the new public policy of bioeconomy was published in the
document CONPES 3934.3
Even when Colombia began to be a member of the OECD last May
2018, the social conditions of the country in terms of poverty are still
regrettable (see Fig. 5.1). According to the National Department of
Statistics (DANE, 2017) in 2017 in the distant rural zones, the monetary
poverty index was 36%. Quibdo, Riohacha, and Florencia registered the
higher monetary poverty index 47.9, 46.9 y 33.7% respectively, while the
lower monetary poverty index was in Bucaramanga, Bogota, and Pereira
with 12, 12.4 y 12.7%, in its order (Portafolio.co, 2018).
1Colombia is a democratic Republic, with a separation of power model, where the
Executive includes the President, its ministries and in the level of ministries are the
Departments; the DNP is the National Planning Department in charge of building the
public policies at the national level.
2Colciencias is the Colombian institution that leads the areas of science, innovation,
and development. However, it is under the Ministry of Education, so it is like a son
condemned to walk hand in hand with his mother. Currently, has been transformed in
the Science, technology, and innovation Ministry of Colombia.
3The National Council for Economic and Social Policy, CONPES is the highest
national planning and performance authority as an advisory body to the Government
in all aspects related to the country’s economic and social development. The council
produces policy papers also called CONPES.
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 119
Fig. 5.1 Monetary poverty (Based on DANE [2017])
5.3 Local Economic Development (LED)4
When talking about economic development strategies, the conventional
approach tends to visualize, for the most part, sequential processes linked
to industrialization, outsourcing, and urbanization, which are assimilated
to the advance of “modernization”. In this way, the development strategy
“from above”, of a concentrating nature and based on a large company is
considered (as a great “idea-force”) as the way fundamental for achieving
it. (…) Generally, this type of LED, based on the use of endogenous
resources and carried out by small companies, has been emerging without
too much or no political-administrative support from the central instances
of the public administration. The emergence of such LED initiatives
has essentially depended on territorial agents, through concerted efforts
diverse (Vázquez Barquero, 1988 in Alburquerque, 2004).
In this sense, the concept of “local development” arises from the
combination of two controversial terms, which have been the subject
of scientific discussion and have generated disparate positions. Various
contributions have been made to offer a unanimous and accepted defini-
tion that has not yet been achieved. The concept of development has been
used in most cases with qualitative significance. In common parlance, it
4Based in working papers and discussions from the board of the public policy
of the National Planning Department of Colombia, Local Economic Development
Agencies in Colombia Red ADELCO, and University Externado de Colombia
from which the author has been part.
120 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
is used as a synonym for growth, and generally, economic increase. On
the other hand, the notion of “local” refers to a part of the space, small
and encompassed or referenced in a broader structure. Both are closely
related concepts and have had a growing role in the scientific body of the
twenty-first century (Juarez, 2013).
Particularly, in Colombia in a national frame the concept local might be
understood as rural. The local is the countryside, and as it was mentioned
before, there is an important gap between the rural and the urban. It
is evident the disarticulation in the application of the different plan-
ning instruments in the territorial entities. As with so many concepts in
the social sciences, LED is one that does not have a single definition.
However, its practice provides fundamental and unanimously accepted
and recognized elements such as (Ascoli, 2006; Gallicchio, 2004):
•Involves an intentional action and social construction.
•Value existing resources in a given territory.
•Incorporates different economic, social, and institutional actors; the
cooperation and negotiation between these actors are oriented.
•Although it is a process that arises from the community itself, it is not
an isolated process, but on the contrary, it implies inter-jurisdictional
articulations (local, departmental, and national) that empower it.
Hence, it is necessary that local development is planned also taking
into consideration the guidelines established by departmental and
national policies.
•Involves the construction of a medium- and long-term vision, which
establishes the point of arrival and the horizon that determines and
gives meaning to short-term actions and allows gradual progress.
•Recognizes that reality is diverse, so that the value of particularities,
potentialities, and territorial identities is recovered.
Supporting LED seems to be nonsense in an increasingly globalized
world. However, “it has its logic in noticing that integrating into global
dynamics, from a peripheral or disadvantaged position, is only possible
from the strengthening of the resources available to each territory, espe-
cially those that may offer some unique feature and identified with a
specific area that is, adding value to production through its cultural
features” (Hevia, 2003). This is what, in synthesis, proposes LED.
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 121
The main advantages of LED can be summarized as follows (Aghón
et al., 2001):
a. Strengthens the processes of productive adjustment, because, as
economies become more international and more competitive, terri-
torial governments are increasingly faced with the need to provide
solutions to increasing unemployment and adapt the productive
system to the context changes.
b. It contributes to the improvement of productivity and competitive-
ness, not only in terms of prices, but also with the introduction of
local products and their permanence in the markets, improvement
in quality, design, marketing, timely delivery, continuity of supply,
and after-sales service.
c. It encourages the participation of local society in the development
processes, they increase their protagonism by having to actively
participate in the definition and execution of the strategies defined.
d. It dynamizes the decentralization processes, as when granting
competences to local and regional communities, local development
strategies are strengthened.
The LED is relevant for Colombia improving governance at all levels
because it puts government and power within the reach of the people;
the LED is a tool for inclusive economic development and the generation
of opportunities from the peripheral territories not focused exclusively on
SMEs or value chains, but also in processes of formalization, associativity,
and solidarity economy.
In providing a theoretical framework for thinking about the role of
social networks within the economic development process, notions of
social capital clearly link into ongoing debates upon the role of networks
and relational assets within the LED process, not least in realizing external
economies such as transaction costs (Evans & Syrett, 2007).
5.4 Characteristics That
Accompany the Triple Helix Actors
In the introduction of the Triple Helix TH of innovation article,
Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff suggest that:
The TH model is formulated not at the level of the phenomena to be
explained, but as a model for helping with the explanation. In this sense,
122 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
it is a methodological tool: the focus on the recursive overlay of commu-
nications among universities, industries, and governments allows for the
organization of research questions in relation to the various models and
metaphors. (1998)
In the same way, Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff continue to develop one
of the models that has allowed motivating interactions between TH
actors and has contributed to strengthening relationships and results as
a product of the dynamics proposed by the model in this sense:
The network of university-industry-government relations continuously
restructures the opportunity matrix of a complex system which itself is the
result of the reconstruction from different angles by each of the partici-
pating instances. All agencies are embedded in discourses at different levels,
that is, within their respective institutions, at the specific interfaces between
the helices, and at generalized levels where third actors may come into
play. The reflections are only partially synchronized by the network of rela-
tions, thus enabling the participants to find niches in the knowledge-based
economy. (cf. Bruckner et al., 1994 in Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1998)
The TH is a spiral innovation model that captures the multiple and recip-
rocal interactions between the university as the first helix, companies, and
industries as the second helix and the administrations or governments as
the third helix; at different points of the knowledge capitalization process
(Herrera et al., 2015).
The university plays an important role in the socio-economic activi-
ties of a country. It’s roles include teaching-learning and research and
development, but he also participates in the creation of new companies
(spin-offs) based on knowledge through incubation mechanisms. This
dynamic proposes the growth of the institutions that make up this first
propeller is achieved, but also of the companies involved in HT that
are beneficiaries of the results of the research obtained at the university
(Herrera et al., 2015). The companies represent the second helix of the
model. They stimulate their growth and competitiveness through coop-
eration mechanisms with universities, financing R+D+ i processes that
solve problems of their daily work, or generate new technologies to be
commercialized (Herrera et al., 2015). The proper functioning of the
model implies the active participation of the government, the third helix,
through legislation, instruments, and fiscal incentives conducive to the
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 123
Fig. 5.2
“Laissez-faire”. Model
of government–
industry–university
relations (Source
Etzkowitz and
Leydesdorff 1996 in
Piñeres [2016])
Fig. 5.3 Relations
between the actors of
the TH
promotion and dynamism of university–business relations (Herrera et al.,
2015) (see Figs. 5.2 and 5.3).
5.4.1 Some Characteristics of the Government
Historically Colombia has had an extractive economy; the first row of the
economy is petroleum extraction, normally in the second row were inter-
national remittances but more recently tourism came to be in the second
position. In the transition frame to a post-conflict arena, some alterna-
tives for social and economic growth are being studied. As stated before,
bioeconomy has been somehow present in different spaces, since a decade
124 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
from now, but just until 2018, there is a public policy to consider bioe-
conomy among the possibilities and change the point of view regarding
the traditional extractive model. Enormous challenges have accompanied
most of the different development planning approaches of the successive
governments in Colombia. An interest has been to close the gap between
the urban and the rural conditions.
Furthermore, Colciencias was a founder member of the Transforma-
tive Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC). The consortium brings the
following agencies: Sweden, (VINNOVA) Norway (National Research
Council), South Africa (The National Research Foundation), Finland
(Tekes), and Science Policy Research Unit from University of Sussex
(SPRU) together to advance in a new policy of Science, Technology, and
Innovation (CTeI, for its acronym in Spanish) that contributes to the
solution of the most urgent problems of today (see Table 5.1).
The objective of the green growth policy is to stimulate an increase
in productivity and economic competitiveness by 2030; while assuring
sustainable use of natural capital and social inclusion in a manner compat-
ible with climate change (NDP, 2018).
The purpose of the Green Growth Policy is to drive a national climate-
compatible increase in productivity and economic competitiveness by
2030, while assuring the sustainable use of natural wealth and social
inclusion. In this way, its strategies, actions, and goals, are attuned to
the “Pacto por la Sostenibilidad” (Sustainability Pact) contained in the
National Development Plan (2018–2022) called “Pacto por Colombia,
pacto por la equidad” (Pact for Colombia, pact for equality) that seeks to
consolidate actions to achieve an equilibrium between conservation and
production in such a way that the natural wealth is assumed as a strategic
asset of the nation (DNP, 2019).
The following table recognizes part of the path followed in the
construction of public policy guidelines, until reaching the green growth
policy. Biotechnology is related to biodiversity, productive development,
comprehensive solid waste management, sustainable construction, and
finally the green growth policy as a strategy that identifies the bioeconomy
as one of its central axes.
Colombia has performed well at a regional level in terms of economic
growth (see Table 5.2). Regardless, it has characterized itself for its
low economic diversification, low productivity in resource utilization,
and significant environmental impact associated with degradation and
depletion of natural resources. Although the country possesses a robust
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 125
Table 5.1 Analysis summary by dimension
Dimension Findings Gaps
Technological 1. More than 1,500 research groups related to
Bioeconomy, where more than 600 are related
to areas of biodiversity and biotechnology
2. The first scientific community of Biotechnology
is in Bogotá, the second in Medellín and the
third in Cali
3. Programs such as Colombia BIO have promoted
the development of 15 bioexpeditions
identifying 131 endemic species and more than
one and a half million new records for the
Biodiversity Information System-SIB
1. Difficulty in converting the R&D results into
innovation products, processes or services for
the market. “Valley of death”
Regulatory 1. There is progress with the creation in 2012 of
the Genetic Resources Group of Minambiente
with the approval of 149 contracts, mostly for
research purposes
2. Invima and ICA have made progress in health
surveillance and quality control of medicines,
food, biological products, biotechnology and
agricultural inputs
1. Only 8 contracts for access to genetic resources
for commercial purposes. Lack of clarity in
management and application
2. Both the regulations and the capacities created
serve traditional businesses and not the
innovative and future activities of the
bioeconomy
3. It is important to ratify the postulates in the
Nagoya protocol
(continued)
126 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Table 5.1 (continued)
Dimension Findings Gaps
Market 1. The international consumption of bio-products,
biosolutions and bio-processes is increasing
2. Biotechnology is seeing global sales at the end
of 2017 of USD 441.5 billion, with annual
growth of more than 10%
3. Tractor agricultural sectors such as Palm and
Sugar Cane with experience in bio-fuels could
change to new models of the circular economy
and bio-refineries
4. Miambiente has supported more than 900 green
businesses through regional autonomous
Corporations
5. Innpulsa has supported more than 50 companies
with bio-based products
6. Colciencias has supported the development of
85 bio-products
1. Emergent demand in the national market for
bio-based innovations
2. Absence of campaigns and specialized
information to raise awareness about the
consumption of bio-based products
3. International trade of bio-based products from
Colombia is emergent and sectoral exports are
not measured with adequate level of detail
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 127
Dimension Findings Gaps
Financing & investment 1. The country has experience in development,
cooperation, financing and more recently in
investment instruments in various sectors
2. In relation to calls for the promotion of R&D
related to bio-based products, some of the
projects by Colciencias, Innpulsa, Sena, SGR
and Colombia Científica can be highlighted.
Nevertheless, these calls are not permanent
3. Of 31 investment funds identified only 4 of
have made investments in companies related to
biotechnology
4. In credit, entities such as Bancoldex and Finagro
have been developing agreements with territorial
entities for special lines. However, there is not
yet a line established in biotechnology or
bio-economy
1. There is a deficit of specialized financing and
investment instruments for each of the stages of
the life cycle of biotechnology
2. There is a lack of a clear country portfolio of
sophisticated businesses in the bio-economy and
biotechnology to attract investment, as well as
for the design of customized instruments
(continued)
128 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Table 5.1 (continued)
Dimension Findings Gaps
Human talent 1. Undergraduate and graduate study programs in
biotechnology were found: 3 undergraduate and
23 postgraduate programs exist in the country,
with 19 currently active programs
2. At the level of Bio-economy, some universities
begin to offer continuing education programs
(such as diploma studies) or incorporate courses
on bioeconomy into their curricula
3. The master’s and doctorate students are
majoring on agricultural disciplines mostly,
followed by energy, chemicals, and food
4. The sectors with more doctors and master’s
hired by companies are health, food and energy
1. There is a lack of knowledge, personnel and
business management methodologies based on
biotechnology, technology transfer, market
management, and international regulatory issues
in bio-economy
2. There is a shortage of personnel for value
added businesses in the bio-economy
Infrastructure 1. At the national level, there are robust
infrastructures related to bio-economy such as:
germplasm banks (CIAT, AGROSAVIA),
genomic sequencing platforms (UDEA,
CORPOGEN) tissue banks (IDCBIS, TISSUE
BANK), bio-informatics (BIOS), phytochemical
analysis (CENIVAM, UNAL, UDEA), bio-fuels
production facilities (BIOD, Manuelita,
Bioenergy), technology parks (GUATIVARA,
BIOPACIFICO, UNAL)
2. There are leading biotechnology actors in several
of the Colombian departments, that can be the
main proponents of the bio-economy
1. Lack of coordination and institutional
framework that would ensure leadership and
development of the bio-economy, generating
national guidelines and coordinating with the
Colombian departments
2. Lack of institutional platforms for the
measurement and monitoring of the
bioeconomy
3. Deficit in infrastructures capable to bring the
services required for bio-processes scale-up
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 129
Dimension Findings Gaps
Environment 1. In Colombia, 62,829 species have been
identified in 2017 (SIB, 2017), which makes it
a mega-diverse country
2. According to the Agricultural Census (DANE,
2014) there are 111.5 million hectares (ha) in
the continental area of Colombia. 56.7%
corresponding to forest (63.2 million ha), 38.6%
dedicated to agricultural use (43.1 million ha)
and 2.2% (2.5 million ha) destined to a different
use
3. Only 7.1 million of the 43.1 million hectares
suitable for agriculture are dedicated to planting
crops and the remaining equivalent to 34.4
million hectares, are used for animal feed
4. The production of residual agricultural and
livestock biomass is 279,333,596 tn/year
(Ministry of Mines and Energy, 2010) from
crops such as palm, cane, coffee, rice, banana,
banana and cattle, pig and poultry
5. There is actual experience of companies focused
on the sustainable use of biodiversity and
ecosystem services
1. The availability of biodiversity and access to
species can be affected by extractive pressures
and deterioration of environmental conditions
2. Value chains interested in working with
communities to value biodiversity face the
difficulties of access permits, dispersion of
biological resources, logistical difficulties and
security problems in the rural zones
Source Based on Biointropic (2018).
130 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Table 5.2 Antecedent of the initiative of Green growth
Year CONPES Issue
2011 3697 National policy about commercial development of biotechnology
base on the sustainable use of biodiversity
2016 3866 National policy on productive development
2018 3874 National policy for the integral management of solid waste
3918 National strategy for the implementation of the SDG
3919 National policy on sustainable buildings
3934 National strategy to organize the green initiatives as the Green
Growth Policy where one of the central axe was the bioeconomy
policy
aThe Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA, 2018) publishes the Action Plan for the Development
and Consolidation of Forest Plantations, which aims to consolidate a vision in which the Colombian
forestry sector effectively promotes rural
bNational Council for Economic and Social Policy, it produces policy papers also called document
CONPES
political framework to address the challenges associated to sustainable
development, it has not been able to efficiently integrate environmental
sustainability aspects within sectorial policies and economic growth strate-
gies. In addition, a road map had not been previously been defined to
guide the long term and the transition process towards an economic
model based on green growth (DNP, 2019)(Table5.3).
Table 5.3 Why document CONPES 3934
The national economy had an average
growth of 4.26% between 2000 and2015
(National Planning Department or DNP for
its acronym in Spanish)
Petrol and coal represented 50%of
exportations between 2002 and 2015
The costs of environmental degradation and
social impacts related to economic growth,
have been valued at 2.08% of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) of 2015 (DNP,
2018)
CONPES 3934 defines that
“greengrowth refers to those growth
trajectories that ensure economic and
social well-being of the population in the
long term, assuring conservation of the
natural capital and climate security”
Source Based on DNP (2019)
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 131
5.4.2 Some Characteristics of Universities
In Colombia, education is a fundamental right according to the Consti-
tution. Despite this, according to the Ministry of Education, as of August
2015, out of 100 students who finished grade 11 (High School), only
48 entered the universities immediately the following year (Lenis, 2017).
According to a report presented by the civil society organization Niñez
Ya 62% of young people who finished high school did not achieve access
to higher education, and 40% of children who do not attend school are
in areas of armed conflict (El Espectador, 2018).
According to Susana Fiorentino, a researcher at the Javeriana Univer-
sity in an interview with Arbeláez “Unesco’s report on knowledge
generation in all countries confirms that Colombia will never have a
knowledge-based economy in the current conditions of absence or limited
investment in R+D+I” 2(…) Colombia allocated for science, technology
and innovation in 2018 0.67%, when there are countries that allocate 7%
of GDP or when the average investment among members of the OECD
is 4% (2018).
In that sense, even if there are universities producing high levels of
scientific discoveries, the gap between those who are able to go to the
academy and those who cannot is representative. The distance between
the rural and urban environment is even wider, but another important
issue is the budget for research which generally is very limited against
most of the members of the OECD, but in particular between the public
and private education. In any case, even if in the universities the condi-
tions are difficult especially about the budget, the academy is precisely the
place where the importance of bioeconomy and its potential as a driver of
development is clearer.
After a search through the websites of universities in Colombia and
other regions, several masters were founded focused on the training
of professionals in sustainable development, bioeconomy, and related
topics. Below is the first systematization of its objectives. There is
a master’s degree in Biotechnology from the National University of
Colombia, master’s degree in Biotechnology from the ICESI Univer-
sity; the Medellin headquarters of the National University of Colombia
offers the Master of Science in Biotechnology. This master’s degree aims
to train qualified human talent in foundations of cellular and molec-
ular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and statistics, with the aim of
promoting development in the plant, microbial, animal, and industrial
132 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
areas. The ICESI University located in Cali, Colombia, proposes its Grad-
uate Program in Biotechnology, whose general objective is for profes-
sionals to acquire the interdisciplinary technical-scientific foundations
to lead research–development–innovation (R+D+I) processes in biotech-
nology. The areas of concentration for research of the master’s degree
are agricultural, molecular, cellular, and organism biotechnology; environ-
mental and bioindustrial biotechnology; pharmaceutical biotechnology
and medical biotechnology (see Fig. 5.4).
There is a huge challenge for the universities. One of them is that
the physical and budgetary conditions are present to be able to summon
and support new generations of young researchers to advance in the
creation of new knowledge in the field of bioeconomy. This also requires
a paradigm shift in knowledge and procedure since the Colombian
academic model is not created to motivate research. From the first years
of training in schools and throughout the process, there is a significant
distancing from research, which has been the engine of development for
other countries, but in the Colombian case, it does not respond even
to the call of one’s own logic. On the contrary, by virtue of the lack
of proper construction of an adequate educational model, results are
projected based on models that do not correspond to a reading related
to the education required. In that sense, scientific production is further
diminished.
In this way, some records that show the limited production of bioe-
conomy issues in Colombia are suggested below. Through Scopus, 15
linked registers are recognized using the “bioeconomy” filter, selecting
only those produced in “Colombia”. However, in Web of science only
two records are recognized (see Fig. 5.5).
Fig. 5.4 Master’s and doctoral students graduated in areas of bioeconomy
(2006–2015) Source Observatorio Colombiano de Ciencia y Tecnología (2016)
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 133
0
50
100
150
PRODUCTION VOLUME
COUNTRIES
PEOPLES R CHINA
Scientific articles on bioeconomy
Series1
Fig. 5.5 Scientific articles on bioeconomy (Source Based on Web of Science
[2018])
Finally, is worth mentioning the case of the Science, Technology, and
Innovation for the Transformation Policy Factory project launched at
the National University (Medellin) in conjunction with the University of
Sussex and Colciencias, through the technology of transformative inno-
vation raised great interest for its novelty and for putting the focus on
innovation in the construction of a better society. Likewise, the impor-
tance of creating incentives for scientific, economic, political, and social
production focused on transformative innovations stands out. The space
thus opened contributed to the generation of new networks between
the academic world, the business world, and the State (University of
Sussex—COLCIENCIAS, 2018, p. 48) (see Table 5.4).
5.4.3 Some Characteristics of Industries
The Colombian BIO programme, carried out between 2015 and 2018,
generated large efforts to position the bioeconomy in the country,
carrying out 16 expeditions resulted in 151 possible new discovered
species and the development of 84 bioproducts supported by means of
calls (Colciencias, 2018). To date, only 305 companies have been consol-
idated in the country for the development of bio-innovation products,
134 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Table 5.4 Main
scientific universities and
its research groups
Institution Research group in
Colciencias
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Agricultural
Science
Medical and
Health Science
Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Universidad del Norte Medical and
Health Science
Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Fund UnivKonrad Lorenz Engineering and
Technology
Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería
Julio Garavito Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Escuela Naval de cadetes Almirante
Padilla Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Agricultural
Science
Medical and
Health Science
Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Universidad de Los Andes Medical and
Health Science
Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Universidad ICESI Medical and
Health Science
Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Universidad CES Medical and
Health Science
Natural Sciences
Engineering and
Technology
Source Based on Colciencias (2018)
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 135
which represent only 0.5% of companies in sectors with potential for
bioeconomy (DNP, 2018, p. 30).
On the other hand, in the database of the National Trade Associa-
tion Council, no record related to bioeconomy, biotechnology, or similar
appears. However, consulting individually with those business groups that
are possibly closer to bioeconomy and related, it was found that the
National Association of Businessmen of Colombia ANDI has begun to
recognize the concept more closely.
According to ANDI, taking the international context as a reference,
Colombia has all the potential to enter the dynamics of the bioeconomy
and the application of biotechnology to develop innovative processes,
products, and services taking advantage of the benefits of biological and
genetic resources and their derivatives, as well as the residual biomass,
to incorporate knowledge and innovation and generate opportunities for
new businesses and economic progress. In the country, there are more
than 400 private research groups related to biodiversity and biotech-
nology (ANDI, s.f., p. 776).
While the Colombian Association of Medium and Small Indus-
tries ACOPI in its magazine My SME +Productive, not mentioning
the subject of the bioeconomy in particular, however recognizes as a
guild the potential that the country has in the agricultural industry.
CAMACOL, the Colombian construction chamber, https://camaco
l.co/, in its internal search engine, mentions the issue of sustainable
construction, but does not advance in the development of the concept
or link it in particular to bioeconomy. For its part, the guild of flower
growers ASOCOLFLORES (https://asocolflores.org/), does not openly
offer information about its relationship with bioeconomy, although
undoubtedly, since Colombia is the second producer of flowers in the
world, there will be interventions on the matter that may occur and that
have not yet been discussed by these producers or failing to be published
on their website.
In the same way, FEDEGAN, the group of ranchers, milk and
meat producers (http://www.fedegan.org.co/) that are a very influential
group given their possession on important tracts of land, some even linked
to paramilitarism, they do not have information readily available that they
can access referring to bioeconomy. Nevertheless, there is enough infor-
mation on biotechnology especially on the subjects of reproduction and
fertilization. The association of farmers of Colombia, (https://www.sac.
org.co/) that groups the largest volume of specialized associations, does
136 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
not mention bioeconomy in any of its journals of the last five years;
however, several of its affiliates refer to the subject of biotechnology and
bioeconomy as follows.
The National Federation of Oil Palm Growers Fedepalma being much
closer to the subject, in its official documents mentions that the potential
for the guild is remarkable since only the current area planted with palm
oil in the country in a few years will be able to produce two million tonnes
of oil, some 3.8 million tonnes of solid biomass, and 211 million cubic
metres of biogas. That is why, Fedepalma and Cenipalma have worked on
creating and adapting technologies to optimize the use of biomass as a
source of energy for the consumption of the plants and production units
of the palm zones (Fedepalma, s.f.).
The association of sugarcane producers—Asocaña, in its 2017 Report,
talks about bioethanol recognizing its importance, while considering that
its business is the production of sugar and its demand in regions such as
Asia and Africa and in general in emerging economies is still increasing.
However, the objective is to continue to add value to biomass, trans-
forming it into a wide variety of biocomposite products (food, chemical
products, and bioplastics) and bioenergy (bioethanol and cogeneration)
(Asocaña, 2018,p.9).
The federation of rice producers http://www.fedearroz.com.co has
a database of scientific documents related to rice production where no
records on bioeconomy were found, however there are at least eight
instances related to biotechnology although not all are linked to rice
production.
Finally, neither the federation of producers of jaggery (http://www.
fedepanela.org.co/) nor the federation of potato producers (http://fed
epapa.com/home/) have any records related to bioeconomy or biotech-
nology in their search engines.
In the next table, it is possible to recognize some interesting cases
where bioeconomy is already a productive process in local environments
base on small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs.
Below are some of the industrial production processes that incorporate
the bioeconomy as input for its elaboration. Knowledge and innovation
begin to be part of these processes. From research centres and business
accelerators, to rural enterprises and small entrepreneurs (see Fig. 5.6).
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 137
Fig. 5.6 Some production processes based on bioeconomy
5.5 A possible Definition
of Bioeconomy for Colombia
According to OECD, bioeconomy is “Transforming the knowledge of
life sciences in new, sustainable, eco-efficient and competitive prod-
ucts. The application of biotechnology to primary production, health
and industry could lead to an emerging bioeconomy contributing to
economic production” (OCDE, 2009).
The manifesto with the pillars of the future economy for Europe
defines bioeconomy as: “those parts of the economy that use renewable
biological resources (biomass) of land and sea - such as crops, forests,
fish, animals and microorganisms, as well as waste and waste of biolog-
ical origin- to produce food, feed, materials, chemical products, fuels
and energy in a sustainable manner». Bioeconomy is “as old as human-
ity”, but a new approach to bioeconomy currently offers “characteristics
and advantages, such as carbon neutrality, renewability, circularity and
multifunctionality”, according to the manifesto (Ec.europa.eu, 2016).
138 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Colombia Bio Project, of Colciencias, has the Bio Expedition, which
includes a total of 20 biological expeditions, ten of them in areas of the
country that had not been possible to enter due to the conflict. The
president highlighted the great opportunities that are opening up for
Colombia and explained that “the end of the conflict implies the possi-
bility of consolidating a new economy with greater use of our resources
and to reclaim our environment”. “He described the opportunities as
immense and quoted tourism—of nature and science—, as well as the
production of energy and the production of natural ingredients for food,
cosmetics and medicines”. “We want to reach the year 2025 converted
into a bioeconomy based on science, technology and innovation, and
that makes the most of its immense natural wealth” (Presidencia.gov.co,
2016).
The Bioeconomy is an area that encompasses a wide range of economic
activities, which in turn benefit from new discoveries, products, and
services, related and derived from biological sciences. Its implementation
in each country involves a process of transition from production systems
and traditional processing, towards processes that allow the optimal use of
renewable resources and product generation of biological origin (OECD.
2009 in Gobierno de Colombia, 2019). In this sense, the bioeconomy
is not identified as a sector in itself but as a group that intercon-
nects different value chains and that is related to many existing sectors
among which are: agriculture, food sector, forestry, wood industry, waste,
industrial bioproducts, and energy (Gobierno de Colombia, 2019).
For the Colombian case, an economic growth strategy based on bioe-
conomy is one managed in an efficient and sustainable way, based on
renewable biological resources and residual biomass to generate new
products, processes, and value-added services grounded on knowledge
that creates new levels for growth, development, and progress in the
regions of Colombia (Betancur, 2017).
The analysis of prioritization of sectors started from the identification
of 17 potential economic activities grouped in the primary sectors, the
manufacturing industry, and services, for a final selection of six, prioritary
for the analysis in the second phase of the bioeconomy study. Within the
prioritized sectors, the following were considered: agricultural and live-
stock, processed foods and beverages, chemical, health, pharmaceutical,
cosmetic, cleaning, and the energy sector (Biointropic et al., 2018).
Another definition: bioeconomy is one economy in which energy
is managed efficiently and sustainably, using biodiversity and residual
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 139
biomass to generate new products, processes, and services of added value,
based on knowledge and innovation, that allow leveraging the growth,
development, and progress in the regions of Colombia (Biointropic et al.,
2018).
Finally, the bioeconomy definition of the last CONPES 3934 is:
Economy that efficiently and sustainably manages biodiversity and
biomass to generate new products, processes, and value services aggre-
gate, based on knowledge and innovation (DNP, 2018,p.26).
5.6 Close Up to the Case of Incorporation
of Knowledge and Innovation in the Local
Coffee Production Process in Colombia
Probably Jesuit missionaries were who entered the grain to Nueva
Granada in the eighteenth century. At the end of the nineteenth century,
coffee was already a representative source of income for Colombia, so that
by the beginning of the twentieth century the FNC was created in 1927,
as an entity that recognizes itself as the largest rural NGO in the world,
which would lead the grain collection process, generating support mech-
anisms for the small coffee farmer throughout the country. However,
by having a monopoly of production, distribution, and other elements
linked to the value chain, it became a very powerful entity, where bene-
fits would soon be delivered to those closest to the governing bodies,
leaving less coverage for small coffee growers. Due to the criticism and
the new realities of coffee at the international level, the FNC has become
a more efficient entity close to the local coffee grower. Currently, several
other companies and cooperatives of producers have started to improve
their species, production processes, and distribution chains in such a way
that they have achieved market segments important enough to attract the
attention of models of social innovation such as fair trade (Rojas, 2015).
In 1938, the FNC created the National Coffee Research Center CENI-
CAFE, since its foundation, it has received the support of the coffee
growers and its challenge has been the development of appropriate tech-
nologies for the production of coffee in Colombia. In that sense, its
economic relevance in the agricultural part of the country is the genetic
improvement of coffee plants where they started knowing the genome
of the plant and looking for genes for resistance to pests and diseases,
through natural crosses. From all this research, varieties such as Colombia,
140 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Castillo, Tabi, and Cenicafe 1, which are plants resistant to rust and CBD
disease, have had economic importance because thanks to these varieties
they have stopped using chemical products that, in addition to generating
saving, contribute to human health. At this moment, around 70% of the
Colombian coffee plantations have planted these varieties.
The coffee experience has specialized in different parts of the value
chain, from the improvement of varieties, processes, and finished prod-
ucts, to associative, departmental, and regional processes, among others.
Favouring the conditions of the environment to offer improvements at
different moments of the process. The obtaining of varieties is technolog-
ical innovation to achieve greater productivity and resistance to diseases
situation that favours the coffee farmer or about 600 thousand Colom-
bian coffee families, which constitute a social fabric that depends on this
monoculture for their sustenance. On the other hand, since the broca
is the main economic plague of coffee, although resistant varieties have
not been obtained, there have also been strategies to control it through
biological control by means of formulations of the Beauveria bassiana
fungus that help control the insect. Another thing for the post-harvest
and coffee collection have also obtained technological innovations, such
as sleeves that facilitate the collection of manual coffee. For the benefit of
coffee or coffee washing (pulping of coffee), an innovation is the use of
Belcosub technology that reduces water consumption by up to 95% and
control water pollution. There is also the transformation of the coffee
product that is used by the Freeze Dried Coffee Plant with its Good Day
brand products. These innovations favour the small coffee grower and
the large coffee producers that contribute most of the coffee production.
Colombia is behind in relation to other countries in innovation because it
exports the raw product and the big roasters buy it, sell it and earn 90%.
There are still many processes that can add value to the production chain,
however, every time you are achieving greater social, environmental, and
economic benefits in the production of coffee.
The success of the Colombian coffee industry in the twenty-first
century has three names: quality, differentiation, and productivity. The
Competitiveness Program and the Permanence, Sustainability and Future
Plan guarantee us that the entire coffee industry will be renewed in the
coming years. More importantly, the poorest coffee growers will benefit
the most (Silva, 2009).
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 141
5.7 Conclusions
To answer the two questions proposed at the beginning of the article,
the bottom-up model was followed, from (i) the Colombian context, the
(ii) LED focus, considering the local spaces as the beginning point to
recognize (iii) some of the characteristics that accompany the TH actors
in Colombia in relation to the bioeconomy. After that, it was proposed
(iv) a possible definition of bioeconomy for Colombia, to finalize with (v)
a close up to the case of incorporation of knowledge and innovation in
the local coffee production process in the country.
The two key questions that were explored are: What are the charac-
teristics that describe TH actors in Colombia to motivate advances in
bioeconomy? With the advances that exist in the production of the bioe-
conomy in Colombia, is it possible through bioeconomy strategies to
generate LED? And to synthesize the answers to the main questions (see
Table 5.5 and Fig. 5.7).
We do not have so much oil, nor good coal, we have rivers, trees,
forests, genetic material to promote the future. Extraction depletes the
Table 5.5 To synthesize the answers to the main questions
(1) What are the characteristics that describe Triple Helix actors in Colombia to
motivate advances in bioeconomy?
Nowadays, after the CONPES 3934/2018 the intention of the former government
(Santos 2010–2018) is cleared when one addresses the bioeconomy as an engine to
push development. However, it is not clear yet what will happen with the new
government (Duque 2018–2022). The new president is closed to mining exploitation
that is particularly opposite of sustainability in the Colombian case. Some universities
are oriented to improve their standards and scientific production. Some industries
recognize the importance of the sustainability and the opportunity of bioeconomy.
There is a dialogue among them but the main actor is the government. The destiny of
bioeconomy for the next 4 years depends on the new president and its real interest to
develop local environments that is a very near topic of the agreements implementation
of the peace treaty. The above it is not very close of the interest of president Duque
(2) With the advances that exist in the production of the bioeconomy in Colombia, is
it possible through bioeconomy strategies to generate local economic development?
The technological advances are enough to motivate economic development, but the
great challenge is to bring the knowledge, the tools, the budget and in general the
conditions to the local environments
To turn the page of armed conflict, more opportunities are required especially for local
environments. The first step is to build a new society that does not need technical
tools from pure sciences but from social sciences. To advance in the rebirth of trust
and re-create social capital as mainstay of the economy based on residual biomass
142 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
Fig. 5.7 Where the bioeconomy and the LED intersect
resources, the sciences must build the conditions to make good decisions.
The economy based on the recovery of biomass is called to transform and
integrate our views regarding the country.
Colombia has all the potential to enter the dynamics of bioeconomy
and the application of biotechnology, to develop innovative processes,
products, and services taking advantage of the benefits of biological and
genetic resources and their derivatives, as well as residual biomass, to
incorporate knowledge and innovation and generate opportunities for
new business and economic progress (Biointropic et al., 2018,p.22).
To have the enormous potential of bioeconomy in Colombia reaching
the local environments, it is necessary to build bridges. The main one of
them has to do with closing gaps, social, economic, and educational. It
requires building the trust that an armed conflict of so much time has
eroded. It is necessary to build bridges to consolidate associative models
from social innovation, linked to models of financial innovation that facil-
itate access to economic resources in an environment of trust that allows
this building of bridges and crossing to the other shore.
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 143
(i) The model of “frugal innovation or jugaad” propose by Navi
Radjou is an interesting alternative that links social innovation with
the market. Less value and high results. Master the art of doing
more with less, the essence of frugal innovation, is about creating
economic and social value using less resources. Not just, doing,
but make it better.
(ii) Another interesting option is Cradle 2 Cradle C2C: Design, mate-
rials, and value, what materials. Just what could bring it back of
Technical cycle: (i) Product use, (ii) Return, (iii) Disassemble, (iv)
Manufacture.
(iii) It can be very important in the construction of bridges that in
the local government programmes talk about the subject of bioe-
conomy and promote technical education in accordance with the
context that facilitates the orientation towards this new outlook
and way of understanding the social context, environmental,
economic, productive, thinking about the possibility of appropri-
ating local environments towards a new concept that recognizes
the possible nuances of a tropical bioeconomy to enter more
sophisticated market segments recognizing the particularities that
bioeconomy “made in Colombia” can have.
Colombia suffers from lack of information in many of the indicators of
bioeconomy; for example, the percentage of GDP affected, the number
of projects financed, public spending on R and D, the number of commu-
nication strategies, the number of biotechnology companies operating in
this sector, the number of patents and copyrights of the bioeconomic
sector, the percentage of annual reduction of carbon emissions and the
tons of biomass produced, among others. (…) it is important to build
databases with up-to-date and pertinent information from the various
aspects bioeconomy requires for future follow-ups (Biointropic et al.,
2018,p.30).
But taking into account Barkin “we cannot expect the experts to agree
to define sustainable development or to commit Latin American nations
to implement appropriate strategies. Facing the ecological contractions
of the productive systems is an urgent need. Advances in our vision of
sustainable development as an essential commitment to face the chal-
lenges of the survival of humanity have highlighted the importance of
broad citizen participation in the improvement of democracy. The massive
144 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
incorporation of grassroots social groups as an unavoidable step to estab-
lish economic strategies that include the conservation of the environment
is one of the fundamental challenges of our time. For this reason, it is
now essential to design policies that facilitate this incorporation as part of
a work to reverse the growing polarization and promote sustainability”
(Barkin, 2003, p. 169).
You will never have all the ideal conditions to start a change. At the
beginning of this document, it was considered essential to recognize what
were the necessary preconditions to achieve LED through bioeconomy,
however, after broadening the perspective of the advances of bioeconomy
in Colombia, recognizing it within the frame of LED, it can be considered
that there is no time to wait, but many actions to undertake.
The path that should be taken to make bioeconomy a tool to generate
LED starts from the local and should lead to the use of public resources
for social benefit; the capture of political processes by hegemonic groups,
in a Gramscian sense, so common in Latin America, diverts them to
private ends at the expense of society and the planet, leading to a perverse
resilience in which elites can continue with their devastating practices, as
discussed in Barkin (2013). Collective action models (Ostrom, 2011)and
cooperation offer mechanisms to counteract the betrayal of democratic
discourse, but only apply to local societies, as demonstrated in numerous
studies of these communities (e.g. Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2007).
To end, it is important to say that the centralism and the concentration
of power, investment, knowledge, and decisions are as well, one of the
biggest challenges of the process to adapt bioeconomy to the regions and
to make it able to drive LED. In that sense, according to Burbano (2018),
there is a huge gap among the regions in Colombia. Bogota exceeds
Boyacá Department by almost three times in S +T+I but there is a
marked difference with respect to Vaupes Department. That is, Vaupes
has a shortage, wherever you look for it, of postgraduate programmes,
just as low coverage on the internet, among other indicators of the infras-
tructure dimension academic and research (…) 78.1% of the departments,
making great efforts and focusing concrete actions to improve in S +T+
I, it will be able to approach the current conditions of Bogotá, in a time
approximate between 50 and 120 years.
An important step has already been taken. On July 10, 2018, the
document CONPES 3934, Green Growth Policy, was approved, with
five thematic axes: The first axis is aimed at generating new economic
5 LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COLOMBIAN STRATEGY … 145
opportunities that allow diversifying the economy based on the produc-
tion of goods and services grounded on the sustainable use of natural
capital. The second axis seeks to improve the use of natural resources
in economic sectors so that they are more efficient and productive, and
reducing and minimizing the environmental and social impacts generated
by the development of productive activities. The third axis promotes the
generation and strengthening of human capital to face the new challenges
of knowledge and experience generated by green growth. The fourth axis
establishes strategic actions in science, technology, and innovation as a
necessary tool to move towards changes in the productive sectors and
find new processes, inputs, and more efficient technologies that generate
added value to the national economy. The fifth axis outlines the actions
to ensure coordination and interinstitutional articulation required for the
implementation of this Policy, as well as the strengthening of the capac-
ities for the generation of information necessary for decision-making in
green growth and mechanisms for financing of sustainable projects.
Annex 1
Acronyms
ACOPI Asociación Colombiana de Pequeños Industriales
AGROSAVIA Corporación colombiana de investigación
agropecuaria
ASOCAÑA Association of sugarcane producers
ASOCOLFLORES Colombian association of flower producers
BIOPACÍFICO Parque Científico y Tecnológico
CAMACOL Colombian Chamber of Construction
CENICAFE National Coffee Research Center
CENIPALMA Research center on palm
CENIVAM Centro Nacional de Investigaciones para la
Agroindustrialización de Especies Vegetales
Aromáticas y Medicinas Tropicales
CIAT Centro Internacional para la Agricultura Tropical
CONPES Consejo Nacional de Política Económica y Social
CORPOGEN Corporación CorpoGen
DANE Departamento Administrativo Nacional de
Estadística
146 H. H. ROJAS-JIMENEZ
DNP/NDP Departamento Nacional de Planeación
FARC Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
FEDEARROZ Federation of rice producers
FEDEGAN National federation of farmers
FEDEPALMA National Federation of Oil Palm Growers
FEDEPANELA Federation of producers of jaggery
FEDEPAPA Federation of potato producers
FNC Federación Nacional de Cafeteros
ICA Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario
IDCBIS Instituto Distrital de Ciencia, Biotecnología e
Innovación en Salud
INVIMA Instituto Nacional de Medicamentos y Alimentos
LED Local Economic Development
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
SAC Colombian Farmers’ Society
SiB Biological Information System of Colombia
SPRU Science Policy Research Unit from University of
Sussex
TH Triple Helix
TIPC Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium
UDEA Universidad de Antioquia
UNALUNAL Universidad Nacional de Colombia
VINNOVA Sweden’s innovation agency
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CHAPTER 6
Sharing Economies and Digital Platforms:
Between Access and Social Inclusion
in Colombia
John Alirio Sanabria and Luis Antonio Orozco
6.1 Introduction
Many policies have been promoted to increase access to ICT as a means of
social inclusion that creates tension in the multilevel governance process,
as shown in the case of the national-territorial coordination around
the eLAC agenda (Orozco et al., 2019). Moreover, little progress has
been made in terms of coordination between the national and terri-
torial governments around ICT in science, technology, and innovation
(Orozco et al., 2020). There is evidence of success cases where, relying on
research and development processes, ICT have facilitated access to market
J. A. Sanabria (B)·L. A. Orozco
School of Management, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogota,
Colombia
L. A. Orozco
e-mail: luis.orozco@uexternado.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_6
151
152 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
mechanisms, thereby enabling social inclusion, as seen in scenarios that
occur in the context of heterodox economics—such as sharing economies
(Sanabria & Ruiz, 2018). ICT themselves do not lead to inclusion since
access can be confused with the development of abilities—especially in
science—for mastering technology in a way that creates inclusion. It is
necessary to develop reflective abilities and attain lessons where the efforts
of multiple social agents are centered on the exploration and exploita-
tion of knowledge (March, 1991) to facilitate technological governance
and the distribution of power. Thus, in the spirit of a sharing economy,
it is possible to foster exchanges that empower communities through
the joint use and development of technology, leading to its mastery
and preventing the centralization of power and the emergence of new
exclusion mechanisms.
This chapter presents a conceptual framework for social inclusion and
to explain how ICT have been incorporated into the emergence, oper-
ations, and practices of organizations via the logic of collaboration to
present a critical assessment of seven cases in Colombia based on inter-
views that were conducted as part of doctoral research on organizational
growth in sharing economies by the first author with advice from the
second author. The chapter ends with reflections on new opportunities
and paths toward inclusion that do not depend on centralized governance
processes but, instead, face the challenge of overcoming the kind of mere
access to markets that do not promote the emergence of participatory
citizens with the potential to grow and close the social gap.
6.2 Inclusion and Social Exclusion
Social exclusion is one of the greatest challenges faced by emergent—
particularly Latin-American—economies and it translates into political,
economic, social, and cultural issues (Puyana, 2018) marked by the lack
of access to participation mechanisms. This leads not only to poverty but
to a proliferation of illegal economies and organized crime. In Colombia,
social exclusion is much more intense than in other neighboring coun-
tries, and it is not a historical problem, but an ongoing one. Even amid
the pandemic, Transparency International raised alarm over the exces-
sive concentration of power in the Presidency to the detriment of other
democratic instances (Dinero, 2020).
In the context of political science, social exclusion refers to the situa-
tion where an individual living in a society cannot participate in normal
citizen activities in terms of consumption, saving, production, political
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 153
participation, and social interaction among groups of family, friends,
and culturally related communities (Selwyn, 2002). From a sociolog-
ical perspective, these people are what Bauman, (2011, p. 3) calls the
underclass, “a congregation of individuals who, unlike the rest of the
population, do not belong to any class – and so in fact do not belong
to society.” Technology constitutes a social exclusion mechanism insofar
as it is monopolized by an elite that manages to exercise power above
others through ideological domination (Habermas et al., 1984).
Social exclusion is seen in data handling because it coerces the deci-
sions of economic actors within a society based on how limited their
access to information is. Limited access to information hinders the ability
of the governed to understand and evaluate the policies that are imple-
mented by the governors; the state’s ability to regulate dominating banks
and corporations, protect the environment or manage innovation; and
investors’ control over the uses of their investments. It also posits chal-
lenges in managing interpersonal relationships and even our relationships
with ourselves (Tirole, 2017). This leads to situations such as the concen-
tration of power, lack of housing, insufficient or irrelevant education,
social mobility stagnation, high education costs, pensions deficits, spikes
in public debt, and environmental problems (Tirole, 2017) that especially
affect the vulnerable population.1
According to Rivera and Calva (2015), the concept of inclusion
emerged in the’90s. It was initially applied in education in the Interna-
tional UNESCO forum held in Thailand (in 1990) as a response to the
different characteristics of the population in the search for social and indi-
vidual well-being and within the formal system. It was later expanded to
include the search for equity, the removal of differences, and the improve-
ment in living conditions (Rivera & Calva, 2015). Thus, social inclusion
canbedefinedas:
The process of change that ensures that all people, families, communities,
and even regions have the same real and effective opportunities to access,
participation, relationships as well as the social, economic, political, and
1Vulnerable populations are groups of people (women, girls, farmers, ethnic groups,
people with disabilities, people who have been displaced, victims of armed conflict, and
frontier inhabitants) that are unsafe or incapable in the face of psychological, physical,
mental, social, economic, political, and/or cultural threats (Muñoz, 2018, p. 287).
154 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
cultural enjoyment together with the rest of citizens without limitation or
restriction. (Muñoz, 2018, p. 286)
And social exclusion is defined as:
A multidimensional phenomenon that expresses the situation of a frag-
mented, dual society characterized by the negation or inobservance of a
group’s social, economic, political, and cultural rights. This situation is
rooted in the State’s ineffectiveness in guaranteeing society’s basic rights
and reflects a rupture in social cohesion—which is a critical element in
democracy and the development of citizenship. (Muñoz, 2018, p. 286)
Hence, inclusion is a multidimensional phenomenon that can have factual
references of various kinds that go from access to labor, production, and
educational systems to those that dignify citizens through the fulfillment
of needs such as food and security (Acevedo & Martinez, 2016; Contreras
et al., 2015; Domínguez & Rama, 2012; Maestre et al., 2019; Pérez &
Titelman, 2018).
6.3 ICTs as Mechanisms of Social Inclusion
ICT are considered a viable option toward social inclusion since “multi-
media and online environments can be adapted in a versatile, dynamic
and interactive way to the needs of communities to mediatize knowl-
edge in a scenario of information globalization” (Builes, 2016, p. 127).
Thus, ICT help consolidates digital identities by overcoming geographic
limits and allowing for the social and political construction of commu-
nities, and, as a result, facilitating communication in terms of time and
process outreach, relating common interests, fostering values, coopera-
tion, equity, and supporting the definition of priorities for community
work (Builes, 2016).
ICT can be viewed as an actor able to reassemble the social relation-
ships and mediated the power in the socioeconomic transactions (Latour,
2005). Then, in the frame of digital technologies that incorporated algo-
risms to create artificial intelligence capacities’ to perform autonomous
decisions, the platforms can define who is included or marginalized from
the possibilities to work, for example. The platforms can act as a new
boss, as Taylorism promoted by rigid supervisors, but without any human
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 155
consideration to the people behind the algorisms (Sanabria & Orozco,
2021).
The rapid development of ICT has motivated political, economic,
and social transformations on a planetary scale; and, though ICT were
expected to close the digital gap,2in some cases they have widened it
(Rueda & Franco-Avellaneda, 2018). Exclusive inclusion situations lead
to greater coverage through technological tools but also to a decrease
in permanence and failure in terms of learning adjustments to conduct
processes and improve relationships with users (Cubillos, 2018;Yuetal.,
2018).
This kind of digital inclusion is oriented toward fostering digital
literacy, the development of information processing tools, the ability
to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyze and synthesize
digital resources, develop a subcultural behavior and a personal attitude,
gain access to bandwidth connections, hardware, software, and relevant
content and services. It also comprises actions oriented toward learning
how to use these tools and access jobs, education, public services for
marginalized people, social and citizenship activities, and the ability to
create media expressions and communicate with others in specific situa-
tions (Ramirez & Sepúlveda, 2018). The e-inclusion approach, as defined
by the European community (the eEurope Initiative), posits that these
skills allow people to fully participate in an information society—in all the
knowledge-based social and economic dimensions through ICT—thereby
controlling their destiny using resources and seizing opportunities that are
amplified by technology (Yu et al., 2018).
Certainly, this form of inclusion has various challenges in terms of
access, motivation, resources, and forces that have been identified and
described by Yu et al. (2018) based on research regarding Chinese
migrants. These challenges pertain to the material, cognitive, motiva-
tional, and social access that demand change to facilitate attainment
(Turlea et al., 2011;Yuetal.,2018); said challenges depend on the
availability of financial, material, cognitive, educational, psychological and
2The digital gap is a binary disparity between those who have physical access to the
internet, digital devices, bandwidth connections and other information technologies and
those who do not (Yu et al., 2018). This disparity is seen also in the consumption and
production of content, interactions, information availability, as well as social differences
in skills, abilities, population age, and gender that affect the desirable development that
could be attained through an efficient use of ICT (Cabero-Almenara & Ruiz-Palmero,
2017; Cubillos, 2018).
156 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
interpersonal resources, as well as ideological, industrial, public adminis-
tration, communal, and personal forces that are related to the interests of
decisionmakers and institutions in charge of inclusion (Yu et al., 2018).
In inclusive education processes, ICT are recognized for their
potential to improve the living conditions of historically marginalized
groups (Cabero-Almenara & Ruiz-Palmero, 2017; Watts & Luz, 2017).
According to UNESCO, “ICT contribute to universal access to educa-
tion and equality in education, teaching, quality learning, the professional
development of educators (…) and management, leadership and admin-
istration” (Rivera & Calva, 2015).
Regarding labor, ICT have been incorporated through alternative
options such as telework—and the laws that promote it (Contreras et al.,
2015)—whose presence has been massified during the COVID-19 crisis
of 2020. In terms of financial inclusion, ICT allow for information
access and more work and education opportunities (Rivera & Calva,
2015). Likewise, ICT are used to promote associativity, thereby fostering
business inclusion (Arias & Rendón, 2015).
However, as a mechanism of inclusion, ICT have the important chal-
lenge of overcoming access gaps to foster the ability of communities to
dominate technology and empower them in sharing activities to prevent
an organization—such as Uber (Acquier, 2018)—from centralizing tech-
nology, thereby giving rise to new forms of exclusive inclusion via the
monopolization of decisions regarding fees, prices, and employment
conditions.
In a context where private property and exclusive models have been
widely criticized for hindering innovation, new business models have
arisen through the use of technological advances. These models are inte-
grated into trends of open innovation and the development of digital
platforms, based on the principles of collaboration and free access, gath-
ering together enterprises, people, and organizations such as universities
and laboratories that are voluntarily linked to complementary ecosystems
to deal with common objectives and create value for users (Nambisan
et al., 2018).
This process facilitates social inclusion, since the proposals that arise in
it respond directly to the social, economic, and environmental needs of
communities in various regions, allowing them to appropriate technolo-
gies to create and solve their problems, thus creating social value (Orozco
et al., 2012). A clear example—aside from those that abound in poverty
and social vulnerability scenarios—can be found in the media that have
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 157
migrated to online platforms, creating a new business model that reaches
a wider audience and has variable costs. This new model has enabled those
who have been traditionally excluded by print media to access informa-
tion and interact with other users through digital communities—as seen
in the use and development of videoblogs (vlogs) (Crawford-Visbal et al.,
2018).
There is a series of problems related to social inequality, inequity,
unemployment, labor informality, irrelevant education, social mobility
blockages, criticism of how power is used, the recognition of humankind’s
new visions, criticism of enterprise networks in terms of their impact
on the alienation of communities, high levels of debt and wealth accu-
mulation, excessive consumerism, as well as social, financial, value, and
environmental crises brought about by the capitalist system (Buenadicha
et al., 2017; Mendes & Giménez, 2015; Ostrom, 2000; Ramis, 2017;
Tirole, 2017).
Various organizational initiatives have emerged to address these prob-
lems from a logic of the common good3while staying away from the
public–private debate (Ramis, 2017). Such initiatives are framed within
so-called sharing economies4(Buenadicha et al, 2017) that help create
networks of small enterprises or individuals that capitalize on the trans-
formation of local communities through the development of abilities to
overcome market shortcomings using ICT, looking for socioeconomic
inclusion, self-sufficiency, and the efficient use of scarce resources by
reducing access costs to economic dynamics (Buenadicha et al., 2017).
These sharing economy organizations take up traditional commu-
nity practices based on sharing and exchanging (Sundararajan, 2016),
3This line of thinking emerged in the face of various social movements in favor of
justice and equity, such as the struggles and debates regarding the use of seeds in Mumbai
(2004), the access to water in Cochabamba (2000), free and public education in Chile
(2011), property rights in the United States (2011), the protection of natural parks in
Istanbul (2013), and the defense of housing against commerce in Burgos, Spain (2014).
These movements do not claim things, they call for rights, capabilities, and life choices.
Uncared for by legal reason, they entail what Adela Cortina (1998) calls “appropriation
of possibilities.”
4“Sharing economy” is an umbrella term that groups terms as diverse as sharing
consumption, the maker movement, peer production, participatory finance, capital distri-
bution, open and sharing knowledge, the exchange of goods, services or productive assets,
timeshare, gig economy, peer economy, new economy, sharing economy, access economy,
on demand economy, and disaggregate economy (Bostman, 2019).
158 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
incorporating concepts such as innovation communities, practice commu-
nities, and mediation communities, as well as markets based on multiple
segments and multiple ways of creating value, removing intermediaries
and reducing operating costs through economies of scale in markets and
providing access to historically marginalized groups (Castor, 2016).
They also include flexible and automatized production processes
with organizational structures that comprise prosumers (consumers and
producers) and self-control logics (St˛epnicka & Wi˛aczek, 2018), with
little state intervention, where control is mediated by algorithms and tech-
nology (Acquier, 2018; Karatzogianni, 2018), bringing together social
responsibility practices, sustainability principles, and energy efficiency
(Bocken et al., 2014). Furthermore, they are oriented toward produc-
tive transformation processes and they dynamize social change (Goñi,
2012), expanding from the logic of network externalities with mid- and
long-term investment returns (Cerro et al., 2005).
Due to rapid expansion, some of the organizations that emerged in the
context of sharing economies have turned into global mega-corporations
that, far from promoting social well-being, are accused of increasing
inequality and work precarity. Such mega-corporations follow the logic of
reducing costs and increasing profit for entrepreneurs and stakeholders,
transferring their responsibility to third parties by taking advantage of
anonymity and legal voids to create jobs that contribute to new forms
of labor exploitation (Karatzogianni, 2018; Rinne, 2019). Organizations
that create income opportunities for many people through the use of
algorithms and ICT platforms are not necessarily bound to the logic of
sharing economies where the property is shared, power is distributed
and no corporation monopolizes technology or uses it as a means to
dominate asymmetrical relationships between those involved in business
activity. Such is the case of Uber (globally) and Rappi (in Latin-America),
which, despite being created under the logic of sharing economies, have
gradually turned to an excessive concentration of power while neglecting
the wellbeing of their participants due to the way they handle hiring
frameworks and civil responsibilities (Lendrys & Crawford-Visbal, 2018).
These mega-corporations engage in labor exploitation and unfair compe-
tition. Thus, far from creating opportunities, they hinder social inclusion
and shape the regulations that protect them from the masses that they
recruit for their services following a logic of exclusion that removes
access to the democratic development possibilities that lie in technologies
(Ramis, 2017). Another risk arising from these platforms is that, given
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 159
the growing number of workers that accept such business model, some
chains that regulate the market without state intervention have emerged;
and they resort to fear of being excluded from the system as a device
of control, since, in cases where there is no physical structure—because
everything is done through digital platforms—there is a risk of getting
disconnected at any moment. Furthermore, those who are opportunistic
can abuse others’ assets (Karatzogianni, 2018).
However, it is interesting to note that even though those who partici-
pate in these models understand the inappropriate conditions and partake
in them based on a logic of cash income, they already go by a logic
of collaboration and have organized themselves in groups to defend
their interests. Such is the case of organizations of workers on-demand
as Peers.org and Freelancers Union, among others, who have under-
taken the task of proposing inclusion alternatives as well as regulatory
models that help new organizations and create good work practices,
urging on-demand enterprises to make changes in the relationships with
autonomous workers toward prioritizing stability, flexibility, transparency,
fair wages, shared prosperity, inclusion, and access to supplies (Rohman,
2016).
This chapter intends to showcase the difference between access and
inclusion from the perspective of sharing economy initiatives where
diverse parties that intervene in the process of creating value participate
in the development of capabilities and the attainment of technological
control. Thus, we want to see how these cases overcome access problems
and allow for inclusion, as seen in the following example. In the state of
Texas, Uber shutdown its operations in 2016 due to disagreements with
the local government. A community of 36,000 drivers moved their oper-
ations network to Facebook, thereby gaining not only control over the
business model but also over the technology to operate it. This allowed
them to bypass the barriers to access social inclusion. This community
eventually developed its own decentralized, shared-ownership app called
ArcadeCity, building innovation in the context of a sharing economy
(Stocker & Stephens, 2019).
Case analysis serves the purpose of contributing to policy reflections to
create regulations and governance systems that facilitate social inclusion
and allow for the emergence of monopolizing corporations that dominate
new markets. In this sense, countries with high rates of labor exploitation
like China are working on social regulation to standardize new economies
and tackle societal issues by capitalizing on the momentum gained by
160 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
digital initiatives in the market to foster social inclusion—signaling a
healthy market through a flexible regulatory environment (under the
regulatory sandbox concept) (Yudong & Ying, 2019). In 2015, the Euro-
pean Union launched a committee to analyze the impact of sharing
economies and called for the definition of a public policy agenda that
does not hinder the development of sharing economies while fostering
economic growth, job creation, and the development of the European
Union (Pacheco, 2016). What follows is an outlook of sharing economies
in Colombia.
6.4 The Emergence of Collaborative
Economy Initiatives and Their Impact
on Social Inclusion: Some Colombian Cases
In Colombia, inclusion has been sought through ICT as a means to repair
the social fabric and promote the development of remote rural commu-
nities, towns, and villages that have little access to market systems and
the institutionalized formalities of the economy through the creation of
digital communities, virtual education, and social networks that boost
connectivity and foster social development with equity (Builes, 2016).
Some strategies for ICT-based social inclusion are included in Table 6.1.
One of the most successful strategies was the creation of “Vive Digital”
kiosks, which are places that seek to “facilitate the means so that rural
or remote populations (from towns and villages) have access to ICT”
(Builes, 2016, p. 129). This strategy aimed to foster digital literacy and
improve access to digital tools and was present in 100% of Colombia’s
municipalities through a network of 900 Vive Digital spots, 7,000 Vive
Digital kiosks, and one thousand free wi-fi zones (Crawford-Visbal et al.,
2018). However, even though the strategy improved connectivity, it has
not had important results in community use and appropriation of ICT
as a means to develop economic initiatives (Davila, 2017). In terms of
educational inclusion, the key social barriers that have been identified
are unemployment and low family income, overcrowding, sub-normal
settlements, segregation of ethnic minorities, high cost of public utilities,
child labor, insecurity, social, and domestic violence, gender inequality,
low basic healthcare coverage, difficulty in owning their own homes, etc.
(Domínguez & Rama, 2012). To face these obstacles, social responsibility
has been promoted in schools through inclusive and virtual education
programs—which constituted a key point in the peace agreement with
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 161
Tabl e 6.1 ICT-related programs for social inclusion in Colombia
Year Program
1994 National Science and Technology Policy for using ICT in education and
science
1999 Compartel Program to provide community telephones in areas without basic
phone service
Computers for Education Program—within the “Vive Digital”
initiative—where enterprises donate technological equipment for the
Government to give it to public education institutions around the country
2000 Digital Connectivity Agenda within the National Council of Economic and
Social Policy, with six implementation areas: (1) Access to information
infrastructure; (2) Use of ICT in education and training programs; (3)
Online enterprises; (4) Promotion of investment in the ICT sector; (5)
Content creation; and (6) Electronic government
Compartel Program to provide community internet services in areas without
internet coverage
2002 Programs for reducing the digital gap through the social
telecommunications policy
2006 Orientation toward social inclusion and recognition of ICT as crucial in the
development of the country
2007 Bicentennial Colombia Plan: 2019, which proposes building adequate
infrastructure for development
2008 National ICT Plan
2009 Creation of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology
(MinTIC) to promote the use of ICT and transform the National Science
and Technology System by incorporating the element of innovation
2010 Outline of an inclusion policy
Library Network with 1,329 areas that provide internet access and digital
literacy
The Connectivity Agenda was redefined to improve the relationship between
citizens and government agencies
2012 Outline of the Online Government strategy
Creation of open resources for digital education
ICT become an education subject in the context of the Computers for
Education Program
2013 Credits for technology transfers in basic and higher education
ICT for education are strengthened
Source Adapted from Cubillos (2018)
Fuezas Armadas de Colombia—FARC—to engage a greater number of
vulnerable population groups (Muñoz, 2018).
Virtual education programs have had an increasing demand. 426
programs in 2020 cover 7% of higher education students, up from 6,477
162 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
new students in 2011 to 82,688 in 2018 (Laboratorio de Economía de
la Educación—LEE, 2020).
6.4.1 Case Analyzes
Sharing economies have grown in recent years in Colombia as a result
of a series of actions led by entities such as Sharecollab, which, through
the Connecting the Dots5program seeks to promote sharing culture
as a viable development option for the country. This connection plat-
form began its operations in Colombia in 2014 and—by 2020—has 300
registered organizations, of which 58 are sharing enterprises. Sharing
entrepreneurs find in Sharecollab a place to meet and support one another
by having a registry, but there is also room for support and acceleration
that helps those who only have a business idea to materialize it.
In cities like Medellin, the sharing economy trend is spearheaded by
citizens as a response to the need to save money, have an income source,
find new jobs, gain social inclusion, or even as an environmental initia-
tive—according to former mayor Federico Gutierrez. Medellin has one
of the most salient sharing economy initiatives with state participation,
the EnCicla program that was launched in 2011 as a public transporta-
tion system with bicycles for shared use. By 2016, EnCicla accounted for
52,000 monthly bicycle trips (BID, 2016).
6.4.2 Rappi
The most well-known sharing enterprise in Colombia, Rappi was created
by Sebastian Mejia, Felipe Villamarin, Guillermo Plaza, and Simon
Borrero—the current CEO. Rappi is known as the first Colombian
unicorn because it received a billion-dollar investment from Scotiabank
(Ojeda, 2018).
Rappi is an app that connects couriers and delivery persons with local
businesses and end consumers. It offers people access—through techno-
logical means—to different ways of buying products, send items, make
payments, run errands, and transfer money via a network of “rappiten-
deros” (Crawford-Visbal et al., 2018). Rappi works in the following way:
5A program led by ShareCollab to promote sharing economies in Colombia.
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 163
the app receives the user’s order and creates a service offer for rappiten-
deros—which they can accept or reject—and then programs their routes
using a georeferencing system that optimizes their work time, for which
they receive payment. Local businesses and small enterprises are given
options to work through e-commerce, thereby widening their business
possibilities without having to invest in their own logistics and delivery
workforce. Rappi is characterized by constant innovation and portfolio
diversification, as evidenced by the fact that it currently offers financial
services to users that have no credit history (Dinero, 2019).
Rappi has become a source of income for over 50,000 rappitenderos
and constitutes an option that responds to Colombia’s high unemploy-
ment rate and the high number of Venezuelan immigrants (Dinero, 2019)
without requiring permanence contracts and promising a quick and effi-
cient source of income, with no access restrictions, so it is a viable option
for students and people who are looking for a side job (Crawford-Visbal
et al., 2018). This kind of inclusion allowed Rappi to organize an informal
market that already existed in Colombia and worked precariously with
local businesses, receiving daily wages based on the number of delivered
services (Dinero, 2019). This constitutes a potential contribution to the
governance of said market since it could provide the government with key
data to build a policy for helping vulnerable population groups that find
in this activity a promise of social inclusion.
However, the employment conditions are precarious given that
workers do not have employment contracts, the actual income does not
match the promised amounts, couriers have to cover the initial cost of
their work equipment and they are the ones who assume all of the oper-
ating risks—even though they are not insured—under penalty of being
excluded from the app (Crawford-Visbal et al., 2018;Santos,2017).
This business model allows for technological access—but no mastery
of it—without promoting the development of capabilities and without
offering fair employment conditions. Additionally, Rappi was the subject
of over 750,000 complaints between 2017 and 2019 due to overcharges,
delays, delivery failures, customer rights abuses, false advertising, abusive
clauses, right of withdrawal violations, payment issues, and e-commerce
quality controversies that have led to sanctions (Superintendencia de
Sociedades, 2019).
In addition to the complaints, the core problem with Rappi has to do
with value creation—which is absent in the use of the app since the condi-
tions for the businesspeople that sold their products in person and now
164 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
sell them through the application have not improved aside from reaching
new markets. Rappi benefits from the way it captures and handles data
from users and rappitenderos, exploiting the real economy but using tech-
nology that allows it to be more efficient than traditional production units
in terms of time and response capabilities (Dinero, 2019). However, those
benefits do not extend to the community. Rappi reported 238 million
pesos in corporate losses (La República, 2019) which gave it tax bene-
fits—while there is no clarity about the remuneration of its owners and
executives.
In sum, though Rappi began its operations under the sharing economy
model, it gradually turned into a corporation, not unlike Uber, which
limits its offer of technological inclusive access to the environment’s
workforce and resources without offering distribution of benefits, while
centralizing decision-making, price controls, and data handling. This
evidences a process of exclusive inclusion that Mazucatto has described
as “socializing the risk of innovation while privatizing rewards” (Dinero,
2019).
6.4.3 5Bogota6
5Bogota was created in 2013 as a result of the experience of cities where
tourism is much more advanced than in Colombia. The goal of the
enterprise is to do tourism with locals through applications that allow
the tourist to know—through guided tours—the city’s non-conventional
places, led by a guide that helps penetrate the capital city’s history and
immaterial heritage, creating an experience with valuable memories. The
current proposal includes tours for creating, learning, cooking, dancing,
and appreciating architecture, graffiti, etc. Tours are adjusted to the
tourists’ tastes and expectations.
The team comprises two people and approximately 15 hosts that are
hired for each tour. These hosts are natural people that have a history, are
empathetic, and are interested in knowing and relating to people from
other cultures. There are artists, dancers, and professionals among them.
Through their personal history, they share their vision of the city with the
tourists while catering to their interests. Hosts are required to be fluent
in English to properly communicate with the tourists.
6August 6th of 2020 interview with the owner, Diana Zuluaga.
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 165
This opportunity allowed hosts to quit their former jobs and devote
themselves to touring since they have a better income, tranquility, enjoy-
ment, and the chance to know and interact with people from other
cultures. Besides, they have work schedule freedom since they do not
work more than thre days a week.
5Bogota is linked with five tourism agencies that share the same devel-
opment vision and promote it around the world. They also use Airbnb as
a promotional platform and their services can be accessed from Airbnb’s
website. By 2020, 5Bogota received on average 30–40 people a week,
with the corresponding social effect that these visits can have since each
tourist is estimated to visit around 10 businesses during a tour, which
generates 400 impacts per week.
One of the company’s main objectives is to benefit small and local
businesses that are outside the tourist circuit and which would otherwise
be unable to connect to the tourism chain. The guiding principles are fair
prices and fair income distribution. This initiative represents a direct form
of social inclusion in entrepreneurial and cultural terms.
6.4.4 Agrapp7
Agrapp is an online platform for financing the agriculture sector in
Colombia. Created in 2018, it helps small and medium-sized agricultural
enterprises to get in contact with individuals who can invest anywhere
from one million pesos to support a farming business with up to 75% of
the total required investment. This model allows people who have been
traditionally excluded from the financial sector—due to not meeting the
minimum access criteria—to be included in an alternate financial model.
Likewise, this model allows people who are interested in investing—but
have no experience or large sums—to join entrepreneurial processes only
by providing financial means and have the opportunity to increase their
income.
The enterprise’s operations imply providing technical and financial
support to farmers as well as professional assistance and guaranteed
commercialization of their products. Investors have access through the
platform, where the interested party selects a project and a rural busi-
nessperson to support. The investor confirms their choice and receives a
7June 9th of 2020 interview with owner David Duarte.
166 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
call from a business representative that explains in detail the investment
conditions and arranges for the signing of the corresponding contracts.
As to the trade routes, the business is connected to exports companies
that handle this part of the business. In its first two years, Agrapp has
secured investments of over 500 million pesos to support over 19 rural
businesses while connecting over 72 investors.
In terms of inclusion, it is clear that Agrapp connects small rural
entrepreneurs that have been traditionally excluded from business models,
facilitates their growth, and improves their opportunities. The entry
requirements are having at least half a hectare of land (owned or rented),
experience in growing exotic fruits, not having a negative credit history—
though it is not necessary to have a bank account. Farmers also need to
provide some local references, receive a visit from Agrapp representatives
for an assessment of the project, soil analysis, and improvement sugges-
tions that are uploaded to the app as relevant information for investors.
Agrapp allows agriculture businesses to access certain benefits since trade
processes and client-supplier relationships are consolidated there. Thus,
Agrapp represents farmers so they can access better prices per volume
and increase their knowledge about techniques and processes. Likewise,
Agrapp connects urban dwellers that wish to participate in rural processes
without having to travel or having to rely on logistics capabilities. In
the medium term, farmers are expected to be the ones to upload the
information about their crops on the app—after receiving the advisors’
approval—but it will take some time for them to learn how to do it
properly.
The analyzes conducted through machine learning of data that have
been gathered for over four years and 150 thousand records on regional
behavior give access to specialized knowledge that is shared with federa-
tions, associations, and banks to support the use of Agrapp and improve
the operations, which can inform governance processes in the territories.
With this information, public sector actors and associations can identify
the needs of agriculture businesses and communities, in general, to build
policies and develop support initiatives.
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 167
6.4.5 Amazoniko8
Amazoniko is an online recycling sharing platform created in 2017 that
operates in Bogota by connecting relevant actors in the recycling chain to
give a new life to residues and mitigate environmental harm.
Households that are registered on the platform receive a recycling kit,
two labeled bags, and a user manual; then they are connected to recy-
clers who sort through the recyclable items and evaluate their quality.
Households are then given a score on the app based on the materials
they give. This score translates into points that can be exchanged in a
marketplace that gathers other connected actors which are businesses that
have decided to support environmental care.
Aside from offering a more efficient way for recyclers to access valu-
able materials, the app makes their operations more efficient since critical
routes are created based on the information entered by households on
the platform—so recyclers get a notification when the bags are ready to
be collected. The recyclable materials are then sorted out and taken to
recycling industries.
In terms of inclusion, Amazoniko allows recyclers to dignify their work,
since data analysis and the use of technology helps them refine their
processes and create more efficient bonds with companies, creating trust-
based relationships and strengthening the social fabric with households.
There are currently 2,160 households and over 8,000 collections have
been made. Amazoniko works with three recyclers associations, 14 part-
ners in the marketplace, and over 60 tons of recyclable materials have
been processed by recycling companies. Moreover, Amazoniko has taken
up the role of sustainability advisor to companies that wish to implement
recycling campaigns.
6.4.6 Ecobot9
Ecobot was created in 2016 as a green company—dealing with envi-
ronmental issues—to promote responsible consumption habits through
machines called “ecobots” where individuals can toss plastic bottles and
receive in return a ticket with points that can be exchanged for groceries
8June 9th of 2020 interview with the founder, Daniel Rodriguez.
9August 5th interview with owner Lina Aramburo.
168 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
at sponsoring stores. Ecobot was created to incentivize recycling in
Colombia—where only 17% of waste is recycled.
Its business model connects at least four actors: users who receive a
discount when recycling; enterprises that function as “eco-partners” and
contribute through advertising or renting ecobots, following a strategy of
cause marketing; enterprises or institutions that provide space for ecobots
in their premises; and communities of recyclers that receive the items
recycled by the ecobots to be processed.
So far, 2 million plastic bottles have been collected using 70 machines
that are located in highly crowded areas in 6 cities. The project has had an
impact in terms of recycling culture on up to 148,000 people in shopping
centers and institutions. The initiative has also been established as a social
program in regions such as Tulua, where the community was given points
that could be exchanged for rewards to promote the recycling culture.
However, in such cases, there is a direct dependency on sponsors that is
not sustainable.
In terms of inclusion, Ecobot promotes a social cause that is of
community interest and connects users with recyclers and enterprises. It
offers recyclers an organized way to access useful materials, given that
the ecobots are linked to an app that shows a message notifying the right
moment to collect the recyclable materials, thereby maximizing economic
benefits, dignifying the work or recyclers, and promoting the develop-
ment of technological capabilities as a means to improve their work and
obtain better results.
6.4.7 Entregalo.co10
Entregalo.co is a logistics app that specializes in e-commerce using
product storage technology and last-mile delivery with the promise of
same-day delivery in domestic commerce.
The operations were focused on e-commerce enterprises. However,
the national lockdown led Entregalo.co to work with small enterprises,
thereby giving access to many business people who had been excluded
from this business model due to lack of knowledge about how to use the
tools or lack of interest in their implementation. As a result, a strategy was
launched to help these businesspeople by contributing to their learning
10 June 10th of 2020 interview with owner Andrés Triana.
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 169
and providing them with data analysis—since the app is designed to
analyze trends, frequencies, and other market aspects.
Their data analysis shows that 80% of traditional e-commerce network
users do not have entrepreneurial education, they only buy and sell
products without knowing how to measure results. Moreover, when
their operations increase, they tend to get scared because they do not
know how to respond from a logistics perspective. Therefore, Entre-
galo.co offers its expertise so enterprises can consolidate their operations
and measure their numbers, define their market targets according to
their results, and avoid being excluded from efficient e-commerce busi-
ness models, thereby empowering business people to develop managerial
capabilities.
Entregalo.co operates in Bogota, Medellin, Bucaramanga, and Cali
with logistics centers—but it has nationwide shipping coverage. Entre-
galo.co hires couriers that specialize in package pickup and delivery. These
couriers, who act as messengers that participate in projects, are linked
to the company through a contract or a closed sharing model. Projects
involve delivering packages to a specific location within a specified time-
frame, and couriers are only contacted upon demand so that they can
spend their free time on other activities. Couriers are paid per each task
they complete—and they can make more money than messengers that are
hired directly by shipping companies. Entregalo.co has gathered together
small enterprises of bicycle messengers that operated in other cities, effec-
tively using their work capabilities and guaranteeing a minimum number
of services as well as the technology transfer to enhance their processes.
Entregalo.co’s financial statements show a monthly income of 400
million pesos. The company has 12 couriers who work as contract
employees and three administrative staffers. There is no fixed number of
sharing couriers, but it is growing. Entregalo’s couriers have found a way
to have an income source with work stability since, unlike at Rappi, they
are given life and shipping insurance. The company takes couriers in as
part of a family where they get a sense of belonging—thus social inclusion
is reinforced.
170 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
6.4.8 Travolution11
Travolution was created in Chile in 2010 and it operates in Colombia
since 2016. It is a social organization that provides support to communi-
ties involved in regional tourism to help them enhance their processes,
increase the number of tourists, and access new markets through co-
creation initiatives, the development of existing capabilities, and the
efficient use of community resources. Travolution works with multi-
disciplinary teams that promote the growth of grassroots organizations
involved in the tourism industry (either formally or not) to improve the
living conditions in the territories where they operate.
Its model is based on the logic of local and rural development through
tourism initiatives—that are nonetheless related to other activities within
a territory—in search of collective growth. Small organizations that do
not have the means to access international resources and projects receive
support in terms of collective project presentations until they manage to
develop this capability and learn to efficiently manage their resources in a
business incubator model. Travolution charges a fee for each tourist that
hires the organization as well as an annual support fee.
Work strategies include volunteering with payment to students and
professionals on different wage scales, namely apprentices, senior consul-
tants, and experts, whose fees are normally beyond the means of commu-
nities that can access their knowledge and advice thanks to Travolution.
Travolution has developed projects in various regions of Colombia
such as Antioquia, Putumayo, Nariño, and Boyaca. Its operations gather
together beneficiaries from the communities, tourism agencies that
support the initiatives, and sometimes the state itself. So far, over 100
organizations have received support, six ongoing projects have an impact
on 220 families in Putumayo, 20 in Choco, and more in different places
around the country.
Travolution’s principles have led the company to engage in reverse
exclusion since organizations that affect the territories—such as mining
and oil companies—are banned from joining the initiative. Likewise,
Travolution protects organizations when working toward international
cooperation by protecting the information and databases of participants—
following security criteria—given that some participants are social leaders.
Moreover, Travolution blocks illicit financial flows.
11 August 10th of 2020 interview with Colombia Director Camilo Alvarado.
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 171
As a means to inclusion, Travolution teaches communities how to
use e-commerce platforms, thereby allowing them to reach new markets
and participate in the commercial dynamics of international tourism and
empowering them so that they are not co-opted by large corporations—
particularly from extractive industries.
6.4.9 Geofield12
Geocampo operates through an app that systematizes information about
crops via mobile devices and analyzes it using satellite and sensor tech-
nology to perform tasks such as counting trees, evaluating the health of
crops, keeping a record of plagues and diseases, monitoring soil humidity,
and tracking farming machinery. These processes reduce the use of chemi-
cals by up to 30% and improve the general management of crops to obtain
organic produce without decreasing profit.
Basically, the project has modernized the data-entry processes that
farmers used to carry out individually and manually, and groups the infor-
mation to avoid human-caused damage that has an impact on crops to
reduce risks related to the spread of plagues. Farmers formed alliances
to measure common indicators such as the weather, as in a project
involving 85 farms in three departments that are all measuring informa-
tion following the same metrics and the same data technology to control
the HLB bacteria in citrus fruits—a bacteria that is transmitted by the
Diaphorina citri insect. This form of collective control facilitates gover-
nance in terms of plague control by the Colombian Agricultural Institute
(ICA), providing valuable information for the development of its func-
tions and helping build regional statistics for risk management. So far
some 550 farms and roughly 800 workers have benefited from the project
in the Eje Cafetero, Antioquia, Tolima, and other areas.
To enter a particular region, anchor companies are used. This allows
for large-scale operations while promoting the inclusion of small agricul-
ture businesses from the vicinity. At the same time, workers and small
businesses receive training to understand the different kinds of plagues
and learn how to use the app. The operations also involve the use of
communication networks to foster contact with the community.
12 August 12th of 2020 interview with the owner, Eduardo Llano.
172 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
Moreover, businesses pay a fee for each hectare of soil and each
installed board. Thus, small businesses do not need to invest much, and
the operations are subsidized by larger businesses that find in the initia-
tive a way to prevent damages originated in a land that does not belong to
them. Geocampo avoids working with state funds because this hinders the
development of community capabilities and community empowerment.
This model of collective work constitutes a real barrier against plagues
since it fosters trust relationships within the territory.
The project promotes social inclusion in terms of developing farm-
ers’ abilities to analyze their terrains and use technology as a means to
coordinate actions within their community and with specialized entities
and government agencies, thereby improving results and attaining terri-
tories that are efficient in terms of production. This also facilitates the
regional governance of agricultural production, especially when it comes
to plague control. Farmers are thus empowered because they do not just
provide personal information but also receive information with added
value. In sum, the app has contributed to the creation of social capital
within communities because it helps their members to get together for
the common good and overcome personal differences.
6.5 Conclusions
Case analyzes show that, even though all the sharing economy initia-
tives profess inclusion processes, not all succeed. Rappi provides access
to a source of income through technological means but it also brings
about social exclusion—as in the case of Venezuelan immigrants. Thus,
social inclusion is not attained since there are no fair employment condi-
tions, and the population groups that join the platform—who are the
real creators of value—are not allowed to develop capabilities that foster
change. If the technological platform was the real source of value creation,
the company would not be subject to the sanctions, losses, and corporate
issues that were described in the case analysis.
On the other hand, initiatives such as 5Bogota, Agrapp, Travolution,
and Geocampo go beyond mere technology to develop training processes,
the use of knowledge, and the development of capabilities to create inclu-
sion through changes that benefit the community and generate social
value. 5Bogota shows that the knowledge and experience of hosts have
allowed tourists to know the noncommercial side of Bogota with its
culture and heritage, contributing to change the negative image of the
6 SHARING ECONOMIES AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS: BETWEEN … 173
city and motivating future relationships and trips among the international
community. In turn, Agrapp and Geocampo take technology and knowl-
edge to the Colombian countryside so that farmers can improve their
production processes, coordinate tasks oriented toward developing social
capital, and identify new ways to participate in market dynamics. Likewise,
Travolution develops the ability of small organizations to enter interna-
tional tourism dynamics facilitating their inclusion in new business models
within the leisure and entertainment industry.
In the case of Amazoniko and Ecobot, technology is the key actor—
following the actor-network theory (Latour, 2005)—that mediates the
relationships between vulnerable population groups, large corporations,
and citizens to foster active participation within a circular economy that
has a positive impact on the environment. In turn, the technology devel-
oped by Geocampo and Agrapp has facilitated information sharing with
government agencies such as ICA and department administrations to
improve planning processes and provide efficient offers that include the
communities while also favoring the governance of productive systems.
This chapter shows the power of sharing economies that rely on ICT
platforms and other related technologies as a means to attain social
inclusion following business models that promote an integrated form of
social inclusion, ensure participation, empowerment, and the democra-
tization of technology and property, thereby improving the individual
and collective wellbeing of participants. This leads to material, cognitive,
motivational, and social access as outlined by Turlea et al. (2011)andYu
et al. (2018). On the other hand, the chapter shows how corporations
that operate within capitalist frameworks and promote exclusive inclusion
practices can be mistaken for sharing economy initiatives.
Another key matter is how technology promotes governance in
production systems, facilitating information management, and adding
value to it so that it can be used for policymaking by government agen-
cies. Likewise, technology enables the coordination of different actors in
regional processes while providing models where the role of companies
goes beyond the search for profit, focusing instead on promoting the
development and well-being of participants. This constitutes an alterna-
tive to enterprise development that responds to the crises that have been
caused by traditional models.
According to Yu et al. (2018), from a financial perspective, it is neces-
sary to use the concept of exclusive inclusion to identify how initiatives
can create access to income sources and financial alternatives within legal
174 J. A. SANABRIA AND L. A. OROZCO
economies with fair employment conditions. The case of Rappi shows
clearly that these conditions are not met, while Agrapp does create alter-
native solutions for farmers and develops knowledge for banks to offer
more relevant products.
Lastly, inclusion in sharing economies depends on the leadership of
social entrepreneurs that are focused on creating social value (Orozco
et al., 2012) while preventing technology from becoming a domination
device where work is restricted to the decisions of algorithms. Technology
should be, instead, a means to create opportunities for gathering and
sharing data with an added value to promote the freedom and dignity
of population groups that have been excluded from market participation.
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PART II
Cases on Higher Education as an Agent
for STI Governance
CHAPTER 7
Developing Transformative Innovation
Through Policy Experimentation in Two
Colombian Universities
Diana Velasco, Alejandra Boni, and Salim Chalela
7.1 Introduction: Re-thinking Innovation
Innovation, in a general sense, can be understood as the ability of people
and organisations to develop a new or significantly improved product
(good or service), process or method to achieve a desired effect (mate-
rial or social) that responds to an opportunity creatively and that is used
and appropriated by a massive group of users (Freeman, 1995;Tidd
D. Velasco (B)
Universidad de Ibagué, Ibagué, Colombia
e-mail: dcvelmal@ingenio.upv.es
D. Velasco ·A. Boni
INGENIO (CSIC-Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia), Valencia, Spain
S. Chalela
Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana, Medellín, Colombia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-030- 80720-7_7
181
182 D. VELASCO ET AL.
et al., 2005). This innovative activity’s consequences (intentional or not)
can trigger incremental or radical changes or transformations in social
life (Smith, 2017). However, the dominant view and practice of inno-
vation have been based on the private sector activity that governments
and universities support. The goal is to make economies more productive
by creating knowledge and subsequent business application and societal
dissemination (Temple, 2010).
Innovation has predominantly been studied from an economic perspec-
tive. Schumpeter (1934) defines it as a new production function that
covers new commodities decisive in nations’ success. Innovation has also
been understood as the result of conducting basic and applied research
to produce solutions that can be introduced to large-scale markets (Bush,
1945). This vision of innovation is based on a linear perspective that the
innovation systems approach problematises. According to the innovation
systems framework, the emphasis must be mainly placed on the optimal
interactions of policy, business, academic actors and supporting infrastruc-
tures to produce economic effects that are always perceived as positive for
thriving countries development (Edquist, 1997; Freeman, 2002). Finally,
and in response to the limitations of the two previous approaches, an
understanding of innovation from a transformative perspective is intro-
duced. The objective is no longer economic growth but to face the
current social and environmental challenges that both Global North
and South are facing (Schot & Steinmueller, 2018). Likewise, inter-
actions between policy, business and academic actors are not enough;
citizens, communities and civil society organisations must be centrally
incorporated. The innovations arise from the response to profound social
problems and under a comprehensive sustainability scheme (Pearce et al.,
2000), interacting with non-hegemonic groups, which, together with
traditional actors, allow changes in prevailing socio-technical systems.1
Like in the innovation systems approach, the acknowledgement and
understanding of norms, values, rules of the game are paramount.
However, in the transformative innovation framework, the role of active
social groups, as opposed to the view of users as recipients of innova-
tion, that seek for alternatives to solve their needs, is a central element
for the innovation policy design, as is highlighted by (Boni et al., 2018;
1The socio-technical systems are understood as those links and functions in the relations
of production, diffusion and use of technology, which are configured to respond to social
needs and challenges, such as energy, water, food production, etc. (Geels, 2004).
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 183
Pellicer-Sifres et al., 2017). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
approved by the United Nations in 2015, illustrate the magnitude of
challenges such as mitigating climate change, overcoming poverty and
inequalities, access to quality education, among others. Failing to reach
these goals has a significant affectation on the most vulnerable popu-
lations, which now more than ever need innovative solutions pathways
(Schot & Kanger, 2018).
This view of innovation is aligned with human development where
people, instead of economics, are at the centre. The measure of success
is providing means for people to have feasible access to those things
they value to have a better life (Alkire & Denehulin, 2009). The human
development framework has been developed and expanded through the
Human Development Reports 2produced by the United Nations Devel-
opment Programme (UNDP). Although the conceptual framework of
human development has evolved during the years, it has at least five
central elements (Boni & Gasper, 2012): (1) a plurality of values such
as empowerment and participation, equality and sustainability; (2) capa-
bilities understood as the substantive freedoms or real opportunities to
have the kind of life that people value, and functionings understood as the
activities people do to expand their capabilities (Sen, 1999); (3) agency, as
the ability of people to achieve the objectives they value, it implies power
and control not only at the individual but also at the collective level;
(4) the multi-dimensionality of well-being beyond economic income,
including the sources, means and environmental conditions needed for
people to expand their capabilities; and (5) democracy and public debate,
to have political freedom and democratic political systems.
Looking at innovation from this point of view also implies re-thinking
the role of the University. Suppose policies and practices of innovation are
oriented towards objectives where the predominant logic is not increasing
economic growth. In that case, we must ask ourselves questions such
as: What professionals do we need? What kind of research should we
carry out? What types of actors should be included in the University
dialogue? What social impact can we produce in the face of local and
global challenges?
In this chapter, we respond to these questions, paying particular atten-
tion to two regional university initiatives: the definition of a university
2The reports can be found in http://www.hdr.undp.org/.
184 D. VELASCO ET AL.
policy at the Universidad de Ibagué, in Tolima Colombia, and the
re-significance of the research policy of the Universidad Autónoma Lati-
noamericana in Medellín, Colombia. The second section details the char-
acteristics of transformative innovation following Schot and Steinmueller
(2018) and Schot et al. (2018). In the third and fourth sections, we
present the two case studies and analyse them, considering what transfor-
mative innovation suggests. The fifth section approaches the discussion,
and the sixth section concludes.
7.2 Transformative Innovation
As we pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, the development of
STI policy is essential to address social and environmental challenges. For
this reason, a relevant question arises: Is the current STI policy fit for
purpose? In recent decades, the interest of policymakers and the busi-
ness sector has focussed mainly on the use of knowledge as an engine
for economic growth and innovation to increase competitiveness and job
creation. Adverse effects of innovation are not taken into account, as far
as there is a positive economic effect.
The Transformative Innovation Policy framework (TIP) implies a
direction towards solving social and environmental challenges, expanding
the STI policy scope and purpose towards alternatives such as green
growth, eco-innovation, social innovation and inclusive innovation (Schot
et al., 2018). The causal relationship is altered, giving prevalence to devel-
opment based on social well-being, participation and empowerment of
social groups and equity for social justice (Boni & Gasper, 2012). There-
fore, different approaches to measuring “success” other than GDP growth
(such as the UN Human Development Index or the OECD Well-being
Index) are highly needed. This vision of innovation has unique charac-
teristics that differentiate it from previous frameworks, briefly discussed
below.
7.2.1 Socio-technical System Change
The United Nations Agenda to “transform our world” can be interpreted
as a call for a new type of innovation. The OECD (2015) also calls for
a systemic view of world challenges. Innovation goes beyond the use of
technologies and science; it requires changes in the different dimensions
of the socio-technical systems that include changes in users’ preferences,
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 185
knowledge creation expressed in science and technology, skills and capac-
ities absorption, infrastructure, policy, industrial structure and cultural
significance.
There are many socio-technical systems that fulfil essential social
functions in areas such as energy, food, health, mobility and communi-
cation. Policy for transformative innovation aims to produce transitions
in socio-technical systems towards a more sustainable direction.
7.2.2 Directionality is the Starting Point
The transformative change framework proposes the inclusion of different
perspectives and broad participation of diverse actors to envisage the
consequences of innovation ex-ante, opening up pathways towards collec-
tive priorities. Such a process implies creating visions on sustainable and
desirable scenarios for the different socio-technical systems that connect
with concrete trajectories and technical options. Being open and fostering
radical new alternatives often not perceived as feasible or even desirable
is a critical aspect of the TIP. The change pathways provide contextual
technological solutions in tune with social choices and environmental
benefits. As a policy principle, directionality opens up the space to assess
multiple scenarios aligned with human development values and environ-
ment preservation. For this reason, the directionality of transformative
innovation is aligned with the SDGs insofar as they represent a global
agenda with local commitments.
7.2.3 Experimentation and Development of Alternative Practices
as a Way of Innovation
Finding new directions requires experimentation. Change implies
processes based on experience and second-order learning (also called
double-loop learning or deep learning). Socio-technical systems are driven
by rule-sets composed of behavioural instructions, cognitive beliefs,
norms and values (Geels, 2002; Geels & Schot, 2007;Schot&Stein-
mueller, 2018). Thus, second-order learning goes beyond understanding
and realising ones’ assumptions; it implies changes in people’s mental and
cognitive frameworks, producing changes in behaviour.
Given that the direction towards alternative and sustainable practices
implies dealing with uncertainty and complexity, experimentation offers
the possibility of exploring various sustainability pathways that ultimately
186 D. VELASCO ET AL.
lead to systemic change. Within the framework of transformative inno-
vation, this experimentation is proposed through participatory processes
with diverse actors, offering the possibility of agency for non-hegemonic
players. As expressed by (Ramírez, 2020: 2): “The experiments in trans-
formative innovation are not intended to confirm an alternative already
defined in advance, but rather to try different alternatives, produce proto-
types and demonstrative solutions that can inform new paths and, above
all, generate deep learning (or second order learning), through a forma-
tive evaluation”. These alternative practices start at the local and regional
level and usually come from the local communities. At the same time,
public policy plays an essential role in scaling up and accelerating local
initiatives for transformative change. Intermediation between local alter-
natives, regulatory and institutional frameworks and industrial practices is
often required.
7.2.4 Inclusion as a Prerequisite for Transformative Change
The inclusion of diverse voices and the agency of non-dominant actors
such as organised civil society movements is critical to the emergence
of alternative practices. The experimentation process must be inclusive
in terms of participation and results and must have a direction that
leads to human and sustainable development. Inclusive does not only
mean reporting on results, but above all, it implies that those involved
have the power to exert influence on alternative solutions. Inclusive
processes can lead to the incorporation of conflicting points of view that,
instead of being avoided, are discussed and managed. The policy should
create appropriate framework conditions for inclusive participation and
supporting actors to navigate conflicts and build trust throughout the
process.
Table 7.1 summarises the main characteristics of this innovation frame-
work.
The Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) (Schot
et al., 2019) has identified five modes of experimentation (or experi-
mental engagements as defined in the text) by which public policy can
drive transformative innovation. As its authors state, it is an open proposal
that aims to be inspiring. It seeks to open the discussion on possibili-
ties within public policy. Table 7.2 shows the five modes of experimental
engagements that we will return to later in the discussion.
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 187
Table 7.1 Characteristics of transformative innovation
Change of socio-technical system Change in consumer practices and needs, skills and
capabilities of all the actors involved, infrastructure,
government, regulation, industrial structure and
cultural significance
Directionality Creation of visions on sustainable futures connected
to development trajectories and technical options.
Consideration of multiple directions, embedded in a
broader range of options that allow for a
second-order learning and formative evaluation
process
Experimentation Change that is based on experience and deep
learning. Learning that transforms assumptions and
action patterns ingrained in the dominant practices
of the different socio-technical systems, such as
energy generation, the use and disposal of water,
the growth of cities, consumption patterns, among
others
Experiments can be embedded as alternative
practices in niches that compete with an
unsustainable dominant practice
Governance is critical, to the extent that new
intermediations must be designed between local
initiatives, new regulatory and institutional
frameworks and the alignment of different but
complementary policies for the change of
socio-technical systems
Inclusion Incorporate non-dominant actors and actors from
diverse sectors, including producers, civil society,
users and policymakers. The experimentation process
must be inclusive in terms of participation and
results. Inclusion and experimentation imply the
support of actors to navigate conflicts and to build
trust throughout the process
Note Own elaboration based on Schot et al. (2018)
7.3 The Institutional Account
for Science, Technology and Innovation
of the Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana
7.3.1 Context and Characteristics of the Universidad Autónoma
Latinoamericana
The Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana (Unaula) was established
in 1966 by the university dissidence inspired by the Cordoba Manifesto
188 D. VELASCO ET AL.
Table 7.2 Modes of experimental engagements (Schot et al., 2019:2)
Modes of
experimental Policy
Engagement
Mode 1: Policy
design experiments
Mode 2: policy
instrument and policy
process experiments
Mode 3: creating
experimental spaces
Mode 4: supporting,
connecting and
evaluating societal
experiments
Mode 5:
experimental
governance culture
Role of
experimentation in
policy
Assists in the
formulation,
calibration and
justification of
policy Instruments
Setting up of specific
experimental policy
interventions in the
form of new policy
instruments or policy
processes tried out
temporally or in a
small scale
Creates dedicated
environments and a
constituency for
experimentation,
where the normal
conditions (e.g.
regarding permits,
taxation) are relaxed
Articulates existing
experiments carried
out by multiple
actors,
Facilitates learning
from and between
experiments, and
supports the
development of
networks
Creates flexible and
proactive
governance
arrangements,
including
open-ended goals,
allowing
decentralised and ex
perimental
interventions by
multiple actors
Actors involved Policymakers, and
recipients of the
policy treatment
Policymakers and
policy analysts,
stakeholders involved
in the experiments
Lead users,
entrepreneurs,
technology
advocates, designers,
civil society actors,
policymakers
Networks implicated
in experiments,
intermediaries and
policymakers
As others, but with
the aim of
broadening
participation to
actors normally
excluded from
policy process
Approaches Randomised
Control Trial,
Behavioural
Experiments
Experimenting with
new formats in
established policy
instruments/
processes
(programmes,
subsidies, regulation)
Urban Living Labs,
policy labs,
walk-shops, transition
arenas
Intermediary
organisations and
platforms,
workshops, online
resources
Strategies
and initiatives to
promote
experimental
culture; rewarding
reflexivity and
learning
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 189
of 1918.3Unaula has been recognised in the local context for its social
commitment in its fifty-three years of existence.
People recognised locally for their direct work within the commu-
nity, such us Héctor Abad Gómez, Jaime Gil Sánchez, Gilberto Martínez
Rave,4have given a particular ethos to Unaula. They committed their
heritage to an academic cause devoted to popular assistance allowing the
entry to higher education of nearly 10,000 students from the lowest
socioeconomic strata (working-class and low-income people). This fact
made, at the time, the recognition of Unaula as the “University of the
Poor” (Durango, 2008).
Unaula maintains its foundational spirit by including institutional poli-
cies to support vulnerable local communities, defend human rights, keep
an open professorship and decentralise work in different popular neigh-
bourhoods of the city. These actions have allowed the University to be
fully immersed in the territory and be recognised as a popular end univer-
sity (Jaramillo, 2016) with nearly 6,000 students and an academic offering
of 27 undergraduate and graduate educational programmes.
Unaula has also invested significant efforts in generating scientific
knowledge that aims at the social transformation of communities in the
local and regional order. In this sense, its different academic departments
have created research groups and social projection units dedicated to the
generation and transferring of new knowledge through divulgation strate-
gies for public understanding, aside from the most traditional forms such
as scientific publications, patents, consultancy, participation in national
and international events, among other activities.
An innovation unit for the Univesity was created in 2015 to consoli-
date the knowledge transfer processes derived from research results from a
linear incremental innovation framework. The assumptions were that the
3According to (Arcila, 2011), the Córdoba Manifesto is rooted in the structural
changes generated by the collapse of hegemonic eurocentric values (as a result of
phenomena such as the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the strengthening of
the bourgeoisie on the continent). This antecedent promoted an educational reform that
gave rise to university management models that focussed on the training of professionals,
in conditions of equality, with a stance and critical thinking regarding the socio-political
reality. It sought the vindication of quality in education and allowed to set missionary
objectives focussed on the training of the working class and the students representation
in the institutional governance.
4It is worth mentioning that most of them were persecuted or killed for their fierce
defence and opposition to the constant and systematic violation of the human rights of
people with limited resources who lived in Medellín, during the 1980s and 1990s.
190 D. VELASCO ET AL.
application of knowledge derived from research or technological devel-
opment results in introducing a new product or service that creates
economic revenue. However, this conceptual approach to innovation is
distant from the foundational principles that underpin Unaula’s organ-
isational structure. Unaula is committed to contributing to the better
coexistence of society, aware that adequate education contributes to
greater spiritual, material, cultural and social well-being. In this sense,
pluralism, co-government, autonomy and values such as eco-sensitivity,
solidarity, equality and respect for difference have characterised the
historical evolution of the institution.
7.3.2 The Construction of an Institutional Narrative
In 2016, the University reformed its organisational structure creating a
Vice-Rectory for Research (Agreement 57 of 2016—Superior Council).
This change opened the possibility of reviewing the meaning, orienta-
tion, and purpose of research at the University. The Vice-Chancellor
started a process to identify organisational capabilities for research, with
the support of external advisers on inter-institutional relations and coop-
eration for development, in coherence with the institutional principles and
values (examined in institutional documents such as the foundation act,
university statutes, the strategic planning documents, physical master plan,
among others) and semi-structured interviews with different institutional
and non-institutional actors.
Additionally, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the
university leadership (3), deans (3), faculty members (4), employers’
associations (2) and social organisations (3) (see Fig. 7.1).
Five organisational capabilities for the development of an institutional
research policy were identified and recognised based on the informa-
tion collected and on the institutional trajectory: (a) critical thinking as
the axis of the institutional education project; (b) commitment to good
living (Buen Vivir), from a Latin American perspective; (c) the defence
of human rights; (d) the existence of a diverse and inclusive academic
community; and (e) infrastructure for development in the city centre.
Based on these capabilities, an Institutional Narrative for Science,
Technology and Innovation (STI) was built related to the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) with five confluences: (a) UniverCity, (b)
Human Rights, justice and gender, (c) Economic development, formali-
sation, creation of wealth and new networks, (d) Social inclusion: culture,
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 191
Institutional
STI Narrative
Social
Organizations
Industry
University
Leadership
Faculty
Students
Fig. 7.1 Participative identification of organisational capabilities
disability and education and (e) Eco sensitivity: territory, environment and
rurality (see Table 7.3).
Experimentation from these confluences has generated new institu-
tional research processes that involve articulations between academic
actors and social organisations, which scope is not limited to academic
publications, consultancies or participation in academic events.
An example of alternative practices is the Alliance with Women5(at
the confluence of Human Rights, justice and gender) that has articu-
lated four universities and two social organisations in order to reveal the
humanitarian crisis experienced by women victims of gender violence, in
order to mobilise social, political and legal actions that contribute to the
eradication of this scourge.
The Alliance with Women defines the objective of this articulation
process as follows:
The union of efforts between civil society and the academy contributes to
the construction of spaces for academic, social and political debate that
favours the materialisation of women’s human rights and the generation
of knowledge that explains this social phenomenon [gender violence] and
promotes alternatives through research, advocacy processes and strategic
litigation, to strengthen access to justice and administrative measures
related to their care. For all these reasons, this project seeks to strengthen
5Working alliance for strategic litigation in defence of the human rights of women in
the city of Medellín, Colombia. Website: https://alianzaconlasmujeres.com/.
192 D. VELASCO ET AL.
Table 7.3 Unaula narrative for STI
Confluences Visions of the future SDGs
UniverCity The compact city;
redefinition of the city
centre; public space and
heritage; and urban
regeneration as conditions for
community well-being
Sustainable cities and
communities
Human Rights, justice and
gender
Contribution to training
processes in political culture,
the defence of human rights,
gender diversity and
redistributive justice
Gender equality,
Peace, justice and strong
institutions
Economic development,
formalisation, wealth
creation and new networks
Deepen interventions in
formalisation, innovation,
productivity, decent
employment and
collaborative networks that
address the precariousness
and potential of these critical
sources of employment and
entrepreneurship
Decent work and
economic growth
Industry, innovation and
infrastructure
Responsible consumption
and production
Social inclusion: culture,
disability and education
Commitment to
comprehensive education in
the city and the region,
considering diversity and
acting in accordance
Quality education
Reduced inequalities
Ecosensitivity: territory,
environment and rurality
Human and institutional
attitudes aligned with caring
for the environment; sincere
concern for the current eco
planetary problem, our
ecosystem and internal and
external relations
Climate action
Life on land
the Alliance as a space in which, in addition to the production of knowl-
edge, the dialogue of multiple perspectives is launched, generating the
reinforcement of the installed capacity of the partners. It does it through
the consolidation of work teams compounded by researchers, students,
and activists in an interdisciplinary body of knowledge that, from an initial
legal emphasis, also addresses violence against women as a social and a
public health problem. It seeks local and national projection and impact,
thanks, among other things, to the participation of organisations such as
the Human Corporation of the city of Bogotá, as well as that of the Collec-
tive Corporation for Justice for Women, a focal point of the National
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 193
Network of Women, and a social platform with presence in more than
16 cities in Colombia. (Alliance with women, 2018)
The Alliance participated in the elaboration of the gender public policy
of Medellín, the creation of the Feminist Legal Clinic to complement
the processes of training lawyers from a feminist perspective; likewise,
it has generated legal innovations about violence against women in inti-
mate relationships, ex-partners and other relational forms, among other
activities.
Another notable example is the Live Experiences programme6“School
of Systematisation of Local Experiences” (confluence of social inclusion:
culture, disability, and education). Live Experiences is conceived as “a
space for reflection, appropriation of theories and methodologies that
make possible the construction of city and country agendas that are prone
to the construction of scenarios of peace and coexistence, as necessary
conditions for a good life” (Live Experiences, 2017).
This programme emerged in 2017 as an initiative to systematise local
experiences of fourteen social organisations in Medellín. From 2019 it has
managed to articulate with more than sixty-two social organisations from
other cities such as Bogota, Tunja, Duitama, Ibagué, through activities
of knowledge dialogue which implies local knowledge co-production and
systematisation projects through methodological tools for the defence of
the territory.
7.4 The Participatory Process
of Defining the Central Capabilities
of the University of Ibagué
7.4.1 Context and Characteristics of the Universidad de Ibagué
The Universidad de Ibagué (UI) is a medium-sized regional private
university (by Colombian standards, with around 5,600 students and
330 teachers in 2019) founded in 1980 by a group of businessmen and
civic leaders from the Department7of Tolima. The UI has contributed
to regional development based on human-centred values. Its academic
offer, research agendas and programmes are embedded in the territory
6Website: https://www.experiencesvivas.com/.
7Colombia is politically and geographically divided in departments.
194 D. VELASCO ET AL.
by impacting the regional well-being with tangible results. The UI has a
path-dependence towards citizenship training, high standards of academic
quality and social projection, making its campus the entire department of
Tolima, as can be seen in Fig. 7.2.
Tolima has historically suffered high levels of violence due to the armed
conflict between the State, the guerrillas and the illegal armed groups.
According to the Departmental Competitiveness Index of Colombia, the
conflict has negatively impacted the human development of the terri-
tory, placing Tolima in 12th place among 32 departments. In 2016, the
peace agreement was signed between the Colombian government and
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which started
a disarmament process in 2017. The signing of this peace agreement
has led to a crucial moment in the development of the country. In
this new post-agreement scenario, words such as truth, justice, repara-
tion, non-repetition, forgiveness, reconciliation, among others, point to
the possibility of political and moral routes for conflict resolution. For
the regions, particularly for the Tolima region, the peace agreement has
opened up an opportunity for centring efforts on much needed social
well-being. More now than ever, the UI is a central actor to mobilise
knowledge for the region thriving.
Fig. 7.2 Universidad de Ibagué path-dependancy
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 195
Within this context, the UI has played an active role in transformation
and building sustainable peace processes by bringing together students,
faculty, technical personnel, companies, social organisations, communities
and local governments to foster human capabilities.8
7.4.2 The Participatory Process to Define Capabilities for Human
Development
In 2019, the UI started a journey to define what is valuable for the
university community and university partners in terms of capabilities.
The process was widely collaborative and participatory by involving
faculty, administrative staff, managers, students, alumni, the business
sector, municipalities, and social organisations with which the institution
collaborates.
A collective vision was expressed in a list of capabilities that char-
acterises the aspirational spirit of the UI. A specific directionality was
co-constructed by all participants towards a human-centred transforma-
tion inside and outside the University. The process was designed as a
mode of experimental governance by creating a flexible and proactive
space that allowed multiple actors’ decentralised interventions, resulting
in the list.
The process started in May 2019, and by December 2019, the final
list of capabilities for the UI was finished. During the whole process, it
had the drive and support of the rectory team, which gave it legitimacy.
The UI Provost led the design of the experiment with an international
expert on human development and transformative innovation, and with
five researchers of the UI Special Projects Unit.9We called this group the
designer group. The methodology was designed in three phases, described
in Fig. 7.3. In this chapter, we report the results up to the second phase.
The horizon phase focussed on gathering different university members
(students, faculty, administrative staff, leadership, alumni, entrepreneurs
and social organisations) for a co-produced vision of the UI based on
8Specific programmes such as Peace and Region (https://pazyregion.unibague.
edu.co/), projects developed jointly between local governments, social groups and the
UI (https://extension.unibague.edu.co/proyectos) are some of the evidences of this
affirmation.
9Institute devoted to the study of complexity and systemic thinking. It acts as a think
tank for the University and for the region.
196 D. VELASCO ET AL.
Fig. 7.3 Experiment methodology phases
social and sustainable practices. There were 127 participants in 9 work-
shops and 13 interviews (64 women and 63 men). The result was a
list of eight university capabilities, two related to training, two related
to territory, three related to university community and one related to
enterprise.
During the pathways phase, a validation process of the eight capabilities
list was performed with mixed groups of phase one participants. Besides
the validation, the groups drew connections between the capabilities and
defined pathways to expand the UI capabilities list. There were 62 partic-
ipants (35 women and 27 men). The final list collectively built by the UI
community is presented in Table 7.4.
The third stage is on hold due to a change in the university leadership.
The Special Projects Unit is expected to move forward with instruments
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 197
Table 7.4 UI capabilities list
Category Capability Definition
Training Training of persons and
citizens
A university community
capable of training people,
professionals and citizens with
critical thinking, ethical
principles and sensitivity
regarding social differences
and needs
Integral leadership A university community
capable of training people for
reasoned and responsible
decisions, in accordance with
criteria of justice, fairness, and
respect for differences (within
the framework of empathic
and affective communication)
that leads to the realisation of
joint actions oriented to the
common good
Territory Social construction of
territory
A university community that
is capable, in association with
the other social actors, of
rebuilding and appropriating
its territory collectively,
through dialogue and mutual
understanding, committing
itself to nature, culture and
diversity of knowledge for
connivance and peace
University that transcends A university community
capable of generating projects
and actions aimed at the
development of a fair and
democratic society that
enhances reflection, exchange,
and generation and
appropriation of knowledge
to respond to aspirations,
challenges, and problems that
affect the various actors in
the territory
(continued)
198 D. VELASCO ET AL.
Table 7.4 (continued)
Category Capability Definition
University community Purposeful Critical
reflection
A university community
capable of reflecting and
building critically on their
being and daily work in the
light of their identity, history,
ethical stakes, bonds of trust,
organisational forms, growth
opportunities and personal
and collective aspirations
Care A community that is capable
of ensuring conditions that
allow the integral growth of
the self and the other,
through relationships that
build trust and recognition
among its members as well as
of the environment in which
they are immersed
Constructive interaction A university community
capable of stimulating,
allowing, and promoting a
dialogue that is well
informed, clear, transparent
and respectful of freedom and
differences of opinion. On
the one hand, it is oriented
to strengthen the social
interaction between the
members of the community
so that they develop the
personal power to choose and
act in situations of social and
political environment. On the
other hand, it favours
participation, a good working
environment, and individual
and collective integral human
development
Enterprise Weave nets A university community
capable of fostering
interconnections with
companies, communities and
students to develop innovative
projects that respond to
territorial needs, build trust
and take care of the common
good, to make possible a
truly local development with
a global perspective
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 199
and resources to expand the university community capabilities at all levels
for every university member and stakeholder.
7.5 Discussion
The Unaula and UI experiences can be understood as a mode five of
experimental governance culture. The decision processes and policy docu-
ments were based on flexible and proactive governance arrangements.
The inclusion of open objectives allowed decentralised and experimental
interventions by multiple actors with the active involvement of actors
usually excluded from the policy processes. For Unaula, the co-creation
of an institutional narrative opened up the possibility of expanding the
participation of institutional and non-institutional actors in the construc-
tion of policy. In the UI case, designing the list of capabilities gave
voice to students, alumni, social organisations, businesses, and admin-
istrative officials in a strategic exercise of the university, envisioning a
just and sustainable set of real options valued by the university commu-
nity. Likewise, the methodology based on experiential workshops to
create reflexivity spaces provided the means for second-order learning, or
learning that enables changes in frames and assumptions and that provides
a broader view of the UI beyond the particular role the participants
have in university life (Schot et al., 2019). It is noteworthy that in the
second pathways phase for the list of capabilities construction, the mixed
groups (admin staff, faculty, students, entrepreneurs) allowed the partici-
pants to share their views about the University and its role in the regional
transformation, increasing the possibilities of learning as suggested by the
transformative innovation approach.
It is worth highlighting the directionality that the five confluences
and the list of the eight capabilities for human development can give to
university policies. The two directions are closely connected to the social
and environmental issues that are central to transformative innovation.
Unaula’s case exemplifies the connection of the narrative with various
SDGs. In the UI case, the connection is apparent in the capabilities list,
particularly in the training, territory, and enterprise categories. A lead-
ership based on justice, equality, and respect for the differences for the
common good; a university community that re-signifies continuously and
collectively the territory committed to the preservation of nature, culture,
and diversity of knowledge; and a university that is capable of weaving nets
200 D. VELASCO ET AL.
to foster innovative projects to respond to territorial needs; give direc-
tion to an educational model inspired by comprehensive and humanistic
training. Both experiments aim to transform the system (in this case, the
University) in a specific direction.
The two university policies can be understood as protected spaces for
experimentation, with clear leadership from the Vice Rectories, giving
it a strategic policy dimension, and also providing the means to have
a collective vision to build and opening up different pathways towards
just transitions (Stephens & Graham, 2010). There are two determining
factors that made both experiments possible: the first is their ethos.Both
have a social vocation from their foundation, more political in the case of
Unaula and more ethical and oriented towards regional development in
the UI case. In both cases, the institutional missions (probably not shared
by the entire university community but protected by its founding docu-
ments) has protected and legitimised the two innovations. The second
issue is the explicit support and direct participation of the two Vice Recto-
ries. These experiments require institutional involvement and political will
that needs top-down support. In both cases, the vice-rectors distributed
their power to allow a bottom-up policy construction process. In Unaula,
the recent creation of a Vice-Rectory for Research as an autonomous
dependency on other substantive functions allowed the Vice-Rectory to
design the experiment to create the university research policy. For the
UI, the Academic Vice-Rectory saw an opportunity to align the capabili-
ties framework with critical foundational documents and the University’s
policies to expand human capabilities.
Experimenting, empowering different actors, and creating alterna-
tive governance arrangements bring tension and sometimes conflict. In
Unaula’s case, there has been a strong questioning from the Academic
Council, which advocates for traditional processes of measurement and
evaluation of science. Council members do not believe that it is compat-
ible with scientific production to have a comprehensive university narra-
tive. There were tensions with the Superior Board of the UI, who has
final approval on all institutional policies, caused mainly by governance
arrangements triggered from the Vice-Rectory.
Finally, it is worth raising questions about the systemic scope of the
two initiatives. In terms of transformative innovation, to what extent
do both initiatives aim for socio-technical change? This would lead us
to a more in-depth discussion (which goes beyond the objective of
7 DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION THROUGH … 201
this chapter) about the characteristics of the knowledge creation socio-
technical regime in Colombia. What is certain is that both universities are
inserted in a broader quality accreditation system that rewards publication
in high-impact journals, generation of economic resources from enrol-
ment, traditional knowledge transfer, the internationalisation of students
and teachers, among others, which are necessary but not sufficient condi-
tions. The two policies must fit into this context and coexist with it
simultaneously, proposing alternative metrics to evaluate the research
performance in the case of Unaula and providing a university vision based
on human development, in the UI’s case. These different institutional
arrangements open new possibilities for experimentation and recognise
alternative practices in teaching, research, extension and even university
governance.
We present a systemic understanding of the possibilities for transfor-
mative innovation from the University. Although our case studies can
be considered isolated experiments at this point, they are two examples
that can be replicated and adapted to other university realities both in
Colombia and abroad. Replication possibilities are also increased thanks
to the networks that both institutions have.
7.6 Conclusions
This chapter presents two experiences of defining university policies that
can be understood as experimental processes according to the proposed
transformative innovation policy framework. Both experiences have a
specific directionality aligned with social and environmental challenges.
They have been developed following inclusive and participatory processes
that have considered voices generally excluded in the formulation of
university policy. They have aimed to generate learning and reflexivity
among the participants, mobilising and recognising different types of
knowledge: experiential, expert, and non-expert, theoretical and practical.
The contextual aspect of both experiments is highlighted and linked to
both institutions evolution and the participants’ aspirations and needs.
The role of experimentation in university governance was taken
forward in the Unaula and UI cases. Proactive governance arrangements
broadening the spectrum of voices heard and giving agency to the univer-
sity community and allies to co-create institutional policies is congruent
with the principles of transformative innovation policy. Rewarding reflex-
ivity and learning in university policy construction open up the discussion
202 D. VELASCO ET AL.
in university management to challenge the current institutional dominant
practices.
Considering the above, applying the transformative innovation policy
framework to examine the organisational processes in higher educa-
tion institutions provides possibilities to break with the institutional
isomorphism that makes universities behave homogeneously.
Acknowledgements Alejandra Boni acknowledges the support of the BEST-
2019 Programme of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Generalitat
Valenciana to write this chapter in the framework of research leave (BEST /
2019/011).
Diana Velasco thanks the Special Projects Unit, particularly the designer
group, that thought and implemented the experiential workshops for phases
1 and 2 of the methodology for the capabilities list construction. Also, to
Jamith Hernández, a young researcher from the University of Ibagué, and Nidia
Chaparro, a lecturer and former Vice-Rector of the UI, for their participation in
the capabilities list construction presented in this chapter.
Salim Chalela thanks the Cooperation, Development and Management
unit, mainly to Sofía Botero and Hernán Aristizábal, for their dedication to
constructing the institutional narrative for the STI. Also to Hernán Jaramillo and
Ana María Aldana for their contributions in the framework of the institutional
strengthening project of the Alliance for Formal and Inclusive Economy.
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CHAPTER 8
The Contribution in STI of the Higher
Education Institutions of Cauca for the Peace
Building and Social Inclusion
Alexander Castillo-Garcés, William Chará-Ordóñez,
and Paula Andrea Mora-Pedreros
8.1 An Introduction:
Territorial Peace Challenges
After the Final Agreement signature for ending the conflict and the
building of a stable and durable peace (hereinafter The Peace Agreement)
between the government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
A. Castillo-Garcés (B)·W. Chará-Ordóñez ·P. A. Mora-Pedreros
Universitaria Autónoma del Cauca, Popayán, Colombia
e-mail: alexander.castillo.g@uniautonoma.edu.co;jacastillo@unicauca.edu.co
W. Chará-Ordóñez
e-mail: william.chara.o@uniautonoma.edu.co
P. A. Mora-Pedreros
e-mail: paula.mora.p@uniautonoma.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_8
205
206 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) guerrilla in La Habana, a huge
deployment was carried out in the country in such magnitude that legis-
lators, public servers, governmental and non-governmental institutions
and the state in general started to partake in regions and communities
to advance with a transformation that transcends economic, politic, social
and even cultural fields.
Even though the ending of the conflict spreading, was aligned to the
idea of a stable and durable peace, all of these actions are now backed
up by the “territorial peace” slogan, a more and popular term, either
by the media or by the state investment funds, that have made it a part
of a strategy for reaching the vulnerable communities, abandoned and
besieged by war actors.
Framed in this state purpose, there are Higher Education Institu-
tions (HEI), which although they tend to train professionals also become
fundamental axes for the development of the regions. Rodríguez (2009)
points out the challenges of HEI:
First, university institutions must become a basic element to generate
higher levels of competitiveness in the country. (…). Second, university
institutions must become an essential source of opportunities for contin-
uing education and social mobility. (…). Third, university institutions
must ensure the quality and relevance of their academic offer, a matter
of the greatest importance to generate training and research programs
that effectively impact the country’s competitive capacity and allow the
successful insertion of young people from vulnerable families to the work
market. Fourth, universities must link with their environment contributing
to the development of culture, arts, literature and territorial development.
(Rodríguez, 2009, p. 826)
Within the framework of these challenges, the department of Cauca is
presented as a favorable scenario for the building of peace, since it has
been one of the most affected departments by the armed conflict and
after the signing of the Peace Agreement it has experienced the resurgence
of other forms of violence. The presence of illegal armed groups, illegal
mining, the increase of illicit crops and drug trafficking, shape new expres-
sions of a social, political and economic conflict that requires a priority
inter-institutional intervention.
The discussion about interventions to this problem must undoubt-
edly link the academy. HEI in Popayán have not been oblivious to this
reality and have expressed their interest in having the science, technology
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 207
and innovation systems for designing mechanisms that contribute to the
construction of territorial peace in the department of Cauca. Consid-
ering the above, it is necessary to inquire about the role and challenges
of HEI having as guiding questions for the analysis: What is the role
of regional universities in the consolidation of territorial peace? How do
their development plans articulate with state purposes? What actions in
science, technology and innovation do universities advance to consolidate
territorial peace?
Considering these questions, the research performed quantitative and
qualitative techniques, which allowed complementing and triangulating
the sources. In this regard, it should be mentioned that the collec-
tion techniques were applied in five HEI in the department of Cauca:
Universidad Del Cauca, Corporación Universitaria Autónoma del Cauca,
Fundación Universitaria de Popayán, Institución Universitaria Colegio
Mayor Del Cauca y Corporación Universitaria Comfacauca. The selection
criteria were determined by the time taken by the educational institution
in the Department, at least ten years, and the work of social interaction
in the different municipalities. This allowed establishing the design and
execution of academic activities, research and relationship with the envi-
ronment with communities and institutions. These aspects were key, since
these criteria referred to the form and type of articulation of HEI with the
political, economic, social and cultural dynamics of the territories within
the framework of the post-conflict and the building of local peace.
Based on the process of mapping and selection of HEI, analysis units
were constructed, according to the proposal of Vargas and Hurtado
(2017) sectorial policies (infrastructure, security, justice), institutional
capacity (management, participation) and social transformation capabili-
ties and thus guide the process of inquiry based on the notion of building
territorial peace. Based on the documentary analysis, the development
plans, strategic plans and educational plans in force in HEI were reviewed.
In this way, it was possible to identify lines of action linked to the
construction of territorial peace, issues and the means to materialize these
actions. The work with documentary sources, also included the review
and analysis of Web pages, institutional reports and sectorial action plans
to contrast the plans with the concrete activities of teaching, social interac-
tion, research and relationship with the environment during the last four
years. In addition to the qualitative analysis, it was possible to system-
atize, classify and process the projection activities of HEI to account for
magnitudes around the type of academic, interaction and intervention
actions developed by HEI oriented to the construction of territorial peace
in Cauca.
208 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
8.2 Territorial Peace and Academic
Debate for Its Definition
Talking about territorial peace is not of recent date, however, it has
become more recurrent after the signing of the Peace Agreement. It is
precisely in the search for mechanisms that guarantee the sustainability of
the peace that this notion takes relevance, since it is framed in a new
interpretation of the political situation. The debate over the reach of
a stable peace implies overcoming the old approaches of positive peace
or negative peace by that of differential peace, in which the recognition
of all peace actions advanced in the territory, even in the framework of
structural conflicts, they take relevance for the end of the conflict.
It is precisely the territorial nature of the armed conflict and the notion
of territorial peace that have provoked various interpretations by the State,
peasant, indigenous, social associations and academy. According to Cairo
et al. (2018), the definition of territorial peace that was discussed in
the negotiation processes of Havana could “be linked to the notion of
democratic peace, not so much in reduce the likelihood of war between
democratic states as proposed by Doyle (2000) or Gibler (2007) but to
point out the democratic consolidation of the State” (p. 466). Under
this idea, territorial peace is the means by which the social, economic and
political conditions left by the armed conflict are overcome, much like the
notion of positive peace raised by Galtung (1969).
In all eyes, it has been defended from its discursive places, the need
to implement a peace bet from the territory as one of the most effective
ways to guarantee a peace building. Some of the arguments that support
this idea are the following.
For the FARC-EP, the territorial peace, according to one of the leaders
called Jesus Santrich: “responds to the idea of sustainable peace in the
sense of building peace from within the regions” (Cairo et al., 2018,
p. 466). In that sense, the notion of territorial peace can be understood
under the premise that the State did not meet the structural needs of
the population in rural regions and, precisely, it is there that the voice
of those who must make decisions for implementation must be strength-
ened and guarantee of peace. Sharing the same idea of strengthening the
rural territories affected by the armed conflict, but from a vision from
security, for the Public Force it can be understood as the return of the
institutional armed force and the policies of rural citizen security from
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 209
a closer relationship with the community of the regions affected by the
armed conflict.
Although both notions have discursive differences, in both, the terri-
torial character was essential during the negotiation cycles of the Peace
Agreement. It is precisely during their discussion that the notion has its
first appearances in the academic debate and institutional planning for
the peace process with the FARC-EP. For the commissioner of peace of
the moment Sergio Jaramillo, representing the vision of territorial peace
from public institutions during a declaration before the United Nations
in 2014, he said:
We have to take advantage of the moment of peace to align the incentives
and develop the institutions in the territory that over time will enforce the
rights of all equally. To move in that direction, the rights approach must
be complemented with a territorial approach. First, because the conflict has
affected some territories more than others. And because that change is not
going to be achieved if the efforts are not articulated and the population
is mobilized in those territories around peace. That is what I call territorial
peace. (Jaramillo, 2014,p.3)
This notion of territorial peace is framed in the thesis that the Colombian
armed conflict does not have as an argument the existence of objective
conditions for its justification; on the contrary, it is the subjective condi-
tions such as the institutional lag and the weakness of the State in the
intervention in the most remote territories that allowed the establish-
ment of agents of the armed conflict. Therefore, with the end of the
armed conflict, the institutional task is to rethink the decentralized inter-
vention logics. This vision is evident in the National Development Plan
2014–2018 «Todos por un nuevo país» (National Planning Department,
2015).
According to the governmen in 2014, territorial peace implies two
elements. First, the return of the State to the territories devoid of insti-
tutional intervention previously co-opted by illegal actors of the armed
conflict, recognizing the gradualness of the armed conflict in rural areas,
from institutions that guarantee the development and fulfillment of
each of the points of the Peace Agreement. In this regard, it is worth
mentioning that, in Colombia, especially during the armed conflict there
was no absence of the State but a “differentiated presence of the State”
(González et al., 2003) that is expressed in the different ways in which
210 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
the State the territories intervened from particular configurations and
the articulation with the local power, the economy and the culture of
the regions. Second, from the notion of differentiated presence, recog-
nize the need to privilege the view from the territories and participatory
construction through intervention mechanisms in accordance with the
State. Hence, participatory planning spaces are proposed, linking all local
and community agents.
This institutional vision has allowed the notion of territorial peace to
have permeated a certain pragmatism because of the weak explanation
about the ways to implement it efficiently. This is how territorial peace has
been linked as a public policy approach that translates into a prioritized
intervention in rural territories (Ideas para la Paz, 2017), but also as a
scenario of territorial autonomy and new administrative decentralization
(Zubiría, 2016) that privileges in its implementation the social content
and political inclusion of all sectors of the country (García, 2016).
However, it is necessary to clarify that territorial peace is not synony-
mous with a territorial approach. According to the Peace Agreement, the
territorial approach is related to rural development, expressed in the first
one that proposes a new intervention approach of the Colombian rural
sector. The point of coincidence of the terms, which must be noted, lies
in the search for better living conditions of a sector of the population
historically affected by the armed conflict. However, territorial peace is
not limited only to the rural development of an agrarian reform.
This meeting point of the two interpretations has led the academy
to think about how territorial peace should materialize in the search for
conditions that improve the quality of life of the population affected by
the armed conflict from social inclusion. In this regard, one of the first
to express the need to discuss a territorial reform as a prioritized institu-
tional intervention mechanism in the territories was Hernández (2016);
For their part, Bautista (2017) and Ríos and Gago (2018), pointed out
the need to specify the implementation of territorial peace under formal,
normative and public policy mechanisms oriented from the territories,
since, without institutional support, the risk of a failure to implement
peace would be imminent. The call for the commitment that political
elite’s must-have in this commitment to peace is set by Cairo and Ríos
(2019), for whom the political will in the regions is a factor of articula-
tion of the initiatives postulated by the territories. This argument already
allows us to notice the orientation of territorial peace as a planning
instrument.
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 211
However, the challenges in the territories in the framework of the
discussion of territorial peace also occupied the academy, especially from
the state’s conception of peace for the pacification of the territories. In this
regard, Oslender (2018), supported by the argument that before terri-
torial peace, there were efforts to pacify the territories, examines from
the notion of superimposed territorialities, the territorial configuration of
Afro-Colombian communities in the context of armed conflicts and post-
conflict. It points out that pacifying the territories from homogeneity and
ignorance of cultural particularities limits the effectiveness of institutional
interventions. Along the same lines, for Koopman (2018), new and old
social phenomena linked to the armed conflict converge in the territories,
hence, territorial peace should be understood as a mechanism to ensure
the guarantee of rights of the historically excluded population, including
that territories are multi-ethnic settings with multiple needs.
Considering the previous review, the academy has revealed two
tensions. The first, a concern for the formalization, monitoring and
institutional mechanisms to achieve peace. The second, the need to under-
stand that the territories have their own particularities and needs, which
must be intervened with initiatives that are born from the territories
and the diagnosis made by their own inhabitants. In both cases, the
Academy proposes the review, construction, design and, monitoring of
strategies that lead to the closing of social gaps in the territories, since it
is from territorial peace, as a planning and intervention mechanism, social
inclusion guarantees the compliance and enjoyment of rights.
These academic discussions accompanied the definition of the institu-
tional mechanisms for the implementation of territorial peace. Thus, since
2017, the Colombian Government through the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development, based on the territorial approach, has imple-
mented planning and management instruments called Development Plans
with a Territorial Approach (PDET) under the premise that “Through
a profound change in social, economic and political conditions, it will
be possible to lay the foundations for the construction of peace, over-
come the conditions that prolonged the armed conflict and guarantee its
non-repetition” (Decree 899 of 2017).
To fulfill this goal, the PDET propose the need to strengthen the
decentralization and de-concentration processes of the State in each of the
territories, based on the reformulation of public institutions and participa-
tory planning, which links the entire community directly or indirectly, to
social organizations of all kinds and whose purpose is the intervention of
212 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
the multiple realities and needs of the territories, and not only as a mech-
anized and bureaucratic «return of the State». In that sense, the PDET
are proposed as the mechanism of public management to intervene in the
territories and promote territorial peace. With them you look for:
Develop in a participatory manner an action plan for regional transfor-
mation, which includes all levels of territorial planning, which is arranged
with local authorities and communities, and that includes both the territo-
rial approach of the communities, as an objective diagnosis of needs and
actions in the territory. (Decree 899 of 2017)
For the implementation of the PDET, 16 subregions were prioritized,
grouping 170 municipalities from 11 of the 32 departments of Colombia.
Among them, the Department of Cauca is of particular interest due to the
long history of conflict it has experienced.
The dispute between illegal armed actors and the State has intensified since
the 1980s, at the end of the 1990s paramilitary groups have entered and
since 2005 the armed conflict has worsened, leaving hundreds of victims
and deepening the already existing social, economic, and politicians in the
region. (Chará et al., 2019,p.4)
The department of Cauca includes 17 municipalities that make up the
Alto Patía, Norte del Cauca, and Pacífico Subregion. These municipalities
have been strategic scenarios of control by armed actors that are present
in territories under the coexistence of drug trafficking, organized crime,
delinquency, and land tenure problems. All these problems are proposed
as intervention challenges where HEI will be important to contribute to
the transformation of these realities and seek the social inclusion.
In this context, however, and considering the problems of these munic-
ipalities, the HEI face another challenge to overcome the barriers in
STI. The Colombian State allocates less and less money to finance this
sector. For 2018, only 0.5% of GDP was allocated to STI and for 2022
it is proposed to increase by 1.5% of GDP. Little compared to OECD
countries that exceed 2% of GDP (Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e
Innovación, 2019). In addition to this, there is limited knowledge of
the potential of the territories and the little infrastructure in STI for the
management, exchange, and promotion of new knowledge that allows the
transformation of territorial realities.
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 213
In sum, the tracked studies coincide in using the guidelines of the
institutional proposal of territorial peace as a starting point and feed the
proactive search of the mechanisms for its implementation. In that sense,
it is possible to affirm that academic production has been occupied in
providing the institutional notion with content, as a focus, overlapping
other debates from where the concept can be operationalized and contex-
tualize the old and new problems that evidence the overcoming of the
conflict with the FARC-EP and that need to be intervened from a terri-
torial perspective. They also show that the concept and its development
are still under construction.
Bearing in mind the above, the challenges of HEI should be, on the
one hand, to overcome STI financing barriers, improve departmental
agendas for innovation and regional cooperation (Departamento Nacional
de Planeación, 2020) and, on the other hand, generate socially useful
knowledge and improve the environments for the transformation of
multiple conflicts and overcoming the armed conflict in the territories.
The intent of the academy is to frame its contributions to the search
for mechanisms that guarantee an effective implementation of territo-
rial peace from multiple perspectives and perspectives. In that sense, a
review of the HEI development plans will allow us to see the mechanisms
designed to contribute to this end.
8.3 Th e P u b l i c P o l i c y o f S T I
and Territorial Peace from the Institutional
Development Plans of HEI
The development plans of each HEI are the road map to design, plan
and execute program strategies that guarantee both the quality and the
role of the academy in the transformation and overcoming of the needs of
the territories, especially with contributions in STI. Based on this idea, is
important to identify in each development plan those actions in STI and
their articulation with territorial peace, peace building and overcoming
the armed conflict.
The Corporación Universitaria Comfacauca defined in its 2014–2019
development plan strategies aimed at improving academic programs,
becoming an active part of the ITS program, co-creation value for the
region, and the productive sector. Regarding STIs, he proposes two
scenarios: «positive and negative». On the “negative” side, the emphasis
214 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
is placed on contextual issues such as the high unemployment rates in
the region and extreme poverty in rural areas and the poor results in the
Saber Pro test.1This last element is key to the evaluation of HEI since,
as stated by Orozco et al. (2018) since “the evaluation of teaching could
be carried out using the Saber Pro exams as a result of the achievement
of the first university mission defined in the formation and formation of
capital in the educational activity” (p. 199) with which it would not be
fully fulfilled the institutional mission of educational training.
In order to achieve the development plan, it proposes five
strategic vectors: (1) academic excellence, (2) institutional visibility and
strengthening of social projection, (3) management of institutional
well-being, (4) strengthening of research, and (5) research excellence.
With these actions, Unicomfacauca is projected at the regional level and
in coordination with the companies of the Cauca Family Compensation
Fund to think about their own graduate programs and in agreement,
design financing models and above all achieve greater local, regional
and national visibility (Corporación Universitaria Comfacauca, Agreement
027 of 2014). However, the revision of its plan allows us to affirm that
despite making a commitment to articulation with the regional processes
led by government agencies and some private sector companies, their
actions around territorial peace are not tangible,—without saying that it
is not—being one of the reasons, the date of construction of the same, as
the conjunctural moment of the post-conflict was not yet latent, nor had
the social discourses about peace been transformed.
When inquiring into the Corporación Universitaria Autónoma del
Cauca the level of articulation of the «Strategic Development Plan 2016 -
2020 Toward Institutional Accreditation» With the proposal of territorial
peace implementation, there is no explicit identification of any compo-
nent related to the construction of peace, nor does it have strategic axes
or objectives in terms of territorial peace. In spite of this, the Institution
carries out promotion initiatives and favors the consolidation of peace
through academic and social projection activities related to intervention
and research projects, chairs, events and congresses that account for the
important contribution to the configuration of a territorial peace. These
actions are not part of an institutional planning process that allows the
1The higher education quality exam -Saber Pro (formerly ECAES) in Colombia is
designed to evaluate students in the last semesters of higher education to inquire about
the professional skills acquired within the training process.
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 215
articulation of governmental and non-governmental efforts to achieve a
greater impact on society. In that perspective, their actions are isolated
and to some extent discontinuous.
This aspect, although it represents a weakness, can also be seen
in terms of opportunity in the phase of implementation of the Peace
Agreement provided that they are strategic axes or actions articulated
with other national and regional initiatives. In this regard, it is worth
mentioning that the Strategic Development Plan proposes among its
objectives: (1) strengthen the presence of the Corporation in the region
and improve integration with the environment, (2) strengthen the
Research System that aims to improve research processes in social inter-
vention in the perspective of the needs of the environment and (3) social
transformation and regional entrepreneurship to generate conditions for
social and economic development from initiatives designed in an articu-
lated manner between the academy and the productive sector in relation
to the needs of the territories (Corporación Universitaria Autónoma del
Cauca, Agreement 023 of 2015).
Similar situation is presented with the “Institución Universitaria
Colegio Mayor del Cauca”, since its development plan «Transformative
management with human quality 2016 - 2020» does not identify specific
axes, components, strategies, plans or programs linked to territorial peace.
However, there are elements that should be considered in a possible
articulation with the implementation of Peace Agreement at the regional
level. The description of the mission and institutional vision highlights
the inclusive nature of the training of professionals from the municipali-
ties of the department of Cauca and other southwestern regions, based on
a model of social commitment based on good educational practices. The
strategy of social projection of the Institution is striking, since under the
principle of approach to society, it proposes the construction of initiatives
for development, entrepreneurship and resolution of conflicts caused by
poverty, displacement, unemployment, illiteracy or dissatisfaction of needs
(Institución Universitaria Colegio Mayor del Cauca, Agreement 014 of
2016).
The “Fundación Universitaria de Popayán” and its development plan
2013–2018 is based on the National Development Plan 2010–2014
“Prosperity for all”, and in particular on “Peace building”. Likewise,
in the Ten-Year Education Plan 2006–2016, one of the challenges of
education in Colombia stands out “An education in peace and for peace,
216 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
coexistence and citizenship” (Fundación Universitaria de Popayán, Agree-
ment 005 of 2004). These two dimensions are configured as articulating
axes in the implementation of territorial peace in the department of
Cauca. In terms of action for the construction of territorial peace, the
institutional orientation toward the development of the region can be
rescued in the tourism, mining, agricultural chains, the preservation of
the Colombian Massif, and the strengthening of human rights and coex-
istence citizen, who become the only elements that are potentially linked
to the axes of the construction of territorial peace.
Finally, the development plan of the “Universidad del Cauca” «Toward
a University committed to territorial peace 2018–2020» reports a
different case within the studied HEI, since it is possible to establish
mentions, strategies and training actions, research and social projection
oriented to the construction of peace. In components such as mission and
vision, the permanent commitment to social development, the formation
of democratic professionals and the construction of a fair and equitable
society are highlighted (Universidad del Cauca, 2018). Likewise, it is
pertinent to mention that among the values and principles provided in
the development plan there are important references to the design of
plans, programs and professional training projects that allow the cultural,
scientific, productive and technological development of the region and
the country; the construction of spaces of tolerance and coexistence, the
achievement of national peace; promotion of democracy and participa-
tion in the framework of the Social State of Law (Universidad del Cauca,
2018).
The foregoing accounts for an institutional planning instrument in
which the construction of territorial peaceis proposed as a transversal axis
to the strategies, programs and actions designed. In addition, it high-
lights the research, innovation and social interaction component (part
of Strategic Axis 3) in terms of strengthening research and social inter-
action at all levels of training for institutional and social development,
based on management, transfer and appropriation of knowledge from a
territorial peace approach (Universidad del Cauca, 2018). The document
also provides an action called «Unicauca for you. Recognition and social
interaction for territorial peace» (Universidad del Cauca, 2018) that gives
an account of how the strategy will be materialized in the coming years.
Finally, it proposes the construction of territorial peacefrom the formation
processes linked to the characteristics of the environment and social inter-
action, promotion of research and intervention as a means for the transfer
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 217
and social appropriation of knowledge, and projection actions social who
seek greater presence of the University in the region and the inclusion of
communities in their institutional action.
In summary, in matters of STI, HEI establish in their development
plans strategies aimed at promoting two scenarios, the strengthening of
research and the relationship with the environment. From the first they
have proposed: the transfer of knowledge, the production of new knowl-
edge in terms of contributions to peace and the articulation of projects
with communities in order to improve the conditions of rural popu-
lations in the department of Cauca. Since the second they have been
proposed: social interaction and social intervention with communities and
government programs in relation to overcoming the conflict. Under this
argument, it is pertinent to expose the vocation of HEI from those actions
aimed at the construction of territorial peace.
8.4 HEI Activities in STI and Peace
The link between education and peace building is promoted by Law
1732 of 2014 and is regulated by Decree 1038 of 2015. It is indicated
that all educational institutions must implement the peace chair with
the primary objective of creating and consolidating spaces for learning,
reflection and dialog on the culture of peace and sustainable develop-
ment, thus contributing to the general well-being and improvement of
the population’s quality of life.
Although the regulations bind the institutions of basic and secondary
education in a compulsory way, with the institutions of higher education,
the obligation is subject to their constitutionally consecrated autonomy,
which allows them to establish, in addition to the chair of peace,
other curricular actions, of research and social projection as strategies to
contribute to the construction of territorial peace scenarios. Under this
idea, when reviewing the institutional actions developed by the regional
HEI in the Department, it is noted that the academic scenario does
not depart from the normative and contextual provisions around the
most sensitive and purposeful discussions of the national, regional and
local political context. Hence, that the activities carried out by the HEI
consulted in terms of territorial peace are relevant as they are part of new
constructive and propositional debates from the region. From 2012 to
2019, about 215 experiences support this argument.
218 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
Although Colombian legislation indicates that these activities should
be carried out since 2015, the HEI institutions consulted have devel-
oped curricular, research and projection actions since before the enact-
ment of the aforementioned legislation. Thus, from 2012 to 2014,
18.7% of the total activities reported (Advice and training to local
governments, (2) Postgraduate education, (3) Technological innovation
projects, (4) Promotion of entrepreneurship, (5) Training of human
talent, and (6) Social research projects) in STI were carried out.
A not less percentage since it shows that, if we consider that during this
period the negotiations in Havana with the FARC-EP guerrillas are barely
in an exploratory and dialog phase, the HEI continued to debate, expose
and denounce the strong incidence of the conflict armed in the social,
political and economic context of the department of Cauca. On the other
hand, since 2015 there is a greater correspondence with the regulations.
According to Fig. 8.1, institutional actions increase, from 9.8% to 18.6%
in 2016 and 23.7% in 2019.
When inquiring, what are the HEI that carried out the most academic
events in the key to peace education developed in the period studied:
The Universidad del Cauca records 57.3%, the Corporación Universitaria
Comfacauca 12.7%, the Corporación Universitaria Autonoma del Cauca
12% stand out as the three HEI with the highest number of academic
events (See Fig. 8.2).
3.7 4.2 3.7
9.8
18.6
14.9
21.4
23.7
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Fig. 8.1 Percentage of institutional activities carried out in terms of territo-
rial peace during 2012–2019 (Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,www.uni
autonoma.edu.co,www.fup.edu.co,www.unicomfacauca.edu.co,www.unimayor.
edu.co)
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 219
3.3 4.7 10.0 12.0 12.7
57.3
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
Agreement all
HEI
Institución
Universitaria
Colegio Mayor
del Cauca
Fundación
Universitaria de
Popayán
Corporación
Universitaria
Autónoma del
Cauca
Corporación
Universitaria
Comfacauca
Universidad del
Cauca
Fig. 8.2 Percentage of institutional activities carried out in terms of territorial
peace by the HEI of the department of Cauca. 2012–2019 (Source based on
www.unicauca.edu.co,www.uniautonoma.edu.co,www.fup.edu.co,www.unicom
facauca.edu.co,www.unimayor.edu.co)
5.1
10.2
13.6
15.3
24.6
34.7
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0
Advice and training to local governments
Postgraduate education
Technological innovation projects
Promotion of entrepreneurship
Training of human talent
Social research projects
Fig. 8.3 Percentage of classification of institutional activities carried out in
terms of territorial peace by the HEI of the department of Cauca. 2012–
2019 (Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,www.uniautonoma.edu.co,www.
fup.edu.co,www.unicomfacauca.edu.co,www.unimayor.edu.co)
On the other hand, the review of the type of academic activities carried
out by the HEI of Popayan in terms of territorial peace and peace educa-
tion allowed to establish six types of activities (See Fig. 8.3). To a lesser
extent (5.1%), decisive advisory and training activities were carried out for
the city on issues of conflict and peace. Postgraduate academic activities
are also carried out (10.2%). Those academic activities dedicated to the
220 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
training of human talent, especially public, private and civil society offi-
cials, oriented to the socialization of progress in the negotiation process
with the armed actors of the conflict, routes of attention and pedagogy for
peace meant 24.6% of HEI events. In terms of STI, technological innova-
tion projects were carried out, especially in communication technologies,
they were 13.6%. In addition, projects based on productive undertak-
ings in the key of peace and performative actions were carried out and
represented 15.3% of the total activities. Finally, the design, formulation
and application of research projects aimed at finding solutions for social
inclusion accounted for 34.7%
In the same way, it was possible to identify STI actions aimed at the
social inclusion of communities, the transfer of knowledge, and social
intervention in territories historically affected by the armed conflict.
Although some are not articulated in a specific way to the development
plans of the HEI, they constitute STI initiatives that have intervened
in specific realities of Cauca to rebuild the social fabric and promote
the construction of territorial peace. These research, interaction, and
social intervention strategies are grouped into the following six categories
(Fig. 8.4).
In the first one, there are initiatives of articulation with the environ-
ment for the guarantee and reestablishment of the rights of the rural
population of the department, that is, the work of the universities in the
different municipalities from consultancies and legal brigades for advice
victims of the armed conflict and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. In
the second one, social projection strategies are grouped for entrepreneur-
ship and regional productivity improvement, which seek the construction
of networks and spaces for interaction and innovation for small agricul-
tural production and marketing processes developed by communities in
the different territories of the department of Cauca.
In a third group, it is possible to identify intervention projects aimed
at innovation and the construction of social fabric in communities, social
organizations and territories that were affected by the armed conflict. In
this sense, the work to guarantee the rights of early childhood and adoles-
cence, psychosocial care for vulnerable populations, education for peace
based on virtual platforms and the construction of spaces for coexistence,
community leadership, training and promotion of innovative production
processes for ex-combatants and the training of the population in digital
technologies, web pages and email.
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 221
IES, CTeI
system and
inclusion for
peace
1. Articulation with
the environment
for the guarantee
and restoration of
rights
2. Social projection
for entrepreneurship
and regional
productivity
3. Intervention and
innovation for the
construction of the
social fabric
4. Research and
social interaction
for ST&I
management
5. Technology
applied to
production
processes
6. Formación de la
CTeI y la
construcción de la
paz territorial
Fig. 8.4 STI strategies in research, interaction and social intervention carried
out by IES of the department of Cauca (Source based on www.unicauca.edu.co,
www.uniautonoma.edu.co,www.fup.edu.co,www.unicomfacauca.edu.co,www.
unimayor.edu.co)
Likewise, it was possible to trace research and social interaction strate-
gies for STI management in municipalities and rural areas of the depart-
ment of Cauca that have a low technical and administrative capacity for
the development of technological processes and social innovation applied
to specific problems in the post-conflict. In this regard, the offer of higher
education institutions has been related to the constitution of observato-
ries, offices for social interaction and articulation with the environment
as instances for the application of socially useful technical studies and
support in decision-making; the design and construction of toolboxes for
the social appropriation of science, technology and innovation; the trans-
ference of knowledge to the municipalities and communities from applied
social research and; the constitution of project banks and information
systems of STI.
222 A. CASTILLO-GARCÉS ET AL.
The fifth category is made up of technology initiatives applied to
production and connectivity processes for remote areas of the department,
where proposals related to the exchange of experiences and knowledge
to promote social, economic, and technological development stand out.
Likewise, strategies for technology transfer and improving productivity
in community agricultural activities and optimizing connectivity in the
most remote areas of the department. In the sixth and last category,
are the activities developed by the universities for the formation of the
STI and the construction of territorial peace, where the regionalization
of academic programs toward the north and south of the department
stands out, and the offer of courses of extension, face-to-face and virtual,
to strengthen the training of human talent.
As can be seen, the STI initiatives for peace building implemented
by higher education institutions, the object of study, are numerous,
although some are not included in the institutional strategic plans,
which does not limit their impact and relevance. However, to improve
coverage and enhance results, it is necessary to advance in the articulation
between the strategies, seek complementarity and, from that perspective,
improve efficiency and effectiveness levels. In fact, within the frame-
work of the implementation of the peace accords, the construction of a
common agenda among higher education institutions is required to direct
and strengthen the investigation, intervention, and interaction processes
carried out in the different territories of the department. In the same way,
a greater synergy between the actors of the STI system with the Cauca
Government, the different municipalities, and the HEI, to achieve greater
effectiveness of public actions and evaluate the impact of the strategies
related to the STI for including social and peace building.
8.5 Final Considerations: STI
and Peace Building from HEI
It is not possible to think of the existence of a single way of intervening in
the territories. It is necessary to continue the debate on the scope of peace
and learn from the lessons already applied. Other points of view that link
new ways of understanding the territory, as well as the participation and
legitimacy of the processes will be of vital importance in the construction
of territorial peace. Here, HEI have the responsibility of institutional-
izing science, technology, and innovation systems for the fulfillment of
this objective.
8 THE CONTRIBUTION IN STI OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION … 223
The review of the development plans of the HEI of the department of
Cauca and their institutional actions in the key to peace makes it possible,
first of all, to determine that the HEI of the region have not included
in their development plans visible aspects around the consolidation of a
territorial peace, at least in those that are private. However, it is important
to bear in mind that these documents were drawn up during the negoti-
ation phase between the national government and the FARC-EP, that is,
before the signing of the Peace Agreement. Of course, this did not limit
the performance of HEI at least during these early post-conflict years. On
the contrary, there was a sample of actions linked to research, interven-
tion and social interaction as a motor for social inclusion based on STI
strategies which allowed, among other things, to contribute directly to
the social appropriation of new discourses such as the peace, the recon-
struction of the social fabric and the transfer of knowledge to mitigate
serious problems in the territories of the department of Cauca.
Despite the challenges such as the low budget for research and the
limited technical and technological capacities of local governments, the
valuable contribution of HEI in the construction of territorial peace
through STI initiatives that have sought social inclusion cannot be
ignored. Starting from work with communities, the transmission of
knowledge to strengthen productive and community processes, the devel-
opment of technologies to reduce the digital divide and the training of
human talent to promote competitiveness and innovation. In the same
way, the research and social interaction activities developed from the HEI
generate a significant contribution to the processes of design, execution
and evaluation of policies, plans and programs oriented toward peace and
social inclusion.
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CHAPTER 9
A Classification Model to Analyze Inclusion
in Higher Education Systems:
An Approximation from Contingency Theory
Cristhian Fabián Ruiz Ramos, Ricardo Bonilla Jiménez,
Javier García-Estévez, and Luis Antonio Orozco
9.1 Introduction
Inclusion in higher education systems (HES) is an issue of great impor-
tance because it allows nations to generate development opportunities.
It also represents a way to provide opportunities to different population
groups, especially those with vulnerable conditions or who are excluded.
UNESCO initiated the promotion of inclusion in education at the 1994
C. F. R. Ramos (B)
Senior Consultant in Innovation Management, Bogotá, Colombia
Director of the Research Group “Gestión Ambiental y Competitividad”,
Bogotá, Colombia
R. B. Jiménez
Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: ricardo.bonilla.j@uniminuto.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-030- 80720-7_9
227
228 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
World Conference on Special Educational Needs: Access and Quality
held in Spain (UNESCO, 1994). Since then, this UN organization
has encouraged the development of national and organizational policies
that promote attention not only to people with disabilities but also for
different groups that could be marginalized by their social conditions.
Latin American countries have introduced legislative reforms and
public policies to improve access, permanence, and the achievement of
graduation diplomas from higher education institutions (HEI) with a
focus on disabled students. However, the discourse on diversity and social
inclusion based on moral imperatives (also sponsored by public policies)
differs significantly from current university practices. Elite universities
maintain a low inclusion of students from low socio-economic status
(LSES) and generally incorporate talented students (Hughes, 2015).
One of the most important indicators from university rankings takes
into account the capacity of HEI to carry out the three missions of higher
education: teaching, research, and technology transfer through inno-
vation and entrepreneurship. According to Hughes (2015), the lowest
ranked universities are teaching-oriented organizations. They concentrate
their efforts on achieving excellent teaching processes on populations that
have complex needs such as LSES. For these types of universities, neither
enhanced research through hiring PhDs nor assuming challenges of the
third mission are a priority.
Inclusion in HES has been mainly understood as a diversity issue in
which any person has the right to access an HEI regardless of abilities,
race, gender, nationality, or any other characteristic (Wood, 2015). There-
fore, there is a concern about including students from different social and
cultural backgrounds (Dassin, Enders & Kottmann, 2014).
Inclusion involves “organizational strategies and practices that promote
meaningful social and academic interactions among persons and groups
J. García-Estévez
Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: jh.garcia@uniandes.edu.co
L. A. Orozco
School of Management, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá,
Colombia
e-mail: luis.orozco@uexternado.edu.co
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 229
who differ in their experiences, their views, and their traits” (Tienda,
2013, p. 467).
Inclusion is a multidimensional concept that addresses issues for
students, teachers, and administrative staff related to diversity, equity,
coverage, and student dropout, as well as access, success, and participation
of different interest groups. However, empirical studies on inclusion focus
on the student population, mainly in particular social groups (Contini
&Salza,2020; Cupito & Langesten, 2011; Sahni & Shankar, 2012).
There are conflicts among access—as a measure of social inclusion—
and quality—seen through success that reflects performance and outcome
indicators—(Contini & Salza, 2020; Gidley et al., 2010) and the results
of university rankings. It can be expected that universities will seek to
allocate resources to increase indicators related to quality in terms of the
number of PhDs and indexed publications rather than expanding coverage
to populations that may not be able to get good results from tests such
as the SAT. This phenomenon is known as the tension between elite
institutions and extensive higher education (Gidley et al., 2010)andthe
dichotomy between inclusion and effectiveness in terms of graduation rate
(Contini & Salza, 2020).
Access, not only for students but also for teachers and administra-
tive staff, is the first step of inclusion, and this may vary according to
contingent factors such as the geographic location of the universities and
their immediate surroundings. Success of inclusion should not only take
into account fulfilling a university’s educational objectives and the level
of incorporation and professional development of a university commu-
nity (Gidley et al., 2010); it should also be reflected as a mechanism to
promote regional development.
In Colombia, inclusion has been understood from a management
perspective, in which IES are transformed and adapted to overcome the
limitations and barriers that students have for learning, especially certain
vulnerable social groups (Ministerio de Educación Nacional [MEN],
2013, cited by Arizabaleta Domínguez & Ochoa Cubillos, 2016). This
approach to inclusion focuses mainly on populations “from ethnic groups,
victims of the armed conflict, people with disabilities, gypsy populations,
LGBTI, border residents, and peasants, among others, to create inclusive-
learning environments with social impact” (Arizabaleta Domínguez &
Ochoa Cubillos, 2016).
230 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
The launch of the Guidelines Policy for Inclusive Higher Education in
2014 is one of the processes that the MEN carried out to improve inclu-
sion in higher education. This document provides policies to care for
the particular populations that, due to their conditions, require specific
treatment according to current law (see Decree 780 of 2016). In this
framework, inclusion is measured considering students, teachers, and
administrative populations in terms of the perception they have about
the policies, programs, plans, and actions of IES to serve target groups
comprehensively. However, we do not have studies that analyze inclusion
taking into account how IES incorporate students and PhDs according to
their regional features where IES have influence.
According to the statistics reported by the National Information
System of Higher Education (SNIES - MEN, 2016), in 2018, 637
municipalities in Colombia had enrollment of at least one person in
higher education programs, representing about 57% of the total number
of municipalities in the country. However, most of the higher educa-
tion programs are highly concentrated in a few departments or cities of
the country, representing a significant coverage gap. For example, 33%
of higher education students are enrolled in Bogotá, 13.9% in Antio-
quia, 7.5% in Valle del Cauca, 5.5% in Atlántico, and 5.3% in Santander.
Therefore, Bogotá and these four departments represent 65.2% of the
higher education enrollment while the other 28 departments represent
just 34.8%. In Arauca, Amazonas, Guainía, Vaupés, and Vichada, the
coverage rate is below 10%. This shows a high disparity in terms of access
to higher education.
Figure 9.1 shows the Gini Index of Undergraduate Enrollment in
Colombia from 2006 to 2015. The index had a 0.8 percentage point
reduction during this period (going from 66 in 2006 to 65.2% in 2015).
This variation suggests a marginal reduction in territorial inequality
related to access to higher education. Colombia has made progress in
reducing dropout rates, achieving a national university dropout rate of
9% in 2016. In comparison, the university dropout rate in technical,
professional, and technological subjects (T&T) was 17.1% (SPADIES).
This chapter analyzes the inclusion of PhDs and students in the
Colombian university system from a regional perspective. We propose a
model to classify and forecast the inclusion of students and PhDs within
a contingency theory framework to contribute to resource planning
according to environmental conditions and to allow for better adjustment
of governance efforts in the STI system.
232 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
Over the last two decades, the contribution of higher education
in inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development has signifi-
cantly increased through several channels such as fostering innovation,
increasing higher skills, and widening access. HES can contribute to inclu-
sive development by preparing citizens and creating new knowledge to
face technological change and socio-economic challenges.
There has been a growing demand to widen the access to higher educa-
tion and change the elitist nature of universities. The massive expansion
of higher education across all continents has been one of the defining
features of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (Guri-
Rosenblit et al., 2007). Including more students as a means to contribute
to social development has increased due to national policies and the
natural growth of higher education institutions (Ferreyra et al., 2017).
In the early 1980s, several countries started to develop quality assess-
ment systems for higher education (Van Vught & Westerheijden, 1994).
Accreditations and rankings have increased in national and international
realms as institutional instances that define legitimacy (Marope et al.,
2013), exerting pressures to increase the number of PhDs and the
teaching-student related indicators (Wächter et al., 2015) seen as part of
what is considered quality in higher education (Reyes, 2016). Univer-
sities tried to hire more PhDs to accomplish teaching and research
missions and move to the third mission that is oriented toward inno-
vation, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship (Villaveces & Orozco,
2015). Larger numbers of PhDs means a university’s human capital can
encompass training as well as creating new knowledge in a virtuous cycle,
implying signals of quality that could subsequently more students.
Two of the main concerns and central indicators in HES are the inclu-
sion of undergraduate students and Ph.Ds. In addition to the oversupply
of PhDs in universities, the number of freshmen has also decreased in
recent years in several Colombian HES. This imbalance leads to a gover-
nance problem in terms of adjusting the inclusion of human capital in
HEIs.
During the twentieth century’s last two decades, STI policies provided
several incentives to train PhDs worldwide, despite the absorptive capacity
of STI systems (Mangematin, 2000). At the beginning of the second
decade of the twenty-first century, Cyranoski, Ledford, Nayar, and Yahia
(2011) analyzed the overproduction of PhDs in the world and the prob-
lems incorporating doctors into stable jobs in developed economies. The
authors found that the number of scientists with PhDs grew 40% from
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 233
1998 to 2008. However, the labor market began to constrain. Mange-
matin (2000, p. 741) indicated that “It is becoming more and more
difficult for PhD graduates to find a job corresponding to their quali-
fications”. Also, Cyranoski et al. (2011, p. 276) observed that “science
Ph.D. graduates may never get a chance to take full advantage of their
qualifications. In some countries, including the United States and Japan,
people who have trained at great length and expense to be researchers
confront a dwindling number of academic jobs”.
Over the last decade, the number of PhDs in Colombia has increased.
There were 6,665 PhDs in 2007 and 17,224 in 2016. The number of
PhDs linked to research activities was 520 in 2007 and 3,029 in 2016
(OCyT, 2018). The number of professors increased from 5,649 in 2010
to 13,797 in 2018. In addition, the number of PhD programs grew from
78 in 2007 to 266 in 2016. As a consequence, the number of students
that received a PhD degree rose from 97 in 2007 to 803 in 2018 (SNIES,
2019).
Inclusion in terms of an increase in number of students has been
significant over the last several decades in the Colombian HEIs. Student
numbers have steadily grown from 1990 to 2016, from around 487,448
to 2,320,148 (Observatorio de la Universidad Colombiana, sf). Despite
this increase, Colombia still has one of the lowest shares of tertiary-
educated adults among OECD countries. In 2018, 15.4% of Colombia’s
population of 25–64 year-olds had a tertiary education, where 27% have a
tertiary education in the OECD countries, almost double. Although the
share of Colombia’s tertiary-educated younger adults (25–34 year-olds) is
slightly higher at 29%, it is still among the lowest of the OECD countries
(44.5% for younger adults) (OECD, 2019).
The private sector plays an important role in Colombian tertiary educa-
tion, particularly at the bachelor’s and master’s levels where 60–70% of
students are enrolled compared to 30% on average across OECD coun-
tries. In contrast, only 20% of short-cycle tertiary students are enrolled
in private institutions in Colombia compared to 40% on average across
OECD countries (OECD, 2019).
The Ministry of Education—MEN reported Colombia had 2,280,327
undergraduate students in 2017. This number dropped to 2,267,140 in
2018, a reduction of 0.6%. New students in Colombian HES decreased
between 2017 and 2018 by 13.6%, as the number of students went from
798,431 to 690,168 (SNIES, 2019).
234 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
The phenomena described above reveals a tension in the trend of
universities. They want to engage PhDs but simultaneously have prob-
lems recruiting more students. There is no evidence that the number of
students is growing in Colombia, but more students are needed to engage
PhDs.
One of the STI system governing goals is including more people in
HES, promoting developing and creating capacities to produce more citi-
zens and knowledge. In developing economies in Latin America, the labor
market for PhDs in HES has not been evaluated. Developing models
to explain and classify social inclusion in universities according to their
capacity to hire PhDs and grow in terms of students has been neglected.
Studies of higher education are emerging in the literature that use
the contingency theory framework to explain the relationship between
changes in the environment and the universities’ response (Kováts, 2018).
This research proposes a model to explain the relationship between
university size in terms of students and the absorptive capacity to
incorporate doctors in their faculties, using the contingency theory
framework developed in organizational studies. The model helps plan
resources to improve social inclusion in HEIs. The model was applied to
universities with different environmental conditions in the labor market
(country capital vs. regions) and helps identify groups of universities
according to their organizational mission—from teaching to research and
entrepreneurship—and forecast their capacity to grow with new students
and PhD professors. Also, the model helps organize the number of PhDs
according to the demand of HES in terms of students in undergraduate
programs.
The chapter is structured as follows. The next section presents a review
of the literature used to develop the model. The second part presents the
methodology defined to construct the model using the case of Colombian
HEIs. The third part shows the results, and the fourth part present the
conclusions.
9.2 Theoretical Background
9.2.1 Inclusiveness in HES as a Means of Development
and Regional Inequality
Inclusive development emerged on the global development discourse in
the early 2000s. According to UNDP, development can be inclusive
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 235
and reduce poverty only if every social group contributes to creating
opportunities, shares benefits from development, and participates in the
decision-making process (UNDP, 2013). This inclusiveness allows more
governance of the HEIs. The word inclusiveness has gained a wide
content in the debate both at the academic and policy levels.
Inclusiveness can be defined in terms of the capability of providing
wide opportunities along with race, ethnicity, gender, income, and social
class lines to attain higher education degrees. It also aims at promoting
equity and social cohesion (European Commission, 2018). Inclusiveness
can also be defined in terms of access—if the enrollment probability is
high for all social groups, or completion—if the (timely) completion prob-
ability given enrollment is high for all social groups. Inclusiveness can
mean emphasizing the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized people;
peri-urban areas, sectors, and regions; participation in policy and politics
(Lawson, 2010); a broad education processes; social infrastructure for all;
capacity building to enable the marginalized to use opportunities; recog-
nition of a plural system of rights, that is, also customary rights; enabling
people to help themselves; and the redistribution of power to allow for
redistribution of resources (Pouw & Gupta, 2017).
The global development discourse has broadened its focus beyond a
narrow definition of development as a primarily economic process to one
with an integral focus on the achievement of equity and the rights of
citizenship (Hickey et al., 2015). From a higher education perspective,
inclusive development implies widening access since a broad education
is one of the most important ways to reduce inequalities across social
groups, gender, and regions (Conceição et al., 2001). Higher education
may help reduce inequality, foster social inclusion, and deal with social
challenges. In fact, there is evidence of the role of HEIs as technological
promoters, which help solve social problems and connect directly with
people’s daily needs, supporting the dynamics of inclusion, justice, and
well-being (Kruss et al., 2015).
The importance of higher education is rising in modern societies in
which economies are based on knowledge and innovation. For instance,
the EU2020 strategy defined in 2010 set the goal that 40% of the indi-
viduals aged 25–34 have a tertiary education by 2020. HES are no longer
purely elite systems so there are greater societal expectations for fair access
to them (Brewis, 2019). Nonetheless, inequality in access to HES remains
pervasive around the world (Atherton et al., 2016).
236 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
Social inclusion in higher education refers to the increasing access to
higher education and degree completion for underrepresented groups,
improving countries’ human capital, and innovation capacity while
fostering social inclusion of citizens and increasing their labor market
opportunities (Kottmann et al., 2019). A recent progress report on the
Bologna process implementation confirms that students from low socio-
economic backgrounds, migrant backgrounds, and students with chronic
illnesses or disabilities are still underrepresented in higher education
(Kottmann et al., 2019). The Italian higher education system demon-
strates that inclusiveness is not just a matter of access because, despite the
absence of formal entry barriers, Italy is lagging behind the majority of
the developed countries in the share of young individuals with tertiary
education (Contini & Salza, 2020).
From a regional development perspective, inclusion in HEIs provides
several mechanisms to improve standards of living. HEIs can support the
specific needs and circumstances of regional economic, social, and cultural
development. They can link with public and private regional partners to
develop local industries. They contribute to a region’s comparative advan-
tage in knowledge-based industries and to its human capital base, as they
train professionals who may be more likely to remain in the regions after
graduation (OECD, 2017).
The capacity of HEIs to contribute to the development of STI systems
mainly depends on the inclusion of PhDs and students. First, PhDs
contribute to the creation of knowledge, consultancy services, improve-
ments in teaching, and the incorporation of new technologies, among
others. Second, it is recognized that the inclusion of students is impor-
tant for improving the lives of people, job creation, economic growth, and
social fairness. Therefore, there is a growing need to widen opportunities
for access and completion for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
9.2.2 The Shortcomings of the Inclusion of Students and PhD in HES
The increase of PhDs has risen in recent years, creating pressures in the
labor market in developed economies (Cyranoski et al., 2011) to the point
that a doctoral education is in crisis (Halse, 2007). In European coun-
tries like Italy, the number of PhDs increased between 2000 and 2012
by more than 300%, “while a decrease has been reported by the Univer-
sities’ personnel” (Gaeta et al., 2017, p. 245). Moreover, according to
Santos, Horta and Heitor (2016, p. 354), citing Miller and Feldman
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 237
(2014), the complexity of academic work includes “unpredictable and
unsatisfactory career prospects… where contingent faculty, postdoctoral
positions followed by more postdoctoral positions, and limited research
and academic freedom is the expected career path”. In terms of the
capacity of universities to engage PhDs, Soucek et al. (2017) found
that obtaining a PhD does not imply an improvement in salary. Rather,
self-employment allows better income. Finally, studies in countries like
Norway (Wiers-Jenssen & Try, 2005) and Colombia (Orozco, 2016)
reveal the rising competition between national and immigrant academics.
The labor market in fields like management, pressured by the need for
internationalization, tends to hire and value immigrants with PhDs more
than national professors (Orozco, 2016).
In Portugal, a critical analysis of the claim “too many Ph.D.s” was
addressed by Santos et al (2016), showing that PhDs tend to move
beyond stable jobs at universities. Cuthbert and Molla (2015) show
how developed economies tend to enhance doctoral programs to include
training that allow graduates to get a job outside HES. In Australia, nearly
50% of PhDs find a job outside of academia due to the reframing of
doctoral education to train people in a wide skillset to overcome unem-
ployment. The current frame in the fourth industrial revolution brings
new opportunities to high-level training, especially in research (Schwab,
2017). In fact, previous research reveals that firms in the Colombian
manufacturing industry that engage PhDs tend to innovate more (Orozco
et al., 2010), aiming for the incorporation of PhDs in the industry. Also,
PhDs may contribute to high technological entrepreneurship (Villaveces
&Orozco,2015) and lead public administration and non-profit organiza-
tions (Cuthbert & Molla, 2015). In conclusion, universities may present
disadvantages to compete for hiring PhDs.
The contingency theory stated that changes in the environment that
lead to uncertainty influence organizations to define strategies and struc-
tures that can respond and fit the external conditions to perform better
(Donaldson, 2001). Subsequently, differing environmental conditions
lead to a variety of types of organizational strategies and structures.
Universities have adjusted their organizational mission according to the
changes presented in the environment (Scott, 2006). Since the first indus-
trial revolution, three university models can be identified: the Napoleonic
devoted to teaching, the Humboldtian oriented toward research, and
the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-American model that promotes the so-called
238 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
“third mission” based on innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge
commercialization (Sam & Van der Sijde, 2014).
Kováts (2018) introduced the contingency theory to explain faculty
growth and the increase of decentralization to accomplish teaching and
research activities due to the rise of university size in terms of new
students and the changes in legal conditions. Universities that want to
reach the third mission and adjust their organizational capacity to survive
and grow in the changing environment need to increase the number
of PhDs at faculties to comply with the institutional request of what is
defined as a quality in HES (Orozco et al., 2018).
In Latin America, researchers in the region almost doubled between
2000 and 2010, especially in countries like Argentina, Colombia, and
Mexico (Barro & Fernández, 2015). However, as Barro and Fernández
(2015, p. 532) concluded, “The number of PhDs is still insufficient
to establish an intensive R&D program in most of the countries in
the region”. If the PhD supply is low, universities postpone hiring and
increase teaching loads and class sizes from staff and faculty members
(Basil & Basil, 2006).
HES in Latin America present shortcomings in moving toward accom-
plishing the third mission and adjusting their structures to changing
environments framed by the fourth technological revolution. As Orozco
et al. (2018) found, an elite group of universities that show good
performance in teaching also present better results in activities related
to the third mission in Colombia despite variables like student size
and geographical location. However, universities rely on tuition and the
number of students. So, good universities may search for an increase of
students by an increase of PhDs.
The contingency model developed below differentiates universities by
environments (given by location) and its organizational strategy, whose
mission can be identified and inferred by its growth trend.
From a complex science approximation, it is not enough to describe
and characterize a phenomenon; it is necessary to propose an explanation
for its behavior. As Levy (2000) stated, “Dynamic nonlinear systems with
feedback mechanisms can exhibit complex, unpredictable behavior within
which underlying patterns and structure can be discerned” (p. 83). We
expect the same from this complex system composed by different types of
universities inside the HES.
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 239
9.3 Methodology
The proposed model is based on the principle of contingency theory that
the evolution of an element of a system depends on its current state and its
ability to respond to environmental conditions. Although all Colombian
universities have the same regulatory framework, their conditions, like the
regional munificence or financial generosity, in terms of PhDs as a labor
market and the number of students differ significantly.
To be coherent with the contingency theory, we propose a model
based on probability distribution functions over linear or deterministic
models. It is possible to locate regions of statistical order and disorder
of elements within a distribution function. This model will consider the
current state of each of its elements, Colombian HEIs. Their positions in
the distribution can reveal possible underlying dynamics.
According to theories of Complex Science, analyzing distribution func-
tions can point out regions of statistical disorder among subgroups of its
agents. These regions of disorder highlight HEIs that could be exploring
the system and are usually identifying opportunities. The distribution
functions can also point out regions of statistical order among a subgroup
of its agents. These HEIs could be interpreted to have overcome the
exploration of opportunities and instead have moved to exploiting them.
Statistical disorders are usually displayed by normal or exponential
distributions, and statistical order are represented by Power Law or Pareto
distributions (Andriani & McKelvey, 2007,2009). Working with a distri-
bution function implies that a response given the same stimulus depends
on its agents and context. This model calculates distribution functions for
PhD distribution on HEI and distribution function of freshmen on HEI
and the possible relations.
The model does not intend to predict the increase of PhDs given an
increase in the number of students. It intends to show that a growth
stimulus in students does not generate the same stimulus in the growth of
PhDs. It will be shown that a complex system composed of heterogeneous
actors translates the same stimulus into different responses. From the
contingency theory point of view, the strategies of each system element
are conditioned both to the environment and to its capacity to act on it.
To calculate changes in the distribution function to identify order or
disorder regions it is needed to create a fit of the observed distribution
function. The difficulty of this construction is that the distribution fit
must be smooth and for the entire distribution. For this, the parametric fit
for long-tail distribution proposed by Bonilla and Zarama (2012)isused.
240 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
Bonilla and Zarama (2012) propose a fit using a piecewise function with
continuous derivatives. The piecewise function will be possible changes in
the underlying dynamic.
The piecewise functions used to fit long-tail distributions is:
f1(x)=xλ(xk1A1+x−k1B1)for1≤x≤x1
f2(x)=xλ(xk2A2+x−k2B2)forx
1<x
where ki,Ai,Bi,λ,andxiare fit parameters.
An advantage of using a piecewise function model to fit the distribu-
tions is the ability to identify thresholds where the distribution changes.
As presented by Bonilla and Zarama (2011), the piecewise adjustment
function is theoretical. Therefore, predictions based on changes in the
distribution relate to actual changes in the behavior of the system. Fitting
the distribution functions in this way allows us to identify points at
which the dynamics of the system change. Figures 9.2 and 9.3 show
Fig. 9.2 Complementary cumulative distribution function of the number of
students enrolled by HEI (Source Education Information System [SNIES],
January 2018. Dashed vertical lines show the change in the stepwise function
at 10,000 freshmen. The KS-test gives a pValue =0.36 greater than 0.05, then
the null hypothesis the data follow a specified distribution is accepted)
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 241
Fig. 9.3 Complementary cumulative distribution function of PhDs hired by
HEI (Source Education Information System [SNIES], January 2018. Dashed
vertical lines show the change in the stepwise function so in the underlying
dynamic at 130 PhDs. The KS-test gives a pValue =0.18 greater than 0.05,
then the null hypothesis the data follow a specified distribution is accepted)
the fit for PhDs in HEI and for freshmen. Mathematically the fit is over
the Cumulative Distribution Function to calculate Kolmogorov–Smirnov
Goodness-of-Fit Test (KS-Test).
9.4 Results
Combining results from freshmen and PhDs fits, a model can be defined
with four areas. In three quadrants, universities are grouped by their
order–disorder dynamic (see Fig. 9.4). These areas and their quadrants
are defined from the changes in the curve of the distribution function of
the variables shown in Figs. 9.2 and 9.3.
In quadrant A1 there are 168 HEIs in a disordered state for both
the freshmen distribution and PhD distribution that can be interpreted
as HEI that are looking for opportunities or strategies on recruiting new
students and understanding opportunities around hiring PhDs. In quad-
rant A2 there are 3 HEIs that are in an ordered state given the freshmen
distribution but in a disordered state given the PhD distribution. The
242 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
HEI in this quadrant have a deep understanding of the academic market
and clear strategies to take advantage attracting undergraduate students,
but in terms of PhDs they do not seem to be interested or do not have
a clear understanding what to do. Finally, in quadrant A3, there are 22
HEI that display a statistical order relating to PhDs but show disorder
for freshmen. These have identified how PhDs bring value to their insti-
tutions but lack clear strategies to recruit undergraduate students, for
example, because they don’t have a large program offering.
Quadrant A1 presents the universities that take advantage of the
increase of students with the engagement of some PhDs. The model
classified 168 universities in this area, 16 of which were defined by
the model of Orozco et al. (2018) as organizations able to perform
the third mission with high-quality results in teaching. Orozco et al.
(2018, p. 206) found that universities in this group “are capable of being
involved in academic entrepreneurship while generating synergies with the
professional education that constitutes the basis of their mission”.
The methodology proposed brings insight to create categories to
analyze the HES and clearly invites us to perform deeper studies to
explore how regions overcome the imbalance between a decrease in
freshmen and increase in PhDs. Figure 9.5 shows the change in freshmen
between 2017 and 2018 on average by region on the x-axis, and the
Fig. 9.4 Clusters that determine HEI on statistical order or disorder state
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 243
change in PhDs in the same period on the y-axis. On this figure, devel-
opment Level 1 indicates a region with low development conditions and
Level 4 with high development conditions on a logarithmic scale.
Figure 9.5 shows HEIs in all four quadrants, meaning there are HEIs
displaying growths in both freshmen and PhDs and all possible other
combinations. Although there is at least one regional development level
in each quadrant, there are no obvious relations between average change
in Freshman or PhD population with the regional development Index
(Consejo Privado de Competitividad and Universidad del Rosario, 2019).
The figure shows that the HEI in Atlantico is the only one that tried
to engage more students despite creating research capacities, including
more Ph.D. However, this type of tendency does not seems adequate
to improve the quality, and the trend of the most developed regions is to
grow more in doctors than in first-year students. As Ochoa (2019) stated,
the increase of students does not mean more quality in a HES that 50%
of students withdraw from their careers.
Fig. 9.5 Average Change in freshman vs. Change in PhDs by Region and
Development Between 2017–2018 at Colombian HEIs
244 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
To explore the relation by region more deeply, Fig. 9.6 presents the
change in freshmen between 2017 and 2018 on the x-axis, and the change
in PhDs in the same period on the y-axis for each HEI in a region at each
development level. In this figure, it is possible to see that HEIs in the
same region experience different conditions or opportunities given their
knowledge or strategies.
Figure 9.6 shows that an analysis of individual conditions by HEI is
needed. Regions with more than three HEIs have institutions in more
than one quadrant, showing there are HEIs with strategies adapted
to conditions but also institutions that fail to grow in Freshmen and
PhD simultaneously. In addition, Figure 9.6 shows a huge regional
heterogeneity and a wide range of universities’ conditions. Regional
context influences universities’ environmental conditions according to
contingency theory. Colombia has huge regional disparities in terms
of socio-economic development, institutional capacities, regional leader-
ship, governance, and collective knowledge. All these factors affect the
universities’ absorptive capacity to carry out strategies that strengthen
their conditions to better perform teaching, research, and third mission.
In Figure 9.6, we can classify the regional patterns into three groups.
Regions with a better level of development such as Antioquia, Bogotá,
and Atlantico. The second group of regions with similar “intermediate”
levels of development such as Cundinamarca, Santander, and Valle del
Cauca. Finally, some poor regions such as Chocó and Cauca. Therefore,
universities’ strategies to foster social inclusion should take into account
regional context and build conditions for governance. Figure 9.6 shows
a huge regional heterogeneity and a wide range of universities condi-
tions. Regional context influences universities’ environmental conditions
according to contingency theory. Colombia has huge regional disparities
in terms of socio-economic development, institutional capacities, regional
leadership, governance, and collective knowledge. All these factors affect
the universities’ absorptive capacity to carry out strategies that strengthen
their conditions to better perform teaching, research, and third mission.
Therefore, universities’ strategies to foster social inclusion should take
into account regional context and build conditions for governance.
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 245
Fig. 9.6 Change in Freshman vs. Change in PhDs Between 2017–2018 for
each Colombian HEI by Region and Development level
9.5 Conclusion
In recent years, the institutional pressures to increase social inclusion in
the HES have been increasing in an imbalance between the incorpora-
tion of students and Ph.D. to achieve the university mission in education
and research. Therefore, the governance of social inclusion in the HES
needs tools to evaluate the absorptive capacity according to the environ-
mental demands. The contingency theory of organizations asserts that
“there is no structure which is effective in every environment (there is
246 C. F. R. RAMOS ET AL.
no one best way)” (Kováts, 2018, p. 75). The current challenges for
management research imply recognizing that no single national policy
can improve the universities’ capacity to grow, engaging more people.
Decision-makers face new governance problems involving multiple vari-
ables that cannot be reduced to one choice and cannot be fully described
or delimited, thinking HES as a unit where all universities must fit in a
single set of rules. As Duncan (1993) argued for management researchers,
the principal challenges are related to “changes in social values, organi-
zational structures, and management practices” (p. 255). Therefore, the
governance of HES cannot be achieved using standards that avoid the
missionary orientation of each university and the region where it belongs.
This chapter provides a probabilistic model that allows estimating the
level of statistical order and disorder reflecting how HEIs co-exist in the
imbalance system between demand and offer of newcomers students and
PhDs according to the contingency factors. The model shows there are
HEIs exploring opportunities (statistical disorder) and others exploiting
opportunities (statistical order) according to their region. The model also
provides basic elements that lead to a better understanding of the char-
acteristics of universities that oriented their strategy to the third mission.
The relationship between the number of students and Ph.D. makes it
possible to classify institutions oriented toward innovation, technology
transfer, and entrepreneurship according to the environmental condi-
tions as contingency theory stated. We start from universities’ tendency
to move from teaching to the third mission devoted to innovation and
entrepreneurship. Under this assumption, we find institutions that require
more significant growth in their Ph.D. staff. However, in an emerging
economy like Colombia, the trend of the universities shows greater
growth in students than in doctors. Universities in Colombia have been
raising their infrastructure by 37% per year (Dinero, 2019), and the
Covid-19 effect will enhance the tendency to grow using digital tech-
nologies for virtual and remote education. The question remains if social
inclusion is oriented toward student engagement while universities tried
to achieve financial efficiencies with fewer Ph.Ds, promotes the quality of
the HES (Aristizabal and Orozco, 2020;Orozcoetal.,2018). We hope
to contribute to new forms of researching the trends of HES according to
the variables that define mission statements oriented toward the particular
conditions of each university and promote the idea that good governance
needs to go beyond policies that seek that one size fits all.
9 A CLASSIFICATION MODEL TO ANALYZE INCLUSION … 247
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CHAPTER 10
Methodology for the Governance
and Management of the University
as a Complex Adaptive System Based
on the Three Missions: Research, Education,
and Connecting with Its Surroundings
Ronald Cancino, Luis Antonio Orozco, Javier Medina,
Mauricio García, José Coloma, Felipe Bustos,
and Cristian Alister
10.1 Introduction
The transformations in university environments seem to be becoming
more compelling. On the one hand, a trend that has been ongoing for
some time now places the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a
R. Cancino (B)·M. García ·F. Bustos
Social Sciences Department and Researcher at Centro de Investigaciones
Sociológicas (CIS), Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile
e-mail: ronald.cancino@ufrontera.cl
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-030- 80720-7_10
253
254 R. CANCINO ET AL.
frame of reference for all strategic actions of the systems of higher educa-
tion. On the other hand, the present and future pandemic and syndemic
scenarios do not only seem to transform society, but also, they place at
the forefront a relation problem between science and society where the
principal actor is the university. In Latin America, there appear to be
two principal tensions regarding university development, and they place
the current capabilities and the models of governance and management
of STI capabilities to the test. In the first place, the particularities of
the social, cultural, territorial, and productive environments faced with
cultural dilemmas, problems of poverty, productive stagnation, and the
lagging of STI, are added to the global megatrends with strong local
impacts in pandemic scenarios, and the continuous activations of disas-
ters and catastrophes all of which the university must confront. Secondly,
universities are oriented—by science and innovation systems—to reorga-
nize and prioritize those capacities that perform best in the service of
the interests of those who finance or exercise ideologies with political
power, generating problems of increasing internal gaps as well as causing
fractures in academic communities around the three university missions:
training of human capital, generation of knowledge, and connecting to
the surroundings through innovation and technology transfer.
In the last three decades in Latin America, the notion of the National
Innovation System has been strongly disseminated as a policy model
that was originally conceived as an explanatory model for the socio-
institutional and technical changes and the relationship between agents
with STI capabilities, has become a normative model in the region, which
has transformed institutional architectures, incentive systems, and rela-
tionship models between agents that produce, intermediate and demand
L. A. Orozco
School of Management, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá,
Colombia
e-mail: luis.orozco@uexternado.edu.co
J. Medina
Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
J. Coloma
Alberto Hurtado University, Santiago, Chile
C. Alister
Catholic University, Temuco, Chile
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 255
knowledge and technologies, without generating the expected impacts
obtained in developed countries (Arocena & Sutz, 2000). We argue
that this systemic model has expressed a development model that has
failed to transform the low knowledge and technology-intensive forms
of industry (its foundational mission as a normative model), and further-
more, has activated a set of social, cultural, territorial, and environ-
mental dilemmas, consequences of what today is called “neo-extractivism”
(Svampa, 2019), and which continuously present strong socio-technical
problems, conflicts, and controversies between science for development
and freedom, as Sen would say, or science at the service of the ideology
of competitiveness and the struggle for the supremacy of economic and
commercial domination.
This has caused universities to have to face a heterogeneous envi-
ronment: changes in the normative priorities in the societies in which
they operate, changing scientific productivity dynamics, high competition,
gaps in the needs of immediate environments, change in the behavior
of their researchers, emphasis on diverse management models (Barra,
2019; Jurado-Paz & Morán-Vallejo, 2019; Rivero et al., 2018). Hence,
university institutional management is constituted as a space of mediation
between the environment, its dynamics, and the university’s own oper-
ations (Krog, 2018). However, it should be noted that the installation
of units oriented to the analysis and generation of inputs for evidence-
based decision-making is not devoid of internal tensions between the
academic dynamics themselves, within the framework of the three univer-
sity missions—training, research, and extension—(Orozco et al., 2018),
and the demands attributable to the environment in the framework of the
SDGs in which there is a lack of translating agents between the university
with the demands of knowledge, and the integration to the global circuits
of knowledge circulation in unfavorable and significantly asymmetrical
conditions between organizations (Correa, 2014; Feld & Kreimer, 2020;
Kreimer & Ugartemendía, 2007).
Given the definitions of a university in the twenty-first century
(Araneda & Pedraja, 2017), systematically challenged to provide human
capital, knowledge, and technologies to the environment for the resolu-
tion of problems of different orders, and the growing pressure to assume
in a third mission the role of agent of innovation and entrepreneurship
(Orozco & Chavarro, 2008), studies on this institution have assumed
a similarly parceled form. Thus, each function operates as its own field
of knowledge and research, highlighting specific challenges for each of
256 R. CANCINO ET AL.
the university missions (Altbach, 2006;Correa,2014;Orozcoetal.,
2018). The university-environment gaps (Casas et al., 2014; Etzkowitz
& Leydesdorff, 1995; Wright et al., 2004), the tensions provoked by
regulatory schemes on scientific productivity and their impact on research
practices (Abbott, 2020; Bloch & Schneider, 2016; Feld & Kreimer,
2020; Kanchan & Krishan, 2019;Liuetal.,2009) and the impact of
globalization and the new demands of labor markets on university training
processes (Escudero et al., 2010; Moreno, 2009;Wit,2020), evidence
the tensions inherent to the university in our time, and require opening
new transdisciplinary approaches, which at different hierarchical levels
promote rethinking the university from the paradigm of complexity.
Regarding university governance and the role it plays to manage the
scientific capabilities of the organization—at the normative, technolog-
ical, financial, and relational levels—, the literature tends to identify
the growing challenge of understanding the university as a CAS (Oliva,
2008), which is involved in a heterogeneous network of agents and socio-
technical contexts (Casas, 2001,2004,2015). Information systems and
the use of information technologies are central tools for the effective
implementation of institutional changes and provide capabilities that allow
managing the operations and functions of a complex university (Acosta
et al., 2017;Dastanetal.,2011).
In the university dynamic itself, these trends have effects on academic
policy, on governance models and management practices, and on the
unique forms of scientific activity. The competitive relationship between
institutions, networks, and groups of researchers is becoming more acute
in the search for resources for research funding and the legitimization of
research work, as understood by Merton in the Matthew Effect in science
and Bourdieu’s scientific field, but with new instances such as university
rankings and institutional accreditations (Orozco, 2015).
The central aspect here, since at least the 1990s, is that competitiveness
has become a part of the university system, tending to promote a dynamic
ethos of competition, which assumes a management of complexity in
functional and parceled terms. Functional, in that there is competition
for the acquisition of resources through the fulfillment of indicators,
operates from the environment toward the system—national regulatory
frameworks that provide resources for which universities compete—and
that marks the dynamics of university management, reproducing compet-
itiveness at the system level—search for prestige, funds, symbolic capital,
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 257
etc.—to the detriment of the rationalities of cooperation and sustain-
ability. Parceled, given that the traditional condition of university systems
operates in the logic of differentiation of tasks on the three missions
(training, research, and connecting with the surroundings), where insti-
tutional designs and normative strategies attempt to respond to the
requirements of the university functions themselves in a culture that is
Taylorized in the division of labor for the lines of production. To this,
we must add that the institutional division of the missionary functions
is not symmetrical with respect to the allocation of resources, incentives,
and execution of the same tasks. Academics and researchers are the main
agents who are evaluated through training, research, and connection with
the surroundings. This suggests a key idea: the institutional design must
be understood from complexity, for the development of the capacities of
the main agents with the aim of understanding their interactions among
the activities of the three university missions.
In addition, there is an ongoing tendency to design and use sciento-
metrics focused on the quantity and recognition of scientific production.
This metric is not only used for discerning the quality of academic work
(its original mission), but also has political effects given its strong insti-
tutionalization in the science and innovation systems in the region: it
establishes a hierarchy among researchers, academic management units,
research results transfer offices (OTRIs) and universities as a whole, which
has a strong impact on public funding for research and on the prosperity
of university systems. Thus, scientometric measurements are no longer
just a certification of quality and a tool for mapping what the agents do,
but also a space for mediation between institutional architectures, incen-
tive systems, and efforts to steer toward one goal or another. This, in the
relations between the agents of the national innovation systems has been
operating as a cornerstone with the forms of governance and as a form
for legitimizing determinants of the results of management. A university
president presents indicators, many of them scientometric in nature, as a
means of showing the results of his management and uses them as a means
to appear in the standardized legitimacy benchmarks such as rankings and
accreditations.
In this context, this chapter proposes that in the face of these mega-
trends, it is necessary to understand and manage the complexity of the
activities and products of university work. This implies not focusing
the evaluation of capacities only on scientific products, but on a vision
258 R. CANCINO ET AL.
regarding the heterogeneity of processes and products: forms of manage-
ment and institutional design, publications, human capital formation,
relational capital with environmental entities, and creation of scien-
tific capital (Orozco, 2015). Therefore, we propose that this requires
a theoretical conception that takes into account complexity in order to
outline methodologies conducive to designing governance systems that
improve university management. The chapter is structured as follows:
first, it presents a state of the art based on a theoretical convergence
between approaches from Complex Adaptative Systems (CAS) theory
and social and computational studies of science. From there, it proposes
the theoretical model that explores two types of mechanisms: one socio-
organizational and the other socio-cognitive. The second section presents
the methodology for modeling capabilities. The method consists of the
development of a distinction of levels that articulates data manage-
ment and university scientific information, systemic modeling of univer-
sity management capabilities with bibliometric indicators, lexicometric
analysis, and analysis of social and cognitive networks. It ends with
conclusions and an agenda for future research.
10.2 A Theoretical Model
of the University as a CAS
We begin by pointing out that conceiving of universities as Complex
Adaptative Systems CAS implies understanding them, in the first place,
as organizations. In the classic sense proposed by the social sciences,
they are institutionalized environments that operate as a form of social
coordination, where, like other forms of social coordination such as
communities and markets, the actors coordinate expectations and actions,
seeking to adapt them to certain established and expected processes
and results (Beckert, 2009;Ostrom,2005). To achieve social coor-
dination, organizations, studied as companies or corporations and as
bureaucratic organizations or state agencies, function on the basis of
decision-making procedures made viable through (a) hierarchical levels of
power; (b) specialized and functionally differentiated management units;
(c) operations of exchange of services and rewards, and; (d) operations of
administration, control, and evaluation of management.
In order to understand universities as agent-based complex adaptive
systems, it is necessary to make explicit that complexity is basically referred
to, from the paradigm developed by researchers nested around the Santa
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 259
Fe Institute in New Mexico, as the coupled, interwoven, or intertwined
property (plexus) of natural and social phenomena (Gell-Mann, 1995).
Focusing attention on social phenomena, a complex system is constituted
by two interdependent levels of organizations. One level is that of the
adaptive agents, who interact in a context or environment with specific
conditions (natural, institutional, technological) and as a consequence of
these local interactions, a second level is produced, which is the emer-
gent level, which emerges as a global property of the system, and which,
in turn, influences the specific conditions in which the agents interact.
Complexity as interweaving or coupling translates, on the one hand, into
the connection and feedbacks between the two levels indicated and, on
the other, into the connection between the diversity of elements that
concur in the processes at each of these levels (Carmichael & Hadžikadi´c,
2019; Cumming & Norberg, 2008; McMillan, 2004).
This demands we take the understanding of the complexity of univer-
sity management seriously. In organizations as complex adaptive systems,
the agents are the individuals that integrate them, among others, politi-
cians, bureaucrats, managers, shareholders, entrepreneurs, and scientists.
These agents, in accordance with institutional economics (Aoki, 2010;
Mantzavinos et al., 2004), evolutionary game theory (Gintis, 2007)
and analytical sociology (Hedström & Bearman, 2009;Macy&Flache,
2009), have different attributes from those pointed out in the theoretical
assumptions of neoclassical economics, which are complete information
processing capacity and orientation toward utility maximization around
self-interest. The theories developed within this paradigm, based on
simple agents, simple environments, and linear results related to effi-
ciency in exchanges and, at the aggregate level, in markets, have had low
predictive capacity due to their poor fit with empirical evidence (Bowles,
2006).
Aware of these limitations, the agent-based complex adaptive system
paradigm develops a different perspective. In this framework, the first
attribute of agents is that they are endowed with intentionality, i.e.,
they have intentional elements, specifically, willful desire for something
to happen, and beliefs about the actions and motivations of others and
about the consequences of their own and others’ actions (Searle, 2010).
Secondly, and in relation to the above, agents are endowed with ratio-
nality, which means that their desires and beliefs guide their social action
in specific and dynamic ways.
260 R. CANCINO ET AL.
Here it should be noted that agents’ beliefs include, in addition to
the aforementioned, those they use to evaluate their opportunity struc-
ture, i.e., the action alternatives available to achieve a purpose or objective
adjusted to their desires (Hedström, 2005; Petersen, 2009). It is in this
sense that agents are constituted as such, since they have the capacity
for agency, i.e., to use certain means, interpreting their environment, to
achieve an end and social action is therefore deployed as a means of
becoming agents in that environment. However, based on the seminal
contributions of Herbert Simon, it is evident that agents have limited
rationality, expressed within a restricted capacity to process information
from a complex and dynamic environment, which generates a scenario of
uncertainity, since it is not absolutely predictable and controllable (Cowan
&Arrow,2019).
Despite this, the third attribute of agents is their adaptive capacity.
They are adaptive agents because, based on their cognitive resources,
they constantly seek to adapt to their environment, using internal models
to represent it. From the use of heuristics as fast and precise cognitive
devices for information processing, agents generate evolutionary learning
processes, endogenously adjusting their internal models, thanks to the
information extracted from experience. Thus, they establish regularities
(patterns) that allow the formation of internal rules or behavioral orien-
tation schemes, improving their adaptive capacity, mainly through the
deployment of adaptive strategies as forms of anticipation (Beinhocker,
2006; Gell-Mann, 1994; Holland, 1995; Miller & Spage, 2007).
The emergent level of the complex system is produced by the interac-
tions between the adaptive agents that compose it, who act in accordance
with their internal rules and the environment in which they are situ-
ated, composed of other adaptive agents (articulated in social networks as
spaces of mutual influence—exchange, social contagion)—and by external
rules that constrain their decisions and actions. The emergent state, as
a macro level, has properties different from those of the micro level
elements that cause it, and the generative process is not linear, as it is
highly sensitive to specific conditions. Therefore, the process of aggre-
gation, combination, or composition and its emergent results are not
entirely predictable. Rather, there are degrees of uncertainty, randomness
and change is permanent, due, among other factors, to the effect of focal
points, to modifications in the co-evolution of strategies among agents
and to critical mass effects.
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 261
In the case of organizations as agent-based complex adaptive systems,
the emergent properties include expected results or collective goals of
public interest, such as the generation of innovations, efficiency, trans-
parency in management, and increased competitiveness (Arthur, 2015;
Colander & Kupers, 2016; Geyer & Rihani, 2010;Lane,2017).
Having made reference to complex adaptive systems, we now have
elements to return to the question about the management of research,
training, connection, and innovation capabilities in universities and also
to return to the proposals put forward in reference to conceiving univer-
sities as organizations, as agent-based complex adaptive systems, in which
the capabilities of the agents and the processes and results they generate
need to be managed through the use of governance devices. If, in line
with Lemos and Agrawal (2006), we understand governance as the set
of regulatory processes through which the actions of the different agents
and their results are influenced, we propose, more specifically, that it is
necessary to activate governance devices at the two levels of the complex
adaptive systems mentioned above, i.e., at the adaptive agent local level
and at the global or emergent level.
At the level of adaptive agents, we assume the approach of gover-
nance in organizations which refers to the regulation or conduction by
means of administrative structures and processes, managerial criteria, and
systems of incentives and rules that favor cooperation and social coor-
dination (Christensen and Tschirhart, 2011). Furthermore, assuming an
institutional path of rule-based governance (Peters, 2011), we situate
ourselves in the perspective of institutional design theory, which states
that institutions are formal and informal rules that have the power of
enforceability and that institutional design is the intentional creation
of rules, in order to promote valuable results in a given context that
coordinates expectations, shared visions of meanings and constitutes a
basis for action (Brousseau et al., 2011; Goodin, 1996). The funda-
mental ideas surrounding institutional design are: (a) agents are oriented
toward action based on different motivations and purposes; (b) agents
are sensitive to incentives that constitute opportunities to achieve their
purposes; (c) the incentives that shape opportunities can be intentionally
designed in order to lead agents, considering their motivations, toward
certain actions; (d) the actions of individuals are intended to generate, at
an aggregate level, socially valued expected results (Pettit, 1996; Ostrom,
2006).
262 R. CANCINO ET AL.
The fundamental consequence for governance in CAS is that there are
multiple possible outcomes at the agent and emergent level (Edelenbos
et al., 2009; Klijn & Snellen, 2009), and therefore not necessarily what
is expected and normatively valued as positive. On the contrary, among
the plurality of outcomes, there are also those that sociology has called
unintended and undesired consequences or perverse aggregate effects
of social action (Boudon, 1982; Merton, 1976). In this framework,
the presence or absence of organizational elements such as information
(Arrow, 1999), organizational culture (DiMaggio, 2015), social networks
(Granovetter, 2017), hierarchical monitoring processes (Miller, 2004),
incentives (Bowles, 2016), and social norms (Gambetta & Origgi, 2013),
under certain conditions, can result in negative effects such as lack of
coordination, passivity, opportunism, corruption, organizational capture,
resistance, conflict, increased transaction costs, distrust, and erosion of
prosocial motivations.
From this perspective then, we propose understanding a university as a
CASasshowninFig.10.1. Specifically, a network of agents (in the form
of groups, centers, institutes) that interact in the production (in the form
of research, development, and innovation projects) and dissemination of
knowledge (in the form of teaching, interactions with its surroundings,
research, technology transfer, and innovation). This interaction occurs
within the framework of rules and incentives of the university itself, or of
the territorial and national science and technology system environment, or
Fig. 10.1 The university as a CAS (Source Based on Cancino and Univalle
[2017])
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 263
of other forms of institutional pressure such as rankings and the media.
From this relationship, scientific and technological knowledge emerges,
capacities for interacting with priorities of the environment and knowl-
edge networks that constitute the dynamic heritage of the STI (Cancino,
2017), in which diversity and heterogeneity are sought as desirable but
complex goals to govern in universities and their schools (Orozco, 2015).
Based on this we understand that in a university, scientific agents
interact within a framework of specific rules and incentives that are
oriented to at least three mission areas that may enter into conflict for the
management of resources and rewards (Orozco et al., 2018). Addition-
ally, these do not unidirectionally determine the actions of the agents, but
rather the agents, through interactions with others (whether or not mate-
rialized in specific scientific collaborations) generate research projects,
scientific publications, processes of human capital formation, and various
forms of interaction with the surrounding environment. The forms of
scientific collaboration and the topics selected by the agents at the micro
level give rise to macro forms. Recognizable lines of research, training,
and linkage are generated as well as emerging phenomena. And these lines
are what we come to understand as university capacities: a set of scientific
activities and knowledge expressed in scientific products (publications),
in processes of human capital formation (teaching, theses), activities of
connection with the surrounding environment, and the very forms of
collaboration that support these capacities.
In these interaction processes that give rise to the emergence of
focused capabilities such as lines of research, training, and liaisons with
their surroundings, there are mechanisms that must be considered to
explain both the structure and the evolutionary and adaptive dynamics
of the capacities. We consider at least two mechanisms to be relevant:
self-referential mechanisms and heteroreferential mechanisms (Cancino,
2017). The first refers to the criteria that the agents put into play (their
internal models) to select with whom to link and what topics they work
on in the search for creating a scientific knowledge footprint, while the
second refers to the strategy they deploy to link with agents and topics
in relation to those defined by the regulatory framework and incen-
tive system, whether in the form of academic careers and promotion
instruments done both internally and externally to the university. Both
mechanisms act together, and an analytical task is to unveil the way they
interact and the effects they generate in the structuring of capabilities.
264 R. CANCINO ET AL.
Regarding this perspective, we explore a methodology for modeling
scientific capabilities, which aims at identifying them, placing them in a
relational perspective (among themselves and as a result of the action of
agent networks), and identifying the governance structure and manage-
ment processes that make the existence of these distributed capabilities
understandable, as well as identifying the self- and heteroreferential
mechanisms that influence this structuring.
10.3 Methodology for Modeling
of Scientific Capabilities
Information on scientific activity is obtained from authors and personnel
with time allocation to the STI who are organized in projects and research
groups to generate results in terms of research products, training, and
connections with the surrounding environment. For an example of infor-
mation sources in a Colombian-Chilean comparative case, see Cancino
et al. (2014). Figure 10.2 shows the information capture method for the
case of Colombia.
Based on these variables, different types of bibliometric and modeling
analyzes were carried out. From the point of view of a CAS, we conceived
interaction levels and mechanisms that explain them: a micro level,
InsƟtutes
Products
CVLAC
GROUPLAC
Research_lines_
Table_Group
Keywords-
Table_Group
Product_type_
Table_Group
Product_type_
Table_Researcher
Product_type_
Table_Researcher
Human_resource
Table_Researcher
Network
CogniƟve
Network
Fig. 10.2 Method for information processing (Source basedonCancino
et al./Univalle [2017])
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 265
consisting of the identification of forms of collaboration of the agents
in the different types of products for the three university missions in
the framework of strategic areas defined by the analyzed university. A
macro level referring to the research lines, their cognitive structure, and
the comparative positioning of the research lines with respect to their
volume (size) and intensity (cognitive integration). Now, in the search
for the mechanisms that affect the structure and dynamics of the lines of
research, we explore the analysis of STI management processes and the
identification of factors that affect the structuring of the lines (Cancino,
2017).
1. Micro level. Agents, networks, and forms of collaboration.
At this level, we place the agents and their interactions, that is, the confor-
mation of scientific collaboration networks and their structural indicators.
Researchers select with whom to collaborate, generating aggregate effects
in the structure of the networks, and shaping qualities of collaboration in
the major areas of development defined by the university, and in partic-
ular, with respect to the types of products that are generated for the three
missions as shown in Table 10.1.
Table 10.1 Micro level
Area/Line /Product type Social Network
(Human Resources)
Size of network Number of human resources in the Strategic Area,
Research line, or Product type
Number of groups Number of human resource groups in the Strategic
Area, Research line, or Product type
Modularity Strength of the division of a network in human resource
modules (also called groups, clusters, or communities).
Networks with high modularity have strong connections
between nodes within modules, but few connections
between nodes in different modules (Newman, 2006)
Network density Total of the relationships established between human
resources in relation to the total possible, within the
framework of a Strategic Area, Research line, or Product
type
Network centrality Average number of links possessed by human resources
of a Strategic Area, Research line, or Product type
Source Based on Cancino (2017)
266 R. CANCINO ET AL.
Structural Indicators of Scientific Network According to Development
Areas and Product Types, Univalle 2017
The identification of the structure of research collaboration, training,
and bonding, allows identifying the specialization in one or more activi-
ties associated with the missions of the university, dimensioning the human
capital dedicated to each of these activities, as well as understanding
whether the relationships Bbetween the agents they have levels of internal
cohesion that allow identifying a specialization in the activity based on
collaboration.
The attached table indicates the structure of indicators of networks of
human capital dedicated to Research (Bibliographic Production), Training
(Directed Works / Tutorials), and Linkage with the Environment (Tech-
nical Production, Artistic/cCultural Production), Other works and Data
complementary) of the Universidad del Valle with data accumulated as of
2017.
The high heterogeneity between the six strategic areas can be observed
and the differences in the specialization of human capital and their forms
of collaboration in the university’s three missionary activities. This is the
first way, at the micro -level, to understand the decisions and strategies
that agents make, selecting with whom to collaborate and around what
type of activities to collaborate.
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 267
2. Macro level. Research lines as emerging phenomena.
The aim here is to identify and characterize the lines of research under-
stood as emerging phenomena of the interaction of the agents and their
forms of scientific collaboration in strategic areas and in the construction
of products derived from the work of the three missions. In turn, the
aim is to comparatively understand the lines themselves, for which reason
indexes are designed to understand their relative positioning according to
the size of the lines and the intensity of the internal relationships within
them (Cancino, 2017).
2.1. Identification of research lines. The main purpose was to identify lines
of research based on the keywords of the products as a means of visual-
izing the cognitive capabilities deployed by the university to identify these
lines. An analysis of associated words was performed using Gephi network
analysis software. Specifically, we sought to detect modules or clusters of
keywords sufficiently independent of each other by applying the modu-
larity algorithm (Blondel et al., 2008). Each of these groups of keywords
were interpreted as lines of research, supported by expert analysis with
researchers and university administrators.
The indicators used are defined in Table 10.2.Ascanbeseen,the
measures that can be obtained from these indicators are generally applied
to all types of database groupings, whether research lines or product types.
Also, these indicators are applied to both types of agents: human capital,
which correspond to the social networks; and keywords, which constitute
the cognitive network, in the form proposed for the analysis of scientific
communities (Orozco & Chavarro, 2006). In short, the indicators, shown
in Table 10.2, make it possible to observe the structure of each of these
dimensions and levels of analysis in a comparative manner.
268 R. CANCINO ET AL.
Table 10.2 Macro level
AREA/LINE/PRODUCT TYPE COGNITIVE NETWORK
(Key words)
Size of Network Number of key words contained in the Strategic
Area, Research Line, or Product Type
Number of groups Number of groups of key words contained in the
Strategic Area, Research Line, and Product Type
Modularity Strength of the division of a network into
keyword modules (also called groups, clusters, or
communities). Networks with high modularity
have strong connections between nodes within
modules, but few connections between nodes in
different modules (Newman, 2006)
Network density Total of the relationships established between the
keywords in relation to the total possible, within
the framework of a Strategic Area, Research Line,
or Product Type
Network centrality Average number of links to the keywords of a
Strategic Area, Research Line, or Product Type
Source based on Cancino (2017)
Once the lines of research were identified, the next step was to build
sub-databases of products for each of these lines of research, with the
purpose of identifying the capacities for the three missions: research (bibli-
ographic production), human capital formation (directed work/tutoring),
and connection to the surrounding environment (technical production,
cultural-artistic production, other complementary work, and data), in
order to identify the performance of each of these capacities with respect
to the line of research. The presence/absence of these types of products
in the line was identified, as well as the cognitive contents, structure, and
network indicators of each.
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 269
Structural Indicators of Keywords Networks According to Develop-
ment Areas and Product Types, Univalle 2017
The identification of structural indicators of word networks (cognitive
networks) in the activities of research, training, and connection with the
environment allows identifying the cognitive specialization in all, some, or
each of them, as an effect of the agents’’ strategies. At this emerging level,
cognitive specialization in the strategic areas of the University allows iden-
tifying the size of cognitive activity in each type of activity, the number
of groups that comprise it (a proxy for internal diversification), and levels
of relationship between the themes and the internal cohesion existing in
them. Thus, an image of how specialized activity is within a strategic
area can be obtained and, thus, structurally understand the university’’s
cognitive complexity.
270 R. CANCINO ET AL.
2.2 Comparison of research lines. Volume and intensity: in the University
as a CAS, there is a plurality of research lines with heterogeneous rela-
tive developments, both in relation to the network structure they have
formed, as well as to the levels of complexity and cognitive size of these
lines. This forces us to think in adaptive terms: the lines have hetero-
geneous developments and, therefore, their growth possibilities depend
on both their internal and external conditions. To achieve this under-
standing, once the indicators in the social and cognitive network for all the
lines of research and types of products have been obtained, the “Volume”
and “Intensity” indexes are constructed. The purpose of this is to visu-
alize the cognitive structure acquired by the social and cognitive networks
according to the volume of their actors and the intensity of their inter-
actions, as well as the cognitive volume of the lines and the interactions
between keywords, as shown in Table 10.3.
This identification of the macro characteristics of the Research Lines
permits a global analysis of the University’s Research Lines. Since it is
represented in a Euclidean plane, it is then possible to compare the size
of the lines with the levels of internal integration. That is: it is possible
to identify large or small lines according to their volume (the number of
words and the number of groups that comprise these), and lines that are
intensive or not very intensive in average internal relations according to
their modularity and network density as shown in Table 10.3.
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 271
Table 10.3 Indicators of volume and intensity
Indicator Index Definition Expression on Graph
Size of Network Volume This is a measure of the relative size of a line of research
in relation to the other line (comprised of network size
and number of groups)
Number of Groups
Modularity Intensity This is a measure of the internal relations between the
contents of a line of research. A higher indicator shall
indicate greater relations between the cognitive contents
(greater thematic integration)
Density of Network
Source Based on Cancino (2017)
272 R. CANCINO ET AL.
Comparative Analysis of Research Lines in Strategic areas According
to Volume and Intensity Index and Diversification of research,
Training, and Linkage Activities, Univalle 2017
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 273
A strategic area can contain several lines of investigation. These can achieve
differential positions between them if the volume (the number of cognitive
contents and the number of researchers who participate in it) and the
intensity of their internal relationships (the researchers’ internal cohesion)
are analyzed. In this way, it is possible to identify large and highly cohesive
lines (a large volume of cognitive contents and groups of researchers with
sustained relationships); loosely cohesive large lines (large lines in cognitive
volume, but with loosely cohesive researchers); small and very cohesive
lines (small lines in cognitive terms, but with very cohesive researchers),
and small lines that are not very cohesive (small lines in cognitive terms,
and with little cohesion of their researchers).
This comparative visualization is a powerful tool for the management
of research lines since it makes it possible to identify the relative positions
among them. This implies assuming the complexity of the university: the
existence of heterogeneous capacities, whose dynamics cannot be univo-
cally prescribed by the instruments of promotion. This, due to the fact
that their impact depends on the internal conditions of the lines, and on
the way in which the agents react by forming networks, selecting topics
and focused research, training and liaison. This is a central aspect for the
governance of university capacities in the three missions.
3. In search of mechanisms. Forms of management and factors that
indicate the structuring of lines of research.
Here, two types of analysis are developed that allow us to understand
the structure of the university’s lines of research. These are two types of
mechanisms: one normative and the other cognitive.
Systemic modeling of management processes. One of the qualities of
CAS is non-linearity and learning capacity. We propose that these qualities
are observable in the way management agents drive and implement regu-
latory frameworks and incentive systems. In this process, agents mediate
the norm with scientific agents, and they experiment and learn from
processes that generate positive or negative management outcomes. In
turn, scientific agents learn to improve their interaction with management
agents. Through qualitative and ethnographic work, consisting of meet-
ings, field observations and interviews, systemic models are constructed
regarding the main management operations of the university research
274 R. CANCINO ET AL.
system. Variables are identified and linked to each other, evidencing the
key feedbacks that act as sets of variables that especially affect the emer-
gence of lines of research. These feedbacks are relevant in theoretical
terms since they are indicative of the quality of flow in the university
CAS, inasmuch as, despite the rules defining procedures, in practice they
generate processes beyond what is expected regarding their operation,
activating transformations that can go in the desired direction or in other
directions.
Systemic Modelling of STI Management Process, Univalle 2017
Low diversification of
financing resources
mismatches between the
research management systems
and changes in the environment
Decrease in
Colciencias financing
Predominance of low
complexity projects
Lack of strategic
intelligence tools
Highly fragmented
financing resources
Excessive number of
projects without
administrative closure
isolated project
dominance
Low temporal
continuity of projects
Low support for new
research lines
Disciplinary
asymmetries
Coordination problems
between management
units
slowness
administrative
processes
Duplicated
administrative
functions
Lack of technology-bases
entrepeneurship and
intellectual property policy
Lack of internal
capabilities
visualization
Lack of innovation
incentives
Low demand pull
model
º
Systemic modeling allows us to understand how management processes
operate in practice. These, in the SAC model, constitute updates of the
regulatory frameworks and incentive systems and are under constant pres-
sure as a result of the development of capacities, requiring new adjustments
and/or institutional changes. To achieve this, through ethnographic and
qualitative work, systemic models are built that link identified key vari-
ables, in such a way that a complex network of variables is understandable
and the transversal axes (feedback or loops) that constitute the bottlenecks
of management dynamics are identified.
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 275
Factor analysis. Regarding the cognitive mechanisms, a factor anal-
ysis is performed to identify new cognitive categories that emerge from
the convergence of the available variables and indicators. A set of indica-
tors is extracted based on the research lines data, which are subsequently
used as input variables in the factor analysis. Part of these indicators reveal
the structural characteristics of the keyword network of each research line
and the relationship that these cognitive elements have with priorities of
the political environment of the university. The indicators of the factor
analysis are shown in Table 10.4.
From these indicators, it is possible to perform an exploratory factor
analysis. The Principal Axis Factorization extraction method and the
Varimax rotation method with Kaiser Normalization were used. Addition-
ally, the Factor graph was used to visualize the variables and cases (lines of
research) according to this identified underlying structure. With the iden-
tified factors, a Spearman correlation analysis was performed, considering
discrete variables. Three variables obtained by disaggregating the indi-
cator “types of products” were added. We used “bibliographic produc-
tion,” “technical production,” and “directed work/tutoring,” counting
the number of words that each line had in each of these types of prod-
ucts. This sought to identify whether or not the place of the research
lines in terms of the underlying factors is related to the number of words
they have in the products that are developed. In other words, this could
mean that the structure of the lines of research at Universidad del Valle,
observed in the light of the study variables, is associated with the number
of keywords that these lines have in each type of product.
Considering the distribution according to these dimensions in quad-
rants (Fig. 10.2), the most representative lines of research are as follows:
1. complex/convergent: these are positioned in quadrant I. They
have high cognitive complexity and simultaneously high convergence
with policy.
2. Complex/divergent: positioned in quadrant II. These are highly
complex in their cognitive composition but do not converge with
policy instruments.
3. Simple/divergent: located in quadrant III, these are the most
incipient in terms of what is measured by these dimensions. They
have low cognitive complexity and diverge from policy instruments.
276 R. CANCINO ET AL.
Table 10.4 Factoria study indicators
Indicator Operationalization
1. Number of key words (N_PC) Count of the number of keywords that
make up each line of research of the
university. Values are ≥1
2. Medium grade (Grade_M) Average of the number of links that each
keyword has with the others. Values are
≥1
3. Number of groups of key words
(N_Grup)
Count of the number of groups that
compose the keyword network of each
research line, as a function of the
modularity index. The values are ≥1
4. Modularity Index Strength of the division of a network into
modules (also called groups, clusters, or
communities). Networks with high
modularity have strong connections
between nodes within modules, but few
connections between nodes in different
modules (Blondel et al., 2008). The
values range from −1to1
5. Number of types of products (Divers) Count of the types of products that each
research line has. There are six types of
products: (1) complementary data, (2)
other work, (3) artistic/cultural
production, (4) bibliographic production,
(5) technical production, (6) directed
work/tutorials. Values are ≥1
6. Regional development convergence plan
(Con_PRD)
Degree of cosine similarity between
Univalle research lines and the Regional
Development Plan
7. Convergence vision 2032 (Conv_V) Degree of cosine similarity between
Univalle’s lines of research and
Colombia’s Vision 2032 Plan
8. National convergence plan(Conv_PEN) Degree of cosine similarity between
Univalle research lines and the National
Development Plan
Source Prepares by the authors, 2020
4. Simple/convergent: Are Those Lines in Quadrant IV, Which
Have a Simpler Cognitive Composition, but Converge with Policy
Priorities.
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 277
Factor Analysis. Cognitive Complexity and Linkage with the Media
Development Policy, Univalle 2017
The factor analysis, based on the set of available structural indicators,
makes it possible to identify their incidence in the research lines’ general
configuration. This typology of factors can be used to distribute the Lines
according to those factors. In the case analyzed, the central factors are
the internal of a line and the link it establishes with the environment’’s
policies.
278 R. CANCINO ET AL.
10.4 Conclusions and Research
and Management Agenda: For the Governance
of the University as a Complex Adaptive System
The transformations of the environment, as well as the STI policies them-
selves in Latin America, pose the challenge of a thorough and deep
understanding of the capabilities, not only of publication in high-impact
scientific journals, but also, we maintain that it is essential to recognize
the heterogeneity of the research, training, and outreach capabilities of
universities. Recognizing heterogeneity means that the capabilities have
differentiated specializations, dynamics, and forms of growth (Ruiz et al.,
2010). Therefore, a governance of university capabilities must recog-
nize these diverse forms and tend toward a system of incentives that can
manage through differentiated instruments, the increase and diversifica-
tion of cognitive complexity and scientific collaboration, as key processes
to articulate research, training, and connection with the environment. To
advance in this, we propose that the University be understood as a CAS,
in which networks of agents are articulated to generate activities leading
to the emergence of lines of research, training, and liaison whose expres-
sions can be differentiated, with greater or lesser degrees of specialization
and/or heterogeneity among them. And, in order to understand the form
and dynamics of capabilities, there are explanatory mechanisms that help
to understand and improve management.
A central aspect of the governance of complex adaptive systems indi-
cates that the rules and incentives must be aimed at the agents, their
motivational structures, and configuration of opportunities, in such a way
that the emerging results are multiple and must therefore be recognized in
multilevel terms. In this sense, the methodology proposed here conceives
that at the micro level, scientific agents collaborate/do not collaborate
in the development of research, training, and liaison activities, and that
this generates conditioning factors in the system that are expressed at the
macro level. This can be understood as an emerging level in which it is
possible to identify lines of research that go further than the statements
of the scientific agents taken individually and that therefore their cogni-
tive and social structures can be analyzed. We have proposed that from
traditional network indicators, it is possible to build Indices (Volume and
Intensity) that allow comparing lines of research in universities, allowing
thusly for a global and systemic vision of the capacities that are devel-
oped (Cancino, 2017). In addition, this methodology makes it possible
10 METHODOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT … 279
to identify the levels of strategic alignment of the research lines in rela-
tion to the priorities of the environment, both in quantitative terms and
in terms of scientific and technological content.
A fundamental consequence of understanding a university as a CAS
is that the development of the lines of research is heterogeneous and
can move toward variable growth, whether in research, training, and/or
correlation. These possible forms of specialization could generate unex-
pected effects, such as a strong internal differentiation between highly
developed capacities and capacities with low or very low development.
This is the effect of incentives placed exclusively on the high productivity
of scientific articles in international journals. We believe that the future
of university management will move toward the challenge of promoting
harmonious development of the capabilities of its three missions. To this
end, we propose that the participatory and empirically based construction
of research, education, and outreach agendas can contribute to a gover-
nance that recognizes the systemic, adaptive, and complex nature of the
generation and evolution of capabilities in Latin American universities.
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CHAPTER 11
Science, Technology, Innovation,
and Inclusive Development: A Country
Comparison Between Colombia and Mexico
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González
and Carlos Eugenio Ramos-Pérez
11.1 Introduction
The XVI edition of the Hay Festival (celebrated in Cartagena de Índias,
Colombia, in January 2020) saw the participation of Cambridge Professor
of Political Economy of Development Ha-Joon Chang. Chang remarked
that at the heart of the social protests that occurred in late 2019 and
early 2020 in Latin America (e.g., Chile and Colombia) was generalised
discontent and frustration with current socio-economic policies. This
happens because natural resources-based economies that generate basic
J. H. Sierra-González (B)·C. E. Ramos-Pérez
Business Department, School of Business and Economics, Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
e-mail: jhsierra@javeriana.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80720-7_11
287
288 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
export commodities1favour wealth concentration in old elites and barely
generate highly qualified better-paid jobs for younger, more educated citi-
zens (Chang, 2020). That is, Latin American elites have failed to invest
in innovation and in building more egalitarian economies.
Furthermore, IADB economist G. Rivas (2020) has stated along the
same line that:
It is clear from those policies that better procure social inclusion must be a
priority. However, it is also imperative to remark that without an important
increase of productivity, it will be very difficult to sustain a greater level
of social expenditure and, even less, to create better jobs, which are a key
factor in diminishing inequality.
And so it happens that over the recent decades, economic expansion
in the region has been fundamentally sustained by demographic growth
and the extensive exploitation of natural resources. Nevertheless, several
countries are already experiencing a demographic transition that implies
that a greater proportion of elder adults need to be supported by a few
proportion of younger employed adults.
That can only be done with a bigger increase in productivity and the
evidence accumulated through years of research tells us that innovation is
the factor that will help us achieve these changes. (Our own translation)
Chang and Rivas’ assertions can be illustrated through the experiences of
Colombia and Mexico, two Latin American countries in which there have
been National Systems of Science, Technology, and Innovation (NSSTI)
in place since the decade of 1990s. Despite the existence of these systems,
there is evidence that shows that both Colombia and Mexico underper-
form in terms of investment in Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI)
activities, scientific production, and training of highly specialised human
resources for STI when compared to other members of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) group.
Actually, a quick look at the Global Innovation Ranking shows
that Latin American economies are literally stock in the mid-to-lower
percentiles of innovative nations. Moreover, even if three of the top four
Latin American economies now belong to OECD (Brazil is a partner and
non-member contributor), their relative standing among the other more
advanced members of such club once again unveils serious deficiencies
1Which often are not even well-known enough so that their exploitation and
international trade at low value-added levels is all the more so sub-optimal (Mejía, 2020).
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 289
concerning the social, economic, and political welfare conditions they can
offer their citizens (Tables 11.1 and 11.2).
As a matter of fact, recent work explores a comparative approach to
innovation efforts and performance of Bogota (Colombia) and the other
capital cities of OECD members (Chile and Mexico included), and the
European Union (Malaver & Vargas, 2020). The conclusion reached indi-
cates that the Colombian and Mexican capital cities (25% of Colombia’s
GDP and 17% of Mexico’s GDP, respectively) lags well behind all the
OECD capitals (in per capita terms) and, furthermore, the gap will likely
grow in the near future if STI initiatives do not live up to the expectations
generated by the OECD membership. even
This is all in line with the profile of the situation that has recently
surfaced in most Latin American nations, summed up in Table 11.1. Facts
seem to stand behind Chang’s assumptions. Although relatively stable,
the socio-economic and political systems in operation in Latin America
do lack steam on the structural drive to reinvigorate societies and lead
them towards a wider and deeper state of welfare.
This is what motivates this paper. Essentially, we wonder why have
Colombia and Mexico not moved through knowledge production and
innovation faster and closer to knowledge-based economies where oppor-
tunities and superior performance may contribute to change inequality
and wealth concentration into greater and better spread resources, oppor-
tunities, and social welfare. And we ponder about the consequences and
challenges of such situations.
This paper is structured as follows; in Section two, we offer a brief
characterisation of both countries so the traits that link STI and inclu-
sive development are broadly described. Section three explores the main
theoretical underpinnings of inclusive development. Section four discusses
what are considered the key reasons for the current state of affairs and
the evolution of the links between STI and inclusive development in
Colombia and Mexico. Finally, Section five states final remarks, implica-
tions, and feasible recommendations that might help lead a transformation
in the two countries.
11.2 STI Systems and Inclusive
Development in Colombia and Mexico
Studies on Innovation Systems and the so-called Triple Helix approach
(e.g., Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000; Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993)
290 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
Table 11.1 A snapshot of the top four Latin American countries
Country Trends in
government
transition
Human
Development
Indexa
Social situation Regional
ranking in terms
of GDP and
valueb
Growth mean %
(2013–2018) in
terms of GDPc
Ranking
OECDd
Global
Innovation
Indexe
Brazil Left>>>Right 79 (0.761) Discontent, no
protests 1 (3,255,145) −0.19 4 62
(31.94)
Chile Left>>>Right 42 (0.847) Discontent and
sustained
protests
4 (463,790) 2.51 21 54
(33.86)
Colombia Right>>Further
right 79 (0.761) Discontent, less
sustained
protests
3 (709,421) 3.04 16 68
(30.84)
Mexico Right>>>Left 76 (0.767) Discontent, no
protests 2 (2,573,848) 2.43 8 55
(33.60)
aHuman Development Index, 2019 (UNDP, 2020). Value and score (max =1)
bOECD (2020a). GDP in current prices, total million USD (2019 or latest available)
cWorld Bank (2020a). Growth average 2013–2018
dOECD (2020a). GDP ranking
eCornell University, INSEAD, WIPO (2020). Global ranking (out of 131 economies) and score (max =100)
Source Own elaboration based on different sources
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 291
Table 11.2 Colombia and Mexico compared—selected indicators 2015–2019
Indicator Country 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Population (millions) Colombia 48.2 48.7 49.3 49.8 50.4
Mexico 121 122 124 125 126
GDP per capita (USD) Colombia 6075 5808 6322 6689 6421
Mexico 9665 8809 9389 9805 9999
GDP (USD billion) Colombia 293 283 312 333 324
Mexico 1169 1077 1160 1223 1259
Economic growth (GDP, annual
variationin%) Colombia 3.0 2.1 1.4 2.5 3.3
Mexico 3.3 2.6 2.1 2.2 −0.3
Unemployment rate Colombia 8.9 9.2 9.4 9.7 10.5
Mexico 4.0 3.4 3.1 3.4 2.9
Trade balance (USD billion) Colombia −13.5 −9.2 −4.5 −5.1 −8.5
Mexico 14.7 −13.1 −11.0 −13/6 5.4
Exports (USD billion) Colombia 38.6 34.1 39.8 44.4 42.4
Mexico 381 374 409 451 461
Imports (USD billion) Colombia 52.1 43.2 44.2 49.6 50.8
Mexico 395 387 420 464 455
Public debt (% GDP) Colombia 42.9 43.8 44.9 48.2 47.2
Mexico 45.4 49.4 46.9 46.8 47.1
Inflation rate (CPI, annual
variationin%) Colombia 5.0 7.5 4.3 3.2 3.5
Mexico 2.7 2.8 6.0 4.9 3.6
External debt (% of GDP) Colombia 38.2 42.5 40.0 39.6 42.7
Mexico 35.6 38.3 37.6 36.5 36.8
International reserves (USD) Colombia 46.7 46.7 47.6 48.4 53.2
Mexico 177 177 173 175 181
Investment (annual variation in
%) Colombia 2.4 −2.9 1.9 1.5 4.3
Mexico 5.0 1.0 −1.6 0.9 −4.9
Consumption (annual variation) Colombia 3.4 1.6 2.3 3.7 4.4
Mexico 2.7 3.8 3.2 2.3 0.6
Domestic demand (annual
variation as %) Colombia 2.4 1.2 1.1 3.4 4.3
Mexico 3.0 3.1 1.8 2.0 −0.9
Industrial Production (annual
variationin%) Colombia 2.0 4.1 −0.5 3.8 1.5
Mexico 1.1 0.3 −0.3 0.5 −1.7
Note All USD values are current prices
Source Own elaboration with information from Focus Economics (2020a,2020b)
292 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
have been introduced but insufficiently interpreted/adapted in most
developing countries and, particularly, in Latin America. Such frame-
works, which were originally developed before the creation of the Systems
of Innovation in Latin America and were meant to understand other
contexts, have been adopted as prescriptive models that are explicitly used
to guide the process of creation of “ideal” Systems of Innovation in these
countries.
As a result, we posit, the Systems of Science, Technology and Innova-
tion designed in Colombia and Mexico are essentially top-down, State-
driven, centralised, and linearly conceived regarding different dimensions
(national, regional, sectoral). This, in turn, affects the governance and
performance of such systems and, unsurprisingly, the outcomes and chal-
lenges that can be identified in each case widely differ from those of
developed countries. In fact, a few exploring studies already show that
Latin America, and particularly the Colombian and Mexican STI systems,
have a long way to go to close the gap with developed economies and to
further advance in the locally desired direction, particularly if it regards
boosting inclusive development (Kuhlmann & Ordoñez, 2017; Malaver
&Vargas,2020).
Both, Colombia and Mexico have promoted some inclusive policies
which, to a certain extent, relate to a few STI topics as it is recognised
that such inclusive measures2are central to economic growth (Bortagaray,
2016; Casas et al., 2013; Planes-Satorra & Paunov, 2017). Neverthe-
less, far less importance has been given to generate strategies that jointly
promote social, territorial, and business inclusion.
11.2.1 Colombia at a Glance
Colombia is the third biggest economy (measured by GDP) of Latin
America and the Caribbean, behind Brazil and Mexico. It is a country of
great biodiversity with a growing, though ageing, population that reaches
almost 50 million inhabitants (FocusEconomics, 2020a). Colombia
2Such policies refer to instruments which “aim to remove barriers to the participation of
individuals, social groups, firms, sectors and regions that are underrepresented in innovation
activities in order to ensure that all segments of society have the capacities and oppor tunities
to successfully participate in and benefit from innovation” (Planes-Satorra & Paunov, 2017,
p. 4). Understood as a process, inclusive innovation involves the coordination of several
actors from specific contexts for sharing information and, ideally, generating knowledge
(Sampedro, 2013).
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 293
became the most recent member of the Economic Cooperation and
Development Organisation (OECD) in 2018 as the 37th member State.
Since the liberation from Spanish rule, Colombia went through
unceasing turmoil and experienced continued changes that meant the
publication of nine constitutions between 1811 and 1886. After the
separation of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru/Bolivia, the Republic of
Colombia was finally consolidated, but political instability was its trade-
mark. The start of the twentieth century saw the separation of Panama,
fabricated by the local elites and the USA, amid the “one-thousand-day”
war.
In 1948, another major period of politically born violence started with
the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, and the last coup d’Etat took
place in 1953. In 1958, the two major traditional parties (conservatives
and liberals) signed a deal to alternate in power for sixteen years (four
presidential terms) (the so-called Frente Nacional).Itcametoitsendin
1974. The ensuing period, however, still saw political violence enacted
by the confrontation between State forces, several guerrillas and, later,
paramilitary forces created by drug lords and big landholders. Amid such
harsh circumstances, the tenth Constitution was proclaimed in 1991.
Politically, according to such Constitution, the Colombian State is
organised in two main parts: the branches of public power and the
State organisms. Regarding the former, the public power has three
branches: (1) The Executive branch, subdivided into three levels: national,
departments, and municipalities. The Executive is represented by a demo-
cratically elected President of the Republic, serving a four-year term, and
who is the head of State and the government; (2) the Legislative branch,
integrated by the Congress of the Republic (Senate and Chamber of
Representatives); (3) the Judiciary powers (Supreme Court and Courts of
Justice). The nation also includes autonomous and independent organs
such as Banco de la República (Central Bank), Regional Autonomous
Corporations (in charge of regulating environment-related issues, among
other things), autonomous State-owned universities, and regulators such
as the Autoridad Nacional de Televisión (the broadcasting regulator)
(Función Publica, 2020).
Colombia has started implementing a series of macroeconomic policies
that have enabled it to sustain a certain trail of development for the past
decade (OECD, 2019a). Among these, the Colombian government has
294 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
produced policies for fostering education, incentivising greater commer-
cial openness, and has nearly ended a 50-year internal armed conflict with
politically dissident groups.
Despite these advances, and although Colombia initiated its interna-
tionalisation process with the Apertura Económica (economic opening)—
and an extensive privatisation process of State-owned companies—
boosted by President Gaviria during the 1990s, the country’s insertion
into global markets has remained stagnant even after signing fifteen Free
Trade Agreements so far. This is so as the country’s exports have been,
for the past two decades, concentrated in only five products (mineral
fuels and oil, coffee, precious stones, plastics, and live trees) (CPC,
2020). Similarly, these products are traded to mainly four partners: USA,
Panama, China, and Ecuador. Colombia’s net exports reached 42.4 USD
billion in 2019 (FocusEconomics, 2020a;OEC,2020), making it the
55th largest exporter in the world (OECD, 2019a).
In economic terms, although growth potential has fallen substantially
during the last decade, economic growth in Colombia has been resilient
to external macroeconomic crises thanks, in part, to sound and cred-
ible macroeconomic policy framework, prudent fiscal management, and
a smooth adjustment to the oil prices shock of 2014–2016 (OECD,
2019a; World Bank, 2020a). Inflation was meant to remain near the 3%
target before the COVID-19 crisis, supporting real income and consump-
tion (Table 11.2). Additionally, the country has increased its exposure to
global financial conditions. Similarly, poverty and informality levels had
also fallen (OECD, 2019a).
After nearly 70 years of internal conflict, Colombia signed a peace
treaty with the biggest guerrilla (FARC) that has enabled the country
to slightly concentrate more on some social progress (OECD, 2019a).
However, internal regional inequalities remain large, informal employ-
ment substantial, poverty high and spread, with most social policies not
well-targeted.
Although access to finance has improved, thanks in part to changes
in tax schemes introduced by the Financing Law of 2018 (Ley de
Financiamiento), financial markets remain less developed than their coun-
terparts from countries in the region (OECD, 2019a), even if it has it
has integrated into MILA (Integrated Latin American Markets made up
by Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru). Colombians’ in general have an
asymmetrical access to the finance system. For example, in 2017 34.4%
of the country’s SMEs had access to a bank credit, a number below
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 295
the 41.4% with access in 2015 (CPC, 2020). Moreover, there are few
investment angels supporting the entrepreneurial base in the country,
leaving entrepreneurs with the necessity to access alternative (e.g., family
or friends) sources of finance as main investors to support innovation
(CPC, 2020). The former is coupled with a banking system with low
levels of integration with the innovation system (García & Prado, 2019).
The main Colombian development policy document is the National
Development Plan created by the National Planning Department (DNP
for its acronym in Spanish). For its current edition (2018–2022),
it proposes and follows the formula: Legality +Entrepreneurship =
Equity. The plan’s operative lines include security, legality, anti-corruption
advance, Colombia and globalisation, and citizen participation. Science,
Technology, and Innovation is said to be a transversal element of the plan.
The long-term focus (2030) of the plan targets Colombia’s invest-
ment in STI activities at 1.5% of its GDP by 2022 (2019 value was
0.67%) (DNP, 2020). Such an increase would be significant as Colombia
is outperformed by other big Latin American economies (Chile, Mexico
and Brazil) in terms of innovation capabilities (OECD 2019a; WIPO,
2020)(Table11.1). In fact, the Global Innovation Index ranks Colombia
as the 68th economy in the world in terms of its innovation capabili-
ties and 5th among 18 economies in Latin America and the Caribbean
(Cornell University, INSEAD, WIPO, 2020). Although some progress
has occurred, an important effort still needs to be done to take Colombia
into a more competitive position. Yet, we agree with Centeno et al.
(2020), who argue that such effort needs to go beyond the typical discus-
sions regarding R&D and innovation budget increases and uses, and
the traditional corrective measures adopted (e.g., enactment of law or
additional reforms).
Thus, the main discussion needs to be oriented towards generating
a more substantial change in terms of what is relevant for Colombia;
for example, how STI resources would be more efficiently used, how,
and by whom. Also, the scientific development of the country and the
related advancements of its innovation system should be substantially
transformed from a resource-based economy into a knowledge-based one
to better exploiting the natural endowment of the country and its bio and
cultural diversity (Mondragón, 2020). Moreover, the current STI system
has other impending needs to tackle at the governmental level: its high
level of bureaucracy and the partial (mis)understanding of the Colombian
elites who have designed the STI system exclusively from a technology
296 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
standpoint and which paradoxically observes technology as exogenous to
the system (Centeno et al., 2020; Mondragón, 2020).
11.2.2 Mexico at a Glance
Mexico, with a population of almost 130 million, has the eleventh
largest economy in the world and the second in Latin America and the
Caribbean. The country became a member of OECD in 1994, the same
year it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), later
renegotiated into what is now known as USMCA (USA, Mexico, and
Canada). Currently, Mexico has strong macroeconomic institutions and
ranks as the world’s 15th largest exporter due to the strengthening of its
productive capacities, diversifying away from raw materials such as oil, and
deepening its production complexity on manufactured products that are
integrated into regional and global value chains (OECD, 2013a;World
Bank, 2019,2020b).
Mexico, following its independence from Spanish rule in 1821, became
a representative, democratic, and Federal Republic according to the
Constitution of 1824. What followed was a period of political and
economic turmoil, which culminated in the Mexican Revolution of 1910
and the publication of the Political Constitution of 1917 (still in force).
Though organised as a democracy, the country was ruled between 1930
and 2000 by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)—a centre-
right political party—and by far-right PAN between 2000 and 2012, with
PRI returning to Government from 2012 to 2018. Currently, the govern-
ment is headed by leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who became
elected president in December 2018.
The Mexican State is organised around three branches of public power:
(1) The Executive power, represented by a democratically elected Presi-
dent of the country who serves a six-year period. (2) the Legislative power
deposited in the Congress and divided in the Senate and the Deputies,
and (3) The Judiciary power which is represented by the Supreme Court
of Justice.
In economic terms, although some moderate economic improvement
has occurred, this has not enhanced relative living standards. Over the
last three decades, Mexico has underperformed in terms of economic
growth. Growth rates averaged only 2.4% between 1980 and 2017,
with declining oil production impacting both the economy and its fiscal
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 297
revenues (OECD, 2013a,2019b; World Bank, 2019). Over the last
decade, the country has experienced a robust export growth that is driven
by integration into lower value-added activities connected to global value
chains aided by NAFTA; the exports’ share of GDP has climbed from 19%
of GDP in 1990 to 38% of GDP in 2017. Manufactured goods account
for 80% of exports and go mostly to the United States (OECD, 2019b)
(Table 11.2).
During the 1980s, some relevant macroeconomic changes occurred
in the country following two crises, the energy crisis of the late 1970s
and the national crisis of 1982 (Villavicencio, 2012). As a consequence,
the country redefined its development model by introducing market-
oriented structural reforms (first generation reforms) such as greater
commercial openness, trade liberalisation, and the privatisation of several
State-owned enterprises (e.g., Telmex) (Casas et al., 2013) following
policy recommendations from the Washington Consensus.
The country still faces problems with a weak rule of law and dete-
riorated institutions, impunity levels are high, violent crime continues
to grow, and control of corruption is weak when compared to OECD
countries, but also against Asian economies (OECD, 2019b). There are
obstacles to competition and widespread informality which encompasses
nearly 60% of jobs; similarly, perceived corruption is the highest in the
OECD (OECD, 2019b). There are also problems with social inclusion
and poverty reduction. There are marked differences between the north
of the country (industrialised), the centre-north (where Mexico City is
located), and the less well-developed south (mostly agriculture-based).
In terms of finance and access to credit, while the banking sector
remains sound and well capitalised, with increases to the domestic credit
to the private sector and new fiscal reforms3having been introduced
(OECD, 2019b), some actions to improve the access of financial options
still need to be implemented. For example, the general population still
has limited access to finance, as the share of adults with an account at a
formal financial institution decreased from 39% in 2014 to 35% in 2017,
while only one in four of the poorest 40% of Mexicans have an account
in a financial institution. The situation is also present for business, as
Mexican SMEs in general face more difficulties than big enterprises for
3At the end of 2005, Mexico amended its Securities Market Law and introduced
the Sociedad Anónima Promotora de Inversion a new form of a fiscal corporation which
increases the alignment of interest among shareholders as well as control and transparency.
298 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
accessing bank credit to develop, as only a third of them have loans, thus,
relying more on costly suppliers’ credit (OECD, 2013a,2019b;World
Bank, 2019).
In Mexico, the National Development Plan is the key planning docu-
ment that establishes the national public policy priorities. In its current
edition (2019–2024), it has three main areas of policy interest: justice
and rule of law, welfare policies, and economic development. STI policy
is only obliquely included in the current NDP; even though the country
ranks 2nd among 18 economies in Latin America and the Caribbean in
terms of innovation capabilities (Cornell University, INSEAD, WIPO,
2020), it still suffers from a rather low political commitment to STI
policy as a major driver of economic growth and social welfare. For
example, the main political goal of increasing R&D spending to 1% of
the country’s GDP still is far from materialising as it has remained in
similar levels for nearly 30 years, close to 0.5 of GDP (OECD, 2019b).
Moreover, innovation appears disconnected from science and technology
in the current policy plans as the NDP (2019, p.58) states that “[t]he
Federal Government will promote scientific and technological research; will
support students and academics with scholarships and other stimuli towards
knowledge. Conacyt will coordinate the National Plan for Innovation for
the benefit of society and national development , with the participation of
universities, the people, scientists, and businesses” (our translation).
The policy conception above is problematic since it relegates the role
of other actors to the role of participating entities, placing knowledge
production as a by-product of government’s promotion, and innovation
coordination under its central agency (Conacyt).
11.3 Why Inclusive Development and STI
Policies Need to Go Hand in Hand?
These snapshots of the two countries actually converge to Chang and
Rivas’ description of how the Latin American economic model has
remained essentially stuck in a first-sector commodity production system.
Under this model, exports cluster in few traditional low-value prod-
ucts that concentrate riches in a small elite and offer no prospective
transition towards higher quality better-paying jobs for citizens, all of
which generate frustration, discontent, and angry reactions. Ultimately,
as Chang asserts, several factors behind such a situation may be related
to Latin American countries having built only a minimum basis to start
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 299
a transition towards knowledge-based economies where innovation may
drive more modern and egalitarian economies. Such transition has been
delayed and is still too slow to create new and better conditions for their
citizens (Bakker et al., 2020).
In fact, there is ample evidence on how low levels of social inclusive-
ness and participation in innovation-related activities across the globe and
the uneven distribution of innovation-related capabilities or skills (e.g.,
entrepreneurial, research-related, knowledge-related, access to finance,
etc.,) across different social groups such as women, ethnic minorities,
and immigrants impact the welfare of the population. Along that line,
the problems of social inclusiveness are connected to those of territo-
rial (or spatial) and industrial inclusiveness and impact the endowment
of business capabilities across regions since “the uneven distribution of
innovation capacities across firms has contributed to widening the gap in
productivity performance between the most productive and less productive
firms” (Planes-Satorra & Paunov, 2017,p.13).
Among the different reasons found to generate this uneven partici-
pation of individuals in innovative activities are their different levels of
educational attainment. It has been argued that the lower the educa-
tional attainment of an individual, the less perception of the benefits
knowledge would bring to one’s welfare. Other factors impacting uneven
participation are discrimination in the labour markets on the grounds
of gender, age, race, religion, or ethnic origin; persistence of stereo-
types (e.g., women in STEM activities); barriers to access finance; weak
connections to entrepreneurial networks; or even living in or belonging
to deprived areas (Planes-Satorra & Paunov, 2017).
Thus, the problem of inclusiveness is one of proper allocation of
resources to create capacities and, therefore, it has to be urgently
confronted to modify such outcomes. Other rationales that go hand in
hand when implementing inclusive innovation policies include tackling
missing social, industrial, or territorial inclusiveness either by reducing
discrimination or by fostering participation.
To this extent, inclusive innovation policies have explicit targets and
instruments (Table 11.3) and specific challenges not usually shared and
greater than those faced by general innovation policies, such as raising
the target group’s awareness of the policy programme and increasing
their involvement and thinking inclusively and actively incorporating
target groups (Bortagaray & Ordoñez-Matamoros, 2012;Planes-Satorra
& Paunov, 2017). Furthermore, the transition to inclusive and sustainable
300 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
Table 11.3 Inclusive innovation policies: Aims, targets, and related instruments
Policy main objective Target Instruments
Fostering the integration of
disadvantaged groups in
innovative activities
General capacity building • Targeted grants to fund
research projects led by
researchers from
disadvantaged groups
• Funds to research
institutions to improve
the research
environment for women
Entrepreneurship skills • Entrepreneurship
education in schools
• Entrepreneurship
courses in the context
of vocational education
• Entrepreneurship
training provided out of
the formal education
system
Strengthen the scientific
literacy of the public • Investment in
high-quality science
education for all
•Projectsfor
communication
regarding and
popularisation of science
and technology
Addressing discrimination
and stereotypes • Awareness-raising
activities
• Role models
• Mentoring programmes
Providing incentives to
invest in (inclusive)
innovation
• Grants and repayable
grants
Addressing barriers to
entrepreneurship faced by
disadvantaged groups
Facilitating access to
finance • Microcredit (or
micro-loans)
• Equity financing
• Financial education
(continued)
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 301
Table 11.3 (continued)
Policy main objective Target Instruments
Providing business
development support • Provision of information
to entrepreneurs
• Coaching and
mentoring
• Professional business
counselling or advice to
entrepreneur
• Assistance to access new
markets
• Technology transfer
assistance
Promoting networks • Innovation vouchers
• Entrepreneurial
networks
Improving access to talent
by small businesses •Grantstorecruit
researchers
• Access to specialised
online job portals
Enhancing innovation in
lagging areas Accessing global
knowledge and
technology
• Demonstration of new
technologies and
training provided by
S&T specialists
• Financial support to
projects that use science,
technology, and
innovative solutions to
address local challenges
Maximising the potential
of existing assets • Design of tailor-made
development
• Identify areas of specific
relevance for a region
and train potential local
entrepreneurs in those
sectors
• Intellectual property
protection
• Support to regional
governments to
implement science,
technology, and
innovation projects
Attracting innovative
firms to peripheral regions • Technology parks
• Special economic zones
• Grants to promote
business R&D in
peripheral regions
Source Own elaboration based on Planes-Satorra and Paunov (2017)
302 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
innovation systems require systemic changes that go hand in hand with
changes in markets, productive and consumption practices (Bortagaray,
2016).
11.3.1 Inclusiveness Policies for STI in Latin America
As stated above, Latin America is a region full of contrasts. Both, extreme
richness and poverty coexist with generalised low income, low produc-
tivity, and low competitiveness levels, relatively high job informality
(Bortagaray, 2016; Casas et al., 2013; Sampedro, 2013). Also, there are
great inequalities in terms of entrepreneurship capabilities, knowledge
production, and STI development (Arocena & Sutz, 2014). These char-
acteristics have shaped to a certain extent the way in which industrial and
STI policy has been designed and implemented. Latin American coun-
tries were concerned as early as 1970s about the relationship between
knowledge, innovation and social development acknowledgeing that both
knowledge and technology play a fundamental role in social change and
its related processes (Casas & Corona, 2013; Dagnino, 2012;Herrera,
1973). Although knowledge has been considered important in the region,
Latin America, in general, is still a technology adapter rather than a
creator (Bortagaray, 2016; Dutrénit & Sutz, 2014).
Historically, Latin American regional policy agendas have placed an
important focus on scientific policies and funding scholarships for training
scientists. During the 1990s, Latin American countries saw different,
often non-favourable changes in their Science, Technology, and Inno-
vation (STI) policy agendas mostly due to a greater influx of market-
oriented forces that had a role in shaping the industrial and economic
ideas and their consequent outcomes. Furthermore, the decisive influence
of several international organisms when offering their recommendations
for the formulation and design of such STI policies has led to a homogeni-
sation of policies, which are often in direct conflict with the region’s
context, history, and socio-economic tradition (Bortagaray, 2016; Casas
& Corona, 2013).
The rationale for Latin American STI policy formulation, during the
first decade of this century, was aligned with the European, Japanese, and
North American tradition, which considered such policies as the favoured
public instrument to enhance national economic standards through the
improvement of productivity, welfare, and business competitiveness at a
national and global level (Casas & Corona, 2013). On the other hand,
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 303
the transition of some Latin American countries towards politically left-
oriented governments has meant that their STI policy agendas have begun
incorporating objectives more explicitly related to social development.
However, as Bortagaray (2016) indicates, the transition between
different policy rationalities has not been one of substitution, but rather
of adding layers of complexity and generating a vast policy mix system
where multiple rationalities coexist but might not work in synchronicity
with each other. In this sense, Casas and Corona (2013) argue that the
discussion of STI policy and social inclusion was not an explicit part of
the policy agenda, both in Colombia and Mexico.
As stated above, both Colombia and Mexico exhibit ample social and
economic disparities and several areas of social exclusion ranging from
health to energy and drinkable water access, to living standards, hunger,
and minorities’ rights. Even though things are slowly improving (OECD,
2019a,2019b), several policies implemented to tackle these exclusions
have not been sufficient. Table 11.4 illustrates selected examples of inclu-
sive innovation policies in both Colombia and Mexico along with the
programme’s rationale and main components.
In the case of Colombia, social development and inequity reduc-
tion have been objectives in the national STI policy agenda pushed
forward from 2010 by means of the inclusion of the social innovation
concept and its connection with productive and inclusive development.
For example, the National Development Plan 2010–2014, Chapter 3,
proposed that developing three major pillars (innovation, competitive-
ness, and productivity policies) and fostering key employment activities
would help to achieve the goals of sustainable economic development.
Similarly, Colciencias published in 2010 the National Strategy for the
Social Appropriation of STI with the goal of sharing and transferring
knowledge between producers and users (Salazar et al., 2013).
Nonetheless, far from helping to close the inclusiveness gap, these
policy efforts have had little impact. The authors argue that some of the
reasons for such meagre impact include the ambiguity on how innovation
has been articulated in these policies without a clear strategy path, nor
subsequent monitoring and evaluation criteria. Furthermore, the different
ways in which innovation is understood and defined lead to operative
confusion (Salazar et al., 2013).
Likewise, several policies to tackle poverty were introduced in Mexico
(e.g., Programa Progresa 1997 and Oportunidades 2002) since 1990,
but these have not contributed to generate capabilities or impacted
304 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
Table 11.4 Inclusive innovation policies in Colombia and Mexico (selected examples)
Policy Countr y Rationale Components
Ideas for change programme
(2012–2014) Colombia Engage the target group in the
design and implementation of the
programme/solution
Allows vulnerable communities to
identify their specific needs through a
virtual platform, after which the STI
community can propose specific
solutions to their problems
Target: Poor and vulnerable local
communities with unmet needs,
particularly relating to the
environment and energy fields
Productive territories programme (pilot
phase) Mexico Reduce poverty through tailor-made
development plans for poor rural
communities. Technical expert teams
elaborate and validate these plans in
collaboration with the local
communities, which ensures that the
specific needs of the targeted
community and the actual financial
and technical opportunities are
adequately identified. The plans count
on local support for their
implementation
Target: Poor rural households (to be
eligible, households need to be
beneficiaries of the social programme
“Prospera” and live in rural
municipalities)
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 305
Policy Countr y Rationale Components
Royalties for science, technology, and
innovation programme (2012–present) Colombia Encouraging involvement and
articulator of different actors within
the innovation system
The scheme devotes 10% of the
royalties obtained from the extraction
of non-renewable natural resources to
finance regional STI projects that
generate long-term capacities in the
region, conditional on being
consistent with public policies at the
national, territorial, and sectorial levels
Target: Regions with weak innovation
performance
Dialogo de Saberes (2005, 2012) Develop social innovation through
co-sharing local communities’
knowledge (e.g., indigenous peoples)
with users of knowledge
Target: Research groups, universities,
corporations
Special economic zones programme in
targeted regions (2016–present) Mexico Develop and deliver inclusive
innovation programmes as part of
broader development strategies
The programme foresees the design
and implementation of other policies
improving the human capital
endowment through education, the
improvement of health services, the
expansion of financial services, and the
development of public infrastructure
Target: Peripheral regions (three
lagging regions in southern Mexico)
Source Own elaboration based on Salazar et al. (2013) and Planes-Satorra and Paunov (2017)
306 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
the productive fabric of the country and these were not connected to
other national policies (neither industrial, nor S&T-related) that tackle
associated problems. Furthermore, Mexican STI policies have placed an
excessive interest in the development of human resources coupled with
meagre investments in other STI-related activities (Casas et al., 2013).
Finally, as Casas et al. assert, the Mexican innovation system has a
“low density of connections between its agents, reflected on the countries’ low
innovative capacity. Furthermore, it is characterised by a scarce propension
to establish agreements between the collective interest and social objectives”
(2013, p. 54, our translation).
11.4 Critical Considerations
on the Relationship Between Inclusive
Development and STI in Colombia and Mexico
The economies of Colombia and Mexico can be described as mostly based
on the endowment of natural resources and the consequential exploita-
tion of comparative advantages rather than competitive advantages, under
very limited international engagement. In fact, these two nations stand
far away from knowledge-based economies and, furthermore, typical n-
tuple helix analyses and recommendations—that is to say, a systemic view
of the relations and interactions among four major actors (government,
universities, enterprises, civil society) created with specific reference to
knowledge-based economies—are hard to implement because the reality
of the mutual commitment among such actors is quite poor. Additionally,
the two countries exhibit a limited international trade engagement mostly
characterised by outflows of commodities and inflows of high value-added
goods as their productive sectors are made up of a huge number of SMEs
grouped into traditional activities in low technology sectors.
Reality actually strikes hard when a closer look is taken at the Colom-
bian and Mexican n-tuple helix characterisation, for instance. As a matter
of fact, the usual three stakeholders appear in a statist configuration where
universities and enterprises are essentially “commanded” by governments
about their interactive initiatives (far away from the balanced configu-
ration which is characteristic of knowledge-based economies), and civil
society (the fourth helix) is rather weakly acknowledged or, in some cases,
even marginalised by the other three.
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 307
Thus, it is not surprising that the existent national STI systems in these
countries are, as stated previously, essentially top-down, State-driven,
centralised, linearly conceived regarding different dimensions (national,
regional, sectoral), highly inarticulate and fragmented, and poorly funded.
Even under the more conventional neo-institutional approach that makes
the Triple Helix converge with Innovation Systems,4it is difficult to
visualise a relatively high degree of STI performance in Colombia and
Mexico. This happens precisely because knowledge generation, diffusion,
and application for innovation are rather scarce and not well articulated.
In effect, it is actually hard to find out how universities and other
knowledge institutions in these countries “… act in a partnership with
industry and government and even take the lead in joint initiatives ”.
(Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000). Moreover, this is true in a context
(Colombia and Mexico) where universities are still stuck in a backward
model in which these are even now little more than a traditional source
of human resources and knowledge (for companies) and their role as key
innovation stakeholders is still weak and embryonic. In fact, their internal
organisational mechanisms and resources allocated to this purpose are not
sufficient nor mature enough to stop their dependence on mostly informal
ties.
This situation takes the Colombian and Mexican STI systems farther
away from more convenient arrangements such as the views which assume
that the Quadruple Helix Model should aim at the creation of feasible
synergies that articulate wealth creation, knowledge production, and
normative control “…whereby institutions and interinstitutional arrange-
ments can be stimulated by local or national governments [and] markets
and sciences operate at the global level… [so] the function of institutional
agency involves distributed instances” (Ranga & Etzkowitz, 2013). In fact,
even under a statist helix configuration (e.g., top-down legal and policy
measures), universities and enterprises in these two countries have serious
difficulties to figure out a model where they can work together to formu-
late and implement synergic initiatives to articulate their key roles in order
to transform society and the economy.
4Under such perspective, the Functions building block (defined as a set of competences
that determine the system’s performance) helps secure the Triple Helix system’s main
function which essentially involves the generation, diffusion, and utilisation of knowledge
and innovation by making use of all available competencies embedded in the Triple Helix
knowledge, innovation, and consensus spaces.
308 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
This being said, it is by no means extraordinary that development poli-
cies and programmes rarely seem clearly articulated to and supported by
STI institutions, policy, and programmes in Colombia and Mexico. It is
much less so when the incorporation of the civil society and their agency
capacity to development initiatives has been weak, at best.
It is from this perspective that Chang and Rivas’ earlier assertions
resonate strongly. One could ask: why and how the governing elites in
Colombia and Mexico have failed to boost STI development and imple-
mentation to create a knowledge-based socio-economic system which,
in turn, demand better-qualified people (not just labour) and create
and foster more knowledge-intensive, better-paid jobs and, consequently,
lesser inequality in society?
Why refers to the reasons that the governing elites have had to main-
tain a tight control of economic and political power by restraining
access to assets and activities dominated by them. But it also refers to
such elites’ rare attempts to modernise such activities (no matter if in
primary, secondary, or tertiary sectors) so that, for instance, agricul-
tural activities become more technologically intensive or manufacturing
and services incorporate new knowledge and advance more dynami-
cally through sustained innovation. This is reflected in an entrepreneurial
mindset which focuses on rent-seeking economic activities (with low rein-
vestment rates), short-termism (that goes against long-term investment
projects such as innovation-related initiatives), client-based politics and
policies, low appreciation of eventual new competitors (several virtu-
ally monopolistic/oligopolistic sectors), and oligopolistic control of key
production factors (e.g., land), among other common features.
In a way, this approach may help us understand to a certain extent why
Colombia and Mexico have become the nations that they are nowadays.
Of course, this may be related to a number of factors that have somehow
helped drive the configuration of the socio-economic traits of these soci-
eties: for instance, the size of the internal market and the purchasing
power of internal market consumers or the dynamics of subnational
regional economies and the role of national/regional/local governments.
How, instead, refers to processes that were eventually started but were
somehow aborted or did not reach the outcomes expected but represent
some sort of advance, though. This may have happened for a number of
reasons: opposition and direct action of incumbents whose interests were
threatened, bad planning, and implementation, emerging circumstances
that mislead the effort and doom it, among others.
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 309
A telling example is this: Colombian governments have consistently
set a goal for STI spending to reach 1% of GDP and it has regularly
failed over the last twenty years. Even if every single government in this
century has committed to accomplish that goal over their constitutional
term, twenty or so years have gone by without even getting close to the
target, not once even if the concept is conveniently widened (from STI
strictly to STIA). To top it all, in a rather cynical manner, the current
government has proposed an even higher goal: 1.5% of GDP. How is that
possible? Well, neither public (government agencies), nor private (enter-
prises) spending has lived up to the promise. This is related to the first
question, at least partly. Short-termism and a rent-seeking mentality are
still deeply embedded in public and private actors; and client-based poli-
tics and policy have got in the way of sensible initiatives to coordinate
synergistic efforts to do so, among other factors. However, this failure
is widely visible and marks an obligatory reference when discussing or
proposing STI policies in Colombia nowadays.
11.4.1 Some Illustrative Examples
In this section, we offer several examples that help us to exemplify how
and why the NSSTI are shaped as they are, and the way knowledge is
created and used in Colombia and Mexico in relation to inclusiveness.
Firstly, we analyse the structure of the Colombian and Mexican economies
in terms of the value added of their GDP (see Graphic 11.1). For compar-
ison purposes, the graphic includes two blocks, Latin America and the
Caribbean, and the structure of OECD members (including Mexico and
Colombia).
As seen in Graphic 11.1, in terms of diversification, there is no great
difference among the composition of the observed economies, as all have
had a similar composition over the past decade, with the services sector
becoming more important over time (World Bank, 2020). For the year
of comparison (2017), the greater share of economic activity was in
the services sector, representing above 60% in each economy, with both
Colombia and Mexico performing below the OECD average.
For Colombia, Mexico and LAC, in general, agriculture still represents
an important source of value, as these are above the OECD average value
of 1.5%. As expected, there is a transition of capacities from agriculture
and manufacturing to services, more clearly seen in the case of the main
OECD countries, but happening in the other economies as well. Despite
this similarity in terms of composition, the greatest contrast among these
310 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
7.24 3.57 1.5 4.7
30.36 31.46
22.2
23.3
62.39 64.97
69.7 60.6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Colombia Mexico OECD Members (Average) LAC (Average)
value added (% of GDP)
Country & region
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Industry (including construction)
Services
Graphic 11.1 Composition of the Colombian, Mexican, LAC, and OECD
member economies (2017). Notes Data for OECD members (average) and LAC
(average) as reported in original statistics. Differences in data correspond to either
unreported values or incomplete information (Source Own elaboration with data
from World Bank [2020a]andCIA[2020])
economies remains in terms of their sizes (Table 11.5) and the value
added and performance of each of the sectors.
Table 11.5 GDP and
GDP per capita at
current prices
(2019)—selected
economies
Country GDP GDP per capita
Colombia 324 6421
Mexico 1259 9999
OECD Members (mean) 53,653 39,438
Latin America & Caribbean
(mean) 5720 8847.4
Source Own elaboration with data from Focus-economics (2020a,
2020b) and WorldBank (2020)
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 311
Now, beyond the basic size and structure comparison, what needs
to be carefully analysed regards the way in which resources in those
sectors are used and other inputs (e.g., labour, knowledge) are incorpo-
rated in the productive processes, as well as the effect of such in terms
of outcome (e.g., resource productivity) and impact (e.g., job quality,
families’ welfare).
As shown in Graphic 11.1, agriculture, forestry, and fishing represent
the smaller share of the Colombian and Mexican economies. However,
many of the main products both Colombia and Mexico export come
from this sector and the mining activity. This is telling, since there are
some prevailing problems in this sector, such as the unequal distribution
of land (Oxfam, 2013; USAID, 2017a,2017b), and the low integration
of knowledge (i.e., R&D an innovation) present in such sector.
In terms of land ownership and its concentration or distribution,
evidence indicates that Colombia is among the most unequal countries
in the world in terms of land allocation (second only to Paraguay in Latin
America). This implies that land is allocated to few, and not as produc-
tive as proclaimed, elite groups whose agricultural practices focus on
large-scale industrial monoculture modes (Oxfam, 2013; USAID, 2017a).
Other than that, the land distribution problem has been worsened by
violence. In the case of Mexico, land ownership is distributed among large
transnational agribusinesses, which control through contract farming, the
entirety of the production process for large areas and ejidal (communal)
owners, whose land is highly fragmented, and often unregulated as they
lack appropriate ownership records. This has generated a situation in
which there is a high concentration of owners and of products (USAID,
2017b;OECD/FAO,2019).
A second problem, present also in the rest of LAC economies, is related
to agricultural capability and its productivity. In a nutshell, the Latin
American agriculture sector can be described as highly heterogeneous,
where “… [a] capital and technology intensive corporate sector that has
successfully managed to integrate itself into global agri-food markets coex-
ists alongside a broad socio-productive sector based on subsistence farming,
non-farming rural activities and landless rural populations that have been
unable to participate in dynamic economic circuits ”(OECD/FAO,2019:
p. 72).
For example, in the Colombian case, out of the land available for agri-
cultural use, nearly 31% is used for pastures, which in some instances is
312 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
overexploited for grazing purposes resulting in soil erosion and destruc-
tion of water and forest resources as cattle-growing farms hold 20.7% of
the Colombian cattle herd (USAID, 2017a; González et al., 2020). In the
Mexican case, its agricultural productivity is low when measured by inter-
national standards despite nearly 55% of Mexico’s land being dedicated
to agriculture (USAID, 2017b).
Finally, as for the incorporation of knowledge, qualified labour
and other significant inputs, Latin American agriculture has had some
improvements, but unresolved challenges remain such as infrastructure
problems, poor irrigation, a great deal of unpaved rural roads, lack of
logistics, and poor facility infrastructure (OECD/FAO, 2019). In terms
of research, spending in agricultural R&D has increased steadily across
the region, but at different paces and not always allocated to the most
efficient or productive sources nor to the most needed populations.
Similarly, public investment in infrastructure (annual average growth)
has increased over the past two decades (i.e., Colombia, 8.5% and Mexico,
7.0% of their respective GDPs) but, as mentioned above, rural infrastruc-
ture is still lagging. Lastly, knowledge is used sparingly to solve some
agricultural problems, such as the introduction of new crops and—specif-
ically in Mexico—for using water more efficiently (OECD/FAO, 2019),
but many other challenges remain unheeded across the region.
Now we turn our attention to the manufacturing and industrial sectors.
Like the agriculture sector, manufacturing in LAC is full of significant
heterogeneity across countries with ample differences in terms of how
volatile and exposed the economies are to external shocks, their main
trade partners, and the different policy frameworks that regulate them
(OECD et al., 2019).
In general, industrial production in Colombia had a sustained growth
from 2000 until 2008 (when the international crisis began and when
Venezuela virtually stopped being the second most important trade
partner that bought most industrial exports from Colombia), regis-
tering a weak growth afterwards (Carranza et al. 2018;OECD,etal.,
2019). For the latest period, Table 11.1 shows the Colombian indus-
trial production has had an annual variation of 1.8% on average for the
2015–2019 period, while the industrial production for Mexico registered
a contraction (−0.2%) for the same period.
Now, as for how efficient these countries are in terms of the use of the
production factors they employ in their industrial sectors and the amount
of knowledge added to such activities, recent research argues the value
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 313
added of the Colombian manufacturing industry is low, even lower than
that of the services sector (Carranza et al., 2018). Moreover, while the
R&D OECD intensity (expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP)
was 2.38% on average (2018), in Colombia it was 0.28% and in Mexico
0.31% for the same year (OECD, 2020).
Furthermore, in the case of Mexico, the R&D intensity of some
sectors5is very low. For example, during 2015 the total business R&D
productivity was 0.18% (OECD, 2017). This is due to some sectors which
generated little to no value (i.e., the primary sector), and some more
productive sectors such as the textile sector (0.22%) or the paper industry
(0.33%). Finally, in terms of its total factor productivity, Mexico expe-
rienced a negative average growth (−4.0%) during 2000–2018 (CPC,
2020).
Finally, both in Colombia and Mexico, services are the most dynamic
and important sectors representing 62% and 64.5% of their GDP, respec-
tively (Graphic 11.1) (Castiblanco-Moreno et al., 2017). For Colombia,
the current Annual Services Survey 2018 (EAS for its acronym in Spanish)
shows that the most productive sectors from the services survey were
employment activities in the building sector (21.1%) and telecommuni-
cations and health services (each producing 13.2% of value added per
sector) (DANE, 2020).
The data above can be contrasted with the degree of innovation
present in the services sector, which is low, with the exception of service
firms belonging to the banking sector (70% claim to innovate) and
R&D centres (65% innovate). Reasons for such low performance include
that many firms lack in-house R&D and innovation-related skills, a lack
of technology to invest in developing services, and limited financing
(Castiblanco-Moreno et al., 2017;CPC,2020).
In the Mexican case, recent research suggests that the transition of
the Mexican economy to the tertiary sector has been a by-product of
migration (mostly to the USA) and the globalisation process (initiated
in 1994), resulting in a services sector which demands skilled labour to
satisfy the needs of Mexican trade partners (Castillo et al., 2014). In terms
of the evolution of the service sector GDP, Dutrénit et al. (2013)report
that traditional and other services have accounted on average for 89.5%
for the period 2003–2011, while knowledge-intensive business services
5No similar data were found on Colombia for comparison purposes.
314 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
(i.e., scientific and technical, management of corporate enterprises and
waste management, and remedial services) have accounted on average for
10.5%, for the same period.
Similar to its Colombian counterpart, the Mexican service sector is
not particularly innovative with a majority of firms claiming not to
conduct any type of innovation, or if they do, doing so only in terms
of incremental innovation (Dutrénit et al., 2013).
It is not surprising, then, given the characteristics of the productive
sectors in Colombia and Mexico to observe its performance in terms of its
internationalisation process. Though LAC, in general, has opened up to
international trade, it has been observed that the region’s low productivity
seems to be associated with an export structure concentrated in primary
and extractive sectors with low levels of sophistication and predominance
of low-productive micro and SMEs in the region, which account for
99.5% of the LAC economic structure (OECD et al., 2019).
This is clear in the case of Colombia, for even after three decades
of beginning its internationalisation process, its insertion in international
markets is low, with an economy that has a heavily concentrated exporting
basket (close to 61% for 2017) in low added-value products, such as
coffee, bananas, flowers, coal, ferronickel, and oil. This is reflected, for
example, in the Herfindahl–Hirschman export concentration index6in
which Colombia (0.34 for 2019) ranks 16 among 17 LAC nations, only
above Venezuela (0.82) (Carranza et al., 2018;CPC,2020; García et al.,
2019).
The Colombian export process is hindered by both high transit times
and costs, staying behind Mexico, average Latin America, and well below
other OECD nations. For example, in terms of exporting time, it took (in
2018) an average of 112 h and a cost of nearly 630 USD (average cost
per container) for a Colombian export to reach its destination, whereas a
Mexican one took close to 40 h and an average of 400 USD per container.
These are well below other OECD members in which an export takes only
13 h and costs USD 200 on average (CPC, 2020).
Another problem associated with the under-performance of
Colombia’s foreign trade is the disappearance, during the 1990s, of
the Colombian Institute of Foreign Commerce (Incomex, for its Spanish
acronym), a regulating body and arbiter. This led to the emergence of a
6Index with values ranging from 0 to 1 measuring absolute diversification or
concentration. Values closer to 1 mean a less diversified economy (CPC, 2020).
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 315
number of actors with the power to design and manage the trade policies
of the country, mostly through lobbying and not always to the benefit of
the economy (Echavarría et al., 2019).
In addition to the above, Colombia’s insertion into Global Value
Chains (GVCs) has been low and continues to occur mostly for the
primary sector, with a very low level of adoption of international supplies,
both for backward and forward operations. Recent evidence suggests
some problems faced by Colombia for successfully integrating into
GVCs are related to non-monetary tariffs, which are high, and trade
tariff behaviours, which are protective of specific sectors and industries
without clear rationality for the selection of such industries (CPC, 2020;
Echavarría et al., 2019). Other problems associated with the integration
dynamics are the presence of a set of incentives which prioritises linkages
with low technology-intensive sectors (i.e., basic products); for example,
foreign direct investment inflows to Colombia have been mostly directed
to the extractive and mining industry, leaving behind other more dynamic
activities (CPC, 2020).
Moreover, high non-monetary tariffs (77% in 2017) still represent the
greatest cost when importing into Colombia thus impacting the supply
chain of goods needed to produce other intermediate or higher intensity
technology products. Additionally, trade tariffs, although diminishing, are
still higher than those of trade partners and other economies in the region
(CPC, 2020).
Moreover, Colombia currently has a heterogenous trade tariff ranging
for certain products (e.g., egg and dairy, meat, agricultural products)
from 5 to 85% on average. This, as Echavarría et al. (2019)argue,
punishes exports for several reasons, either by disincentivising them or by
raising production costs and reducing competitiveness. More significantly,
a greater variation in tariffs tends to increase technical smuggling, a situa-
tion where products are erroneously classified either by under-invoicing or
by changing its place of origin (CPC, 2020). This, in turn, raises overall
customs administrative costs required, for instance, for inspection and
correct labelling.
On the other hand, Mexico has managed to diversify its exporting
profile over the past years (e.g., the concentration of its exporting basket
in 2018 was below 25%) because of the countries’ involvement in GVCs,
316 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
aided mostly by NAFTA (now USMCA) (CPC, 2020). Mexico’s integra-
tion to GVCs occurs in different industries (e.g., aviation, cars,7electric
and electronics), where it undertakes lower value-added activities (e.g.,
maquiladora), activities with a high weight to value ratio (e.g., produc-
tion of cars, flat screens for televisions, and electronic appliances of large
size), and activities that require strong managerial involvement in order to
meet high quality standards (e.g., aerospace industry and production of
medical instruments) (Watkins, 2007, in Dougherty & Reynaud, 2017).
Despite the country’s integration into GVCs, there is evidence indi-
cating that the share of Mexican value added embodied in foreign
countries’ exports is low, below that of peer countries, even if the coun-
try’s backward participation8seems to be concentrated in medium–high
to high technology industries (Dougherty & Reynaud, 2017;OECD,
2019). Similarly, this integration process does not seem to be linked to the
development of highly innovative skills, nor require labour that is knowl-
edge intensive, as Kuznetsov and Dahlman (2008, p. 33) highlighted
that the challenge for Mexico’s maquiladoras is to “go beyond footloose
manufacturing”.
Furthermore, an important driver for upgrading in GVCs is investment
in knowledge-based capital, as the highest level of value creation in GVCs
are found in upstream activities (e.g., new concept development, design,
R&D) and in certain downstream activities (e.g., marketing, branding, or
customer service). This process simply does not occur in Mexico, since
its industries with larger technical assets have not been found to be more
integrated into GVCs (Dougherty & Reynaud, 2017).
Moreover, those authors also report that the integration process into
GVCs has not been inclusive since more than 60% of the domestic value
added in exports has been found to be done by large firms and not by
SMEs, while the share of firms engaging in GVCs is low compared with
other countries (OECD, 2019).
7The car industry, for example, benefited since 1994 of several assembly plants moving
to Mexico, thanks in part to low operative costs and easy market access to the USA and
Canada. This trend helped Mexico to become (by 2015) the seventh largest manufacturer
of vehicles in the world, the first of Latin America, and the fourth largest exporter in the
world (Cuevas, 2016 cited by Chiquar & Tobal, 2019).
8Share of foreign value added in a country gross export.
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 317
Finally, the integration to GVCs has led the country to specialise
in activities which use low-skilled human capital industries.9That is,
Mexico’s insertion into GVCs from 1993 to 2017 has seen three periods:
First, a period beginning after NAFTA and ending in 2001, in which the
country specialised in relatively skilled-labour intensive industries (e.g.,
computer and peripheral equipment, and electro-medical and control
instruments). A second period (running from 2002 to 2006, coinciding
with China’s accession to the WTO), in which the country’s use of human
capital and its trade specialisation patterns seem to not have changed
significantly. Finally, a third period (2007 onwards) in which the skill
change in Mexican production seems to have reversed to intensive use
of low-skilled human capital since industries such as automobiles and
trucks manufacturing or fruit and vegetable preserving increased their
trade balance (Chiquar & Tobal, 2019).
Another significant feature regards the technological intensity of
exports as it highlights some difficulties faced by Colombia and Mexico
to fully exploit their limited knowledge-related capabilities. Graphic 11.2
shows the technological intensity composition of exports of selected
economies for 2018.
It is evident that, except for Mexico, all other main Latin American
economies are above the average of the region in their dependence on the
primary sector and below the average in what concerns high and medium
intensity manufacturers. Manifestly, they are even farther from the OECD
averages.
A look at the evolution of exports (Graphic 11.3) provides some inter-
esting traits found in both countries. As a matter of fact, it shows the
great dependency that both economies have on the USA as their main
commercial partner. In the case of Colombia, this dependency is lessened
by the fact that it has other partners rising in terms of importance (e.g.,
China and Panama). However, Colombia’s trade was severely affected by
the deterioration and subsequent breakdown of the political/economic
relationship with Venezuela, once Colombia’s main buyer of medium-
intensity goods. Mexico, instead, does not as its remaining trade partners
represent less than 10% of the country’s exports.
9A study that analyses the six industries that contributed most to the change in the
difference between the average human capital intensity of export and imports over the
period 1995–2017.
318 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
Graphic 11.2 Technological composition of exports (2018)—selected
economies (Source CPC [2020, p. 280]. Our emphasis)
Furthermore, Table 11.6 provides information about the type of prod-
ucts (based on their technology intensiveness) that each country sells to
their main trade partners. As can be seen, the bulk of Colombian exports
belong to basic products (e.g., flowers, coffee, and minerals) and their
importance (relative weight) is considerable as these represent a high
volume of trade to the countries’ main partners. These products require
little transformation and low investment in knowledge. Only in the case
of medicines (exported to Panama), there is a higher requirement of
productive knowledge/expertise.
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 319
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Export Partner Share (%)
Year
Exports from Colombia to main trade partners
USA
Venezuela
Peru
China
Mexico
Panama
Brazil
Germany
Ecuador
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Export Partner Share (%)
Year
Exports from Mexico to main trade partners
United States
China
Colombia
Brazil
Canada
Graphic 11.3 Evolution of exports from Colombia and Mexico (1991–2018)
to selected partners (Source Own elaboration based on WITS [2020a,2020b])
As for Mexico, the type of products exported to its main partners
are medium intensity/technology manufactures integrated into several
GVCs. This supports the idea that the exporting profile of Mexico is more
diversified than that of most Latin American economies and Mexican
exports are relatively more intensive in knowledge, particularly in the car
industry and the production of electrical components.
There is evidence on Colombian and Mexican firms having a disperse
capability to produce knowledge, use it to transform it into innova-
tions, or to connect to knowledge producers. Some of the reasons for
such phenomena include: low proportion of researchers linked to the
320 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
Table 11.6 Colombian and Mexican chief exports to main trade partners
(2019)
Country
USA China Panama Canada
Colombia
Total (X) 12,265,652,574 4,564,928,828 2,354,487,706 446,193,647
Crude petroleum
4,898,842,865
(39.9%)
Crude
petroleum
3,930,435,614
(86.1%)
Crude
Petroleum
1,924,337,103
(81.7%) Coffee 175,799,898
(39.4%)
Flowers (ornamental &
bouquets)
1,154,274,107
(9.4%)
Ferroalloys
(Iron)
398,344,506
(8.7%) Coal 45,977,312
(1.9%) Coal 131,723,462
(29.5%)
Coffee
1,053,044,377
(8.6%) Coal
88,150,304
(2.0%)
Medicaments
packed for retail
sale
34,821,397
(1.5%)
Flowers
(ornamental
& bouquets)
11,982,443
(2.7%)
Mexico
Total 358,870,588,964 6,854,364,873 1,237,259,291 1 4,132,557,428
Motor cars and other
motor vehicles
37,352,575,334
(10.41%)
Copper Ores
& concentrate
2,067,770,799
(30.2%)
Other
commodities
384,642,439
(31.1%)
Other
commodities
4,470,639,154
(31.6%)
Automatic data
processing machines
29,439,611,201
(8.20%)
Other
commodities
1,426,515,566
(20.8%)
Petroleum oils
and oils from
bituminous
minerals
275,479,752
(22.3%) Vehicles 2,470,386,955
(17.5%)
Motor vehicles; parts
and accessories
26,107,796,552
(7.27%) Vehicles 407,989,563
(6.0%)
Medicaments
packed for retail
sale
93,617,633
(7.6%)
Piston
engines for
vehicles
1,552,527,583
(11.0%)
Vehicles for the
transport of goods
25,368,512,067
(7.07%)
Insulated wire, cable,
and other electric
conductors
11,836,866,620
(3.30%)
Monitors and projectors,
not incorporating
television reception
apparatus
11,186,614,203
(3.12%)
Other Commodities 9,423,679,616
(2.63%)
Telephone sets,
including telephones for
cellular networks or for
other wireless networks
9,298,132,042
(2.59%)
Tractors 9,193,785,663
(2.56%)
Instruments and
appliances used in
medical, surgical, dental,
or veterinary sciences
7,726,728,282
(2.15%)
Seats (different
industries)
5,750,581,247
(1.60%)
Notes All in USD current prices
Number in parenthesis is share of total exports to each market. Figures do not add to 100% as the
table includes only main products per partner
Source Own elaboration with data from UN Comtrade Database (2020)
productive sector; a lack of connectedness between the agents related to
knowledge creation (universities and research centres) and the productive
sector, associated with not enough exploitation of these (sparse) link-
ages; a lack of incentives to produce or generate applied knowledge in
enterprises intended to solve business and society-related problems. An
associated problem identified by Malaver and Vargas (2020) relates to
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 321
the insufficient use that productive sectors make of the skills of highly
educated human resources. The authors found that, in some instances,
much of the creative talent available in Bogota “dilutes in the firms that
employ [them]”. (CPC, 2020; Malaver & Vargas, 2020; Pietrobelli, 2012
in Wood et al., 2014).
Then again, the capability to turn knowledge into innovation is uneven
in both Colombia and Mexico, as there are marked contrasts within
regions and sectors. It is a situation in which the capital cities (Bogota
and Mexico City), and other few and selected regions attract more talent
as these have a higher concentration of universities, research centres,
and productive agents actively producing and using knowledge (Cotte
and Andrade, 2018; Cotte et al., 2018; Garavito & Cifuentes, 2018;
Rodriguez, 2016; Torralba & Cotte, 2018). Despite this, there have
been some public and private efforts, though sporadic and disconnected,
towards generating better linkages between the productive sector and
knowledge producers. One example of this is the creation of Technology
Transfer Offices (TTOs) in many countries with the goal of improving
the connection between universities/research centres and enterprises
(Garrido & Rondero, 2015).
In Colombia, for example, most investments placed in STI-related
activities by knowledge producers (HEIs) have been concentrated on
average (for the period 2007–2018) on conducting R&D (close to 69%
of total investments), while activities such as providing scientific and tech-
nological services have (for the same period) accounted only for 7.5%
of their expenditures (Cotte & Andrade, 2018). This is telling as these
figures describe, albeit partially, the importance placed by these actors
onto generating knowledge and then diffusing it into other actors.
Moreover, many of Colombia’s highly qualified human resources (close
to 95.6% PhD and postdoctoral researchers) end up working for HEIs,
due to the productive sector offering fewer opportunities (for example,
in terms of career development and competitive salaries) and incen-
tives for incorporating these resources (Burbano & Nubia, 2011; CPC,
2020;CNCetal.,2020). Similarly, there is a lack of connectedness
between manufacturing and service companies in Colombia and knowl-
edge producers. In fact, according to the National R&D and Innovation
Survey (EDIT VIII 2015/16 and EDITS VI 2016/17), out of 7497
manufacturing companies and 8651 services companies, only 2.9 and
4.8% firms, respectively cooperated with universities or R&D centres to
conduct their innovation activities (Andrade, 2018).
322 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
In terms of connectedness between knowledge producers and users
in Mexico, there has been important efforts to train highly specialised
human resources (national scholarship programme) and incentivise
research production (national researchers’ system) over the past forty-
five years. Similarly, great care has been placed in creating a system of
public research centres (supervised by Conacyt) and in establishing solid
connections between these and HEIs. In this sense, since 2010 there is a
stronger policy framework10 (i.e., strategy 4.1 for the creation of TTOs in
the Special Programme for Science, Technology, and Innovation and the
creation of the FINNOVA programme) that explicitly recognises the need
and advantages of transferring knowledge between actors in the innova-
tion system. Despite these policies, the linkages between research centres,
HEIs, and the productive sector remain weak and sparse (Chiapa, 2019;
Ibarra et al., 2015).
This weak integration between knowledge producers and the produc-
tive sector is due in part to the low propensity of Mexican companies to
invest in R&D and innovation. For 2016,11 the expenditure on R&D as
a share of the GDP of the private sector accounted for only 0.1% (INEGI,
2020). Additionally, there is evidence of lack of skills among business
managers concerning their willingness to share confidential information
or knowledge to effectively interact with TTOs (Ibarra et al., 2015).
Another systematic problem, and somewhat paradoxical with TTOs them-
selves, refers to these lacking skilled labour specialised in technology
transfer processes. However, some collaborating efforts have occurred
between TTOs and the private sector. For example, during 2017/18, the
country’s TTOs signed a total of 2103 collaboration agreements, mostly
with the private sector (38%), to transfer technology and do intellectual
property work (Chiapa, 2019;Ibarraetal.,2015).
Additionally, there are financial constraints, lack of access to financial
services to start innovation processes, and technical innovation is usually
expensive (Zanello et al., 2016). Current research shows the effects of
such financial constraints on innovation. Colombian innovative compa-
nies, for instance, are financially constrained and do not know well nor
trust the STI ecosystem, particularly its financial actors (Sierra, 2020).
10 One of the firsts TTOs to be established in Mexico was the Centre for Technological
Innovation in 1984 in UNAM, the largest public university of the country (Ibarra et al.,
2015).
11 Latest available figure.
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 323
Moreover, innovative companies in Colombia exhibit certain financing
behaviours that are worth noting. “Colombian companies invest very little
in STI , and those that do are not numerous, are mostly big, belong to
sparsely populated technology-intensive sectors, and do mostly incremental
innovation” (Sierra, 2020, p. 252). Furthermore, those Colombian firms
that do innovate, prefer not to resort to fresh equity and favour internal
funding. Only when internal funding is not feasible, they do attempt
to get loans from commercial banks. Similarly, low-liquidity companies
prefer going to more costly local banks than using more convenient
government subsidies or low-rate credits and they are somehow not
interested in taking advantage of “available cheaper, relatively specialised
funding sources/mechanisms (e.g., Colciencias) as they feel official agencies’
red tape is excessive” (Sierra, 2020, p. 252).
As for the Colombian financial system, only a few first- and second-tier
banks may eventually fund STI projects. Venture capital is not abundant
(e.g., Fondo Emprender from SENA, and the ALDEA programme by
iNNpulsa) (CPC, 2020) and faces several serious restrictions, and the
stock market is small and underdeveloped. Finally, international bank
leverage and bond funding are infrequent. “So, the primary obstacles
seem to regard rather poor matching environment and mechanisms and,
subsequently, a very limited set of mostly generalist funders with rigid condi-
tions (e.g. screening criteria) that make adaptive demand–supply matching
difficult ” (Sierra, 2020. p. 253).
Now, for the Mexican case, recent research suggests Mexico’s funding
structures inhibit innovation. That is, traditional private capital is risk-
averse and private funding is limited and concentrated, since Mexican
private banks are reticent to fund entrepreneurial and innovation-related
projects, and large investors prefer to invest in traditional sectors rather
than in start-ups (León & Saveedra, 2018;Rios,2018).
Additionally, Mexican companies invest little in R&D and innovation,
and few of them undertake innovation (only 3.8% for 2016) (INEGI,
2020). Of those firms which innovate, many are unaware of the avail-
able private funding instruments and only a little proportion of innovative
firms rely on public funding for their projects. In this sense, the public
sector has increased the availability of programmes to support innovation
and entrepreneurship (e.g., Finnova, National Entrepreneurship Fund),
324 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
but it still faces many difficulties such as the presence of middlemen oper-
ating within the system—thus hampering its performance—and cumber-
some administrative steps to obtain financing (León & Saveedra, 2018;
Rios, 2018).
From a different perspective, a look at some regions of Colombia
and Mexico unveil examples of the articulation that takes place through
configurations such as the Triple Helix model. Some of these are more
successful than others, but most certainly represent isolated efforts, not
the norm.
In Colombia, interactions that involve Triple Helix actors (State–
university–private businesses) have motivated the creation of a number
of science and technology parks now operating in the country, as well
as other collaborative outcomes. Though cases of success exist (e.g.,
project Lion12—Castellanos, 2013) where technology transfer did occur,
the evaluation of the performance of such configurations indicates that
there is a limited number of collaborations actively happening between
the interested agents; this, in turn, limits the production and diffusion of
innovation (Burbano & Nubia, 2011; Herrera et al., 2015). Furthermore,
such configurations seem to be oblivious of the role that the civil society
needs to play in n-helix configurations and the way financing needs to
be articulated, especially in a context such as the Colombian one (Sierra,
2018).
The Mexican experience with the n-Helix approach finds clusters that,
albeit successful, have followed a State-led Triple Helix model or more
traditional approaches of connecting the relevant agents. Two promi-
nent examples are available. In the electronics cluster in the State of
Jalisco (western Mexico) the State Council of S&T has actively pushed
towards the collaboration between public research centres (CINVESTAV)
and private businesses (e.g., Intel) (Rivera, 2006;TBY,2018;Xicotén-
catl et al., 2020). In the Research and Technological Innovation Park in
Monterrey, in the State of Nuevo Leon (north of the country), the strong
presence of private universities (e.g., ITESM) and a long-established
entrepreneurial base had made them a fertile ground for connecting
the productive sector and knowledge producers. Evidence suggests these
efforts have resulted in stronger linkages within business and academia,
12 An IT and automation collaboration between Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (HEI)
and Heinsohn Business Technologies, which is co-financed through former Colciencias
(currently, Minciencias).
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 325
observed as a process of co-creation of training courses and workshops
intended for the support of business activities (Olvera et al., 2020). As in
the case of Colombia, the discussion of the role other actors can play
within the Helix system (e.g., the financial sector and civil society) is
scarce or non-existent.
Nonetheless, of course, there has been some evolution in the NSSTIs
of both countries, particularly in terms of training and the development
of highly qualified human resources. Graphic 11.4 shows the number
of graduates from HEIs during the period 2008–2017. Over the seven-
year period shown on the graphic, the number of bachelor’s graduates
from HEIs in both countries has almost doubled. This signals better
access to education, as well as a higher degree of coverage in general
(OECD, 2013b;OECD,2019c). However, additional effort needs to be
incorporated as many of these graduates do not have incentives to join
postgraduate programmes. In both countries, the ratio of master grad-
uates to bachelor’s is almost one-half, and the PhD share is the vast
minority.
The increased number of highly skilled labour in Colombia and Mexico
represents doubtlessly an advance in terms of the strengthening of the
NSSTI in both countries, as this increases the chances that these human
resources have to incorporate more successfully into the labour market
(OECD, 2019c). Similarly, the increase in numbers of highly skilled
labour (PhD graduates) has benefited HEIs, since these have been able to
grow not only in physical terms, but have as well expanded their training
activities, research base, and knowledge production. However, it also
implies that the lack of or imperfect integration of these highly educated
human resources into the productive sector unveils the type and quality of
linkages between STI actors as there are well-known asymmetries in the
type of knowledge and capabilities present in both the productive and the
academic sector.
An important effort is also needed to improve the regional differential
conditions in both countries as regional development is highly unequal
and centralised. The differences shown in Table 11.7 are striking, not
only between both countries but also internally, as they show a prevailing
problem in terms of access to quality education. This, in turn, is associated
with the concentration of capabilities (centralisation), infrastructure prob-
lems, and generalised inequality. This situation leaves regions like Vichada
(in Colombia) or Campeche (in Mexico) to lag behind their respective
national capital cities. Furthermore, it is this vast regional heterogeneity
326 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
Table 11.7 Number and percentage of graduates from HEIs—Colombia and
Mexico (selected regions)
CountryaBachelor’s Master’s PhDs OtherbTot al
Colombia 208,917
(45.0%) 25,351
(5.5%) 770 (0.2%) 227,329
(49.3%) 462,367
Bogotá D.C 75,201 9749 330
Guainía 15 0 0
Vichada 14 0 0
Mexico 465,186
(77.5%) 66,106
(11%) 8264 (1.5%) 60,460
(10%) 600,016
MexicoCity 63,274 13,890 1948
Baja
California Sur
2361 198 45
Campeche 3716 514 17
aData for Colombia corresponds to 2017 and 2019 for Mexico
bOther: technical degrees, technological degrees, diplomas
Source Own elaboration based on Garavito and Cifuentes (2018) and ANUIES (2020)
that has been observed as a deadweight for national innovation indicators
(Malaver & Vargas, 2020; Wood et al., 2014).
Now, the differences are not only present in terms of education but
also in different indicators relevant for the use and exploitation of knowl-
edge. Take, for example, income poverty levels. In Colombia, 12.4% of
the population of Bogota live below the poverty line, while the poverty
rate of Chocó is 58.7% (Ramírez & Aguas, 2015). Likewise, in Mexico,
only 14.2% of the population in Nuevo Leon live under the national
income poverty line, while 77.1% of the population do so in Chiapas
(INEGI, 2019). With such levels of poverty, certain trends become persis-
tent: crime, business informality and early education drop-out (OECD,
2019c).
Furthermore, the Colombian State (Departamento) of Cundinamarca
(where the capital city Bogota is located) outperforms all other Colom-
bian Departamentos in terms of economic strength, infrastructure, human
capital formation, and STI-related indicators. Not only that, but when
analysed as regions, the country shows stark differences. The Andes
region performs much better in all economic and social indicators (health,
education, society, etc.), followed by the Atlantic coast, with the Pacific
littoral being left well behind and the South-West of the country (the
Amazonas and Orinoco regions) performing the worst (Malaver &
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 327
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
NUMBER OF GRADUATES
YEAR
Bachelors
(Colombia)
Masters
(Colombia)
PhDs
(Colombia)
Bachelors
(Mexico)
Masters
(Mexico)
PhDs (Mexico)
Graphic 11.4 Colombia and Mexico—graduates from HEIs at different levels
(2007–2017) (Source Own elaboration with data from Garavito and Cifuentes
[2018] and ANUIES [2020])
Vargas, 2020;Prietoetal.,2018; Ramírez & Aguas, 2015). In Mexico,
a similar regional disparity has been observed with the North region
(e.g., Nuevo Leon and Jalisco) outperforming the South (e.g., Chiapas or
Oaxaca)—Mexico City being the only exception—in terms of educational
attainment, poverty, and infrastructure (OECD, 2019b).
In addition to the progress made in the areas of specialised human
resource training, there are other positive examples of capacity building in
these countries. On issues related to the articulation between knowledge
producers and users, the creation of agricultural technology centres (for
example, Agrosavia, previously Corpoica in 1993 in Colombia, or INIA
in 1960 in Mexico) has been a remarkable experience. Both Agrosavia
and INIA develop applied technology, offer information services, and
supply laboratory services. The products derived from this offer have
been disseminated among producers in the agricultural sector through
collaboration agreements between these centres and private companies,
328 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
local corporations or associations, and the respective National Ministries
of Agriculture (Lemarchand, 2010).
However, just as progress has been made, there have also been cases in
which capacities created over time have been destroyed either by erro-
neous political decisions, by systemic failures or by limitations in the
articulation between actors, among other factors. For example, progress
in the development of the Colombian innovation system has been less-
ened by inadequate action about generating suitable societal recognition
of the importance of STI and the lack of guidelines from State agencies
and regulating bodies as to how and why STI is important for the well-
being of the Colombian society, in general (Oquendo & Acevedo, 2012;
Prieto et al., 2018).
On the other hand, integrating Mexico into an advanced manufac-
turing sector is a strategy with great potential but requires joint efforts
from both the government and the productive sector as not all indus-
tries in the manufacturing sector exhibit the same level of development.
For example, the automotive industry does not have enough specialised
manufacturers located in Mexico, therefore the manufacturing of some
components depends on imported inputs: 71% of the total demand for
advanced manufacturing processes (e.g., computer-based ones such as
high-level computing simulation and analysis services, fast prototyping
and robotics) heavily depend on imported services and items (Dutrénit,
2015).
Now, how do these facts and trends impact job and life quality in
Colombia and Mexico? One of the main problems in both economies
is the high level of informality, which is estimated to correspond to
about 50% of total employment in Latin America (Chacaltana, 2019;
IMF, 2019). This phenomenon is problematic because “… informality
prevents access to social security benefits, hinders the application of the laws
that regulate working hours and remuneration, and is associated with jobs
in companies with less than 5 workers that tend to have low productivity and
do not promote the development of skills ” (Fedesarrollo, 2019,p.3).
Labour informality, especially in the context of developing economies
(e.g., Latin America), is a phenomenon that presents multiple edges,
which makes it difficult to generalise about its causes and effects. In
this sense, the first difficulty associated with informality is an estimation
problem (Loayza & Sugawara, 2009). Although, both in Colombia and
in Mexico, the current levels of informality are high (48 and 56%, respec-
tively) (Fedesarrollo, 2019; Medina and López, 2019;INEGI,2020), it
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 329
does not necessarily refer to the same concept. For example, Colombia
statistics office estimates that 47.9% represents the proportion of infor-
mally employed persons for the last quarter of 2019 (DANE, 2020).
On the other hand, Mexican INEGI (2020) estimates that informality
reached 56.3% in 2019 (representing close to 22.5% of the country’s
GDP for 2018). In the Colombian case, the Large Integrated House-
hold Survey estimates the levels of informally employed persons13 as those
who are employed (paid or not), in companies with five workers or less
(DANE, 2020). While, in the Mexican case, the definition of informality
includes both the informal sector and informal employment,14 where the
former includes all those market economic activities that operate from
household resources but not established as companies, no matter the size
of the productive unit (INEGI, 2020).
Despite these conceptual differences, a common point about the levels
of informality present in both countries concerns the deficiencies pointed
out by Fedesarrollo (2019) related to the difficulty of accessing social
security and the regulation of working hours. For example, recent esti-
mates value that the pension system ceases to receive about USD 6
billion per year due to the lack of contributions from informal workers
in Colombia (CPC, 2017).15
Additionally, recent evidence shows that informality is more prevailing
in populations with lower educational attainment levels. Moreover, the
informal sector exhibits lower productivity levels than the formal sector
and absorbs low-skilled workers in a greater proportion. For example,
it is estimated that 26.2% of workers belonging to the informal economy
have tertiary education in the American continent (data for 2016). Finally,
current evidence indicates that populations that are integrated into the
informal economy are more vulnerable in various ways (legal, economic,
or social), so many of the corrective actions taken relate to generating
13 This classification excludes independent professionals and government employees.
14 The configuration of the informally employed population by employing economic
unit reveals that about 48.9% are employed in the informal sector. Additionally, 7.5% is
made up of paid domestic workers, 24.8% are those linked to companies, government,
and institutions, and 18.8% are individuals in the agricultural field (INEGI, 2019).
15 This discussion is actually much more complex as another possible reason for such
high levels of informality may have to do with the fact that some informal workers
obtain a higher income than many formal workers who only receive a minimum salary
compensation.
330 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
policies of inclusion and generation of opportunities (OECD, 2018;
OECD/ILO, 2019).
From a different perspective, that of labour skills demanded by
different economies, evidence indicates that during the last decade there
has been a generalised transition from the manufacturing to the service
sector, which has deepened a generalised polarisation between jobs that
require low-paying skill levels and those requiring high-paying skills.
This adds to a trend in which the share of middle-skill occupations in
total employment has declined in general for all sectors of the economy
during the last decade. Thus, examples of high-skill sectors which demand
increasing numbers of workers are the ICT-related industries and finance,
while low-skill sectors which still are experiencing growth are the hospi-
tality industry and restaurant services (OECD, 2018). Nonetheless, both
in Colombia and in Mexico, the dynamics of insertion into the labour
market follow the trends described above, observing a greater inser-
tion of workers into the service sector (OECD, 2019). Thus, there are
particularities in each case that are important to point out.
In Colombia, for example, the labour demand-side posted during
2019 a greater number of jobs (published vacancies) for workers with
a baccalaureate degree (29.5% out of 1,888,992), followed by university
graduates (23.6%). The least vacancies offered correspond to personnel
with postgraduate education (master’s and PhDs) with a combined
proportion of 0.3% (Servicio de Empleo, 2020). These data are important
since, as mentioned in Table 11.7, an average of 200,000 students grad-
uate every year from undergraduate programmes. The ensuing question
is obvious: where are the rest of the graduate and postgraduate profes-
sionals not absorbed by the productive sector? Arguably, a somewhat large
proportion of postgraduates is absorbed by some HEIs that are transiting
towards international standards (e.g., those seeking international accred-
itation programmes), while others probably emigrate abroad in search of
better job opportunities, and finally, another group of university gradu-
ates probably transits towards some sort of informal employment. In fact,
precise data about this situation is hard to obtain.
In terms of economic activity, those sectors that registered the most
vacancies were administrative services (12.5%), retail trade and vehicle
repair (12.3%), and professional, scientific, and technical activities (12.1%)
(Servicio de Empleo, 2020). Finally, in terms of staff absorption, a total of
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 331
462,183 employed persons were reported, 0.51% held a position at direc-
tive or management level, while the majority (49%) obtained a position
in qualified trades (SENA, 2019).
In Mexico, the National Survey of Occupation and Employment
(INEGI, 2019) indicates that the number of employed professionals in
the country is 9.2 million people, most of whom (64%) are employed
in economic-administrative areas (administration, accounting, and law)
and to a lesser extent (0.36%) careers such as teacher training for upper
secondary education, earth and atmospheric sciences, and medical diag-
nosis. The majority (about 33.6 million Mexicans) insert into the service
sector, followed by the secondary sector (13.6 million) and the primary
sector, which employs about 6.6 million people.
Finally, both in Colombia and Mexico, the insertion of personnel into
the sectors mentioned above does not necessarily translate into satisfac-
tory salary conditions that secure adequate welfare of the population. This
is reflected in the average annual income per full-time employee, which
is considerably lower than the OECD average (close to USD 43,241).
In fact, 2018 average income in Colombia was USD 13,073, while in
Mexico it was USD 15,314 (Fedesarrollo, 2019). However, minimum
salary compensation, which is actually paid to most low-skilled and many
mid-skilled formal workers, is much lower. Thus, recent research data
unsurprisingly indicate that many workers in these economies require two
or more jobs that allow them to compensate for decent living standards
(OECD/ILO, 2019).
In short, Colombia and Mexico perfectly embody what might be
termed the “societal misalignment” of inclusive and responsible STI
where some major open challenges include what some authors sum up
as: the pending creation of public value, the effective internationalisa-
tion/operationalisation of responsibility principles in businesses, the real
possibilities of bottom-up innovations/engagement/co-construction, and
the achievement of sustainability and social justice (Ribeiro et al., 2018).
332 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
11.5 Challenges Ahead: What Does
Colombia and Mexico Need to Do to Build
up an Inclusive STI-Based Society?
As shown above, the discussion in Latin America and the Caribbean about
inclusive development and its links with science, technology and inno-
vation has traditionally been fragmented in societal terms, conceptually
biased, and left to “the experts” to decide. As a result, LAC national
STI systems have invariably become mostly top-down, State-driven,
centralised, linearly conceived regarding their national/regional/sectoral
dimensions, highly disjointed, and financially deprived. This profile has, in
turn, determined the scarce articulation between STI and inclusive devel-
opment which promotes the evident backwardness in terms of societal
equity that is so characteristic of LAC nations.
The consequences of this standpoint have not allowed Mexico and
Colombia—and the whole LAC region—to move forward at the rate
needed to transition towards a knowledge-based society in which the
production, diffusion, and use of knowledge be the base of an economic
model where opportunities and capacities, resources and skills, ideas and
achievements, efforts and compensations are conveniently paired in order
to boost widespread and balanced social advance and inclusive stability.
How can that be attained? We propose that the drivers of the “soci-
etal misalignment” explained above need to be addressed as effectively as
possible, here and now, to build feasible pathways forward. Initially, the
progress achieved in knowledge production needs to be consolidated and
enhanced. Next, the connection with and the engagement of other actors
relevant for knowledge diffusion and application demands to be thought
of and implemented in more effective manners.
These two issues involve some deep mid-to-long term transforma-
tions. Effective knowledge production and usage to support economic
change demands that (public and private) universities and other research
organisations strengthen their capacities to create, disseminate and use
knowledge aimed at impacting economic activity at different levels and
in different sectors. This means that universities need to widen and
deepen their mission-related work and impact concerning the schooling
of professional figures beyond the current relatively simple demands of
potential employers (e.g., enterprises) to create higher societal value and
benefits. That will need a new, more profound vis-à-vis interaction with
economic actors, government agencies, and civil society organisations to
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 333
transform the institutional framework under which such relations shall, in
turn, renovate the relationship between society and knowledge. Balanced,
consensual, joint efforts where bottom-up initiatives are as valued as
top-down ones is a key condition.
Universities also need to include STI education/capacities as a corner-
stone of long-lived learning processes that need constant updating if
STI is meant to be the foundation of a new economy whose benefits
reach out to all citizens. This has enormous implications in terms of
the so-called three university missions. It includes not only the creation
of knowledge-based spin-offs whenever that is more convenient than
just transferring/selling or licensing know-how to existing commercial
companies, but also the creation of life-long learning proposals that allow
graduate professionals to constantly update their skills and enterprises to
absorb the latest know-how they do not possess. Such initiatives are more
consonant with rapidly changing knowledge and environments and mean
a better way to benefit from continued systemic feedback.
Of course, that raises new challenges to a system where public educa-
tion has not the capacity to produce the appropriate answers to the
social problems posed and where private education has to better tune
in their interests and actions with those of emerging societies that crave
for inclusive and sustainable initiatives. It remains to be seen if a mostly
for-profit activity can become more socially effective to compensate for
public education shortages.
Furthermore, a responsible STI-based development model needs the
coordinated involvement of other knowledge-related actors downstream
(e.g., public and private research/technology centres), a new type of
governance and innovative sociopolitical mechanisms to lead it. Public
and private roles and participation need to be assessed and reconfigured
to avoid excess pressure on some actors and excess return on some others.
The main goal is to transform the incumbent system characterised above
to counter the dominant features towards a more balanced model of
systemic governance.
This change should take into account a much-needed modification of
perspective concerning the inflexible and rather static view of the connec-
tions among national/regional (subnational)/sectoral STI systems. This
implies a better understanding of the way in which STI actors and compo-
nents articulate into and shape those dimensions in terms of concurrent
overlaps/gaps, similarities/differences, closeness/distance characteristic
of coexisting elements that hold varying relationships over time. This is
334 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
particularly important in the case of evolving sectors whose dynamics go
beyond traditional definitions and practically reconfigure entire sections
of the economy of a country.
A valuable illustration here is given by bio-economy, a complex
strategic concept that incorporates several activities based on the intensive
production and usage of knowledge about territories and their resources
to redefine the ties among these, communities and highly sustainable
and equitable ways of life. Bio-economy involves multiple economic
sectors, several scientific fields of knowledge, all walks of culturally defined
practices, innovative ideas and applications, and numerous principles to
transform economic activity in given regions according to the peculiar
characteristics of such territories.
Bio-economy simultaneously involves all the known dimensions
of STI systems with no pre-specified hierarchy or relationship,
demands community-wide participation in intensive knowledge
creation/appropriation and decision-making, extended mutual support
among all actors and constantly changing roles and capacities to grant
competitiveness, equity, sustainability, decentralisation, multi-sectoral
coordination for a successful, rather smooth transition that secures the
results expected.
It is improbable that Colombia or Mexico can successfully create and
implement bio-economy applications in the framework of their current
STI systems and regimes as their traits will probably represent/raise more
barriers than they can embody/facilitate solutions. The prevailing view
on national/regional (subnational)/sectoral STI governance is highly
incompatible with any bio-economy strategy where overlooked territo-
rial, natural, cultural, sociopolitical, and historical differences imply a
meaningful undervaluation of subnational variations and, consequently,
exposure to high risks and, probably, failure.
Along the same line of thought, a key governance feature—STI
funding—needs to be reviewed and appropriately redesigned and imple-
mented. Public and private investment in STI cannot simply remain a
low, second-rate priority mainly embodied by State-designed incentives
that lack the power to massively attract private national and international
investors. But, other than bulky money, the funding problem refers to
within-the-system lack of knowledge and trust among STI actors. State
agencies, diverse potential investors, and assorted project owners need
to get to know one another and build up the conditions for mutual
successful interaction if financing is to boost relevant STI-based projects
11 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND INCLUSIVE … 335
aimed at transforming Colombian and Mexican economies and nations
into world-class models.
Only a decisive turn based on these considerations will allow Colombia
and Mexico to move away from traditional resource-based business
sectors and models with low value added and low sustainability and enter
intensive knowledge-based activities/models where constant innovation
and high sustainability are the norm. And this is the best way to fight
some of the problems that hurt their populations and lifestyles.
So far, the recipes tested to fight poverty, inequity, lack of/missed
opportunities and the consequent wide social discontent have proved
partial and insufficient. Structural change has not taken place as the
results of the models, strategies, and policies adopted exhibit their limita-
tions and point the finger at other concomitant serious problems such as
corruption.
Thus, we posit that the considerations sustained above may seriously
help to elucidate the manifold difficulties identified by repeated diagnostic
exercises that, however, have failed to lead to structural solutions so far.
One common problem this approach may be successful at avoiding is
the common procedure of tackling problems as independent, unrelated
phenomena that invariably bring about equally inconsistent and disparate
solutions.
High job informality, for instance, needs to be approached from a
perspective that clearly overflows typical cost-structure or breach-of-legal-
requirements views. Such perspective may be effectively complemented by
the understanding of how this phenomenon relates to systemic failures
about knowledge generation/diffusion and creation of better opportu-
nities for skilled labour. If human talent is formed by an educational
system tailored according to relevant societal needs such as the avail-
ability of knowledge-intensive positions in internationalised enterprises,
the problem acquires a different connotation.
Thus, Colombian and Mexican societies need to urgently address issues
such as quality health and education beyond individual differences in
income in order to counter widespread vulnerability structurally. This
is the best way to support socio-economic progress characterised by
substantially higher social cohesion in the long term, a desirable response
to current persistent inequity and violence.
There are signals that this approach is feasible and practicable even
in the short term. If anything, the recent SARS-COVID-19 pandemic
has brought up the boundaries of the current model and has pinpointed
336 J. H. SIERRA-GONZÁLEZ AND C. E. RAMOS-PÉREZ
the limitations of nationalistic/individualistic responses to global crises.
However, it has also surprisingly unveiled the potential of existing under-
lying factors in these and like countries. Colombia, for instance, did not
produce any personal protection equipment (PPE), medical testing mate-
rials nor mechanical ventilators or surgical masks before the start of the
health crisis (early 2020). Everything had to be imported.
In approximately four months, nonetheless, the joint effort of some
universities, private and State-owned enterprises, social organisations,
government agencies, and international cooperation partners allowed to
set up and run the national production of brand new locally designed
or adapted models of ventilators, medical bio-protection suits and high-
efficiency filtering surgical masks (N98) that are destined to meet local
demand and international orders. Such is a very positive signal about the
potential hidden under the current state of affairs.
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Index
A
academy, 206–209,213,214,
217–219
access, 151–168,170,172,173
access economy, 157
adaptive agents, 259–261
adaptive strategies, 260
agent-based complex adaptive
system(s), 258,259,261
Agrapp, 165,166,172–174
agricultural enterprises, 165
agriculture sector, 165
Airbnb, 165
alternate financial model, 165
alternatives to development, 86
Amazoniko, 167,173
anchor companies, 171
Antioquia, 170,171
Araneda, C. and Pedraja-Rejas, L.,
255
ArcadeCity, 159
Argentina, 4,5
armed conflict, 206,208–210,213,
217
Arocena, R., 302
Association of National Industries,
ANDI, 68
AUTORIDAD NACIONAL DE
ACUICULTURA Y PESCA
AUNAP, 68
B
Barra, A.M., 255
Bauman, Zygmunt, 3,4,10
biodiversity, 117
Biointropic, Silo, Eafit, 139
biotechnology, 115
Bogota, 167,169,172
5Bogota, 164,165,172
Bortagaray, I., 292,299,302,303
Boyaca, 170
Brazil, 4
Bucaramanga, 169
business model, 156,166,169,173
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive
licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
L. A. Orozco et al. (eds.), Science, Technology, and Higher
Education, Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-030- 80720-7
345
346 INDEX
C
Cali, 169
Cancino, Ronald, 262–265,267,268,
271,278
capabilities, 157,159,163,164,166,
168–170,172
capacity building, 24,32,48,50
Casas, R., 256,292,297,302,303,
306
Cauca, 97
CBO, 94
Central America, 23,25,29,32,36,
38,48,49
Change in Fisheries Productivity, 70
Chavarro, D.A., 255
Chile, 4,157,170
China, 159
Choco, 170
circular economy, 173
citizen’s science, 13,58,78
citrus fruits, 171
civil society, 306,308,324,325,332
climate change refugia, 70
clusters of keywords, 267
Cochabamba, 157
co-creation, 89,91,92
co-design, 56
co-design spaces, 89
co-dissemination, 56
co-evolution, 91,92
co-evolution of strategies, 260
coffee, 139
cognitive mechanisms, 275
cognitive network(s), 258,267,269,
270
cognitive resources, 260
Colander, D. and Kupers, R., 261
Colciencias, 118
collaboration, 152,156,159
Colombia, 4,8,152,160–162,164,
165,168,170,287–295,303–
315,317,319,321,323–332,
334–336
common objectives, 156
Community-Based Innovation, 13
community-based innovation
ecosystem, 91,98,104
community capabilities, 172
community empowerment, 172
community(ies), 152–154,156–158,
160,166,168,170–173,206,
207,209–212,217
community resources, 170
Compartel Program, 161
competitiveness, 6
Complex Adaptative Systems (CAS),
256,258,262,264,270,273,
278,279
complexity, 256–259,269,270,273,
275,277,278
complex science, 238,239
Computers for Education, 161
comunicaciones pacifico RyV, 100
conflict, 205–209,213,214,218
conflict armed, 213,218
Connecting the Dots, 162
CONPES, 139
construction of peace, 216
construction of territorial peace, 216,
217,220–223
contingency theory framework, 230
cooperation and social coordination,
261
co-production, 56
Cortina, Adela, 157
Cotte, A., 321
Cowan, G. and Arrow, 260
CPC, 294,295,313–316,318,321,
323,329
crops, 166,171
culture of peace, 217
INDEX 347
D
data-entry, 171
decentralization, 5,210,211
decolonize innovation, 86
delivered services, 163
democracy, 216
department of Cauca, 206,207,
215–219
development, 206,207,209,210,
213–217,293,295,297,298,
301–306,308,316,321,325,
328,333
development of capacities, 274
development plans, 207,213,217
Diaphorina citri, 171
differentiated specializations, 278
digital communities, 157,160
digital education, 161
digital gap, 155,161
digital identities, 154
digital platforms, 156
dignifying, 168
disaggregate economy, 157
dissemination of knowledge, 262
Dutrénit, G., 302,313,314,328
E
Ecobot, 167,168,173
e-commerce, 163,168,169,171
Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC), 2
economic sciences, 56
Ecuador, 4
education, 217
eEurope Initiative, 155
Eje Cafetero, 171
El Salvador, 23–25,28,30–34,36,
39–41,43,48–50
emergent level, 259–262
EnCicla, 162
entertainment industry, 173
Entregalo.co, 168,169
entrepreneurial education, 169
environmental, 153,156,157,162,
167
environmental conditions, 239
Etzkowitz, H., 289,307
EU2020 strategy, 235
European Union, 160
evaluation of capacities, 257
exclusion, 152,153,158,170
exclusive-inclusion, 155,156
experimentation process, 186,187
F
Facebook, 159
fair trade,116
FARC-EP, 89,105,209,213,218
farming machinery, 171
farms, 171
Feld, A. and Kreimer, P., 255,256
financing, 165
Foundation ICRI, 59,68,73,77
fourth industrial revolution, 237
Freelancers Union, 159
Fuezas Armadas de Colombia (FARC),
161
Fundación AQCUA, 100
G
Gambetta, D., 262
Gell-Mann, M., 259,260
Geocampo, 171–173
georeferencing system, 163
gig economy, 157
global change, 56
Global Value Chains (GVCs),
315–317,319
governance, 3,59,78,151,152,
159,163,166,171–173,254,
348 INDEX
256–258,261,262,264,273,
278,279,292,333,334
the governance and management of
STI, 9
governance and management of STI
capabilities, 254
governance for social inclusion, 3
governmental, 206,215
Granovetter, M., 262
Green Growth Policy, 124
Guajuí River Community Council,
100
Guatemala, 23–25,27,28,30–34,36,
39–41,43–50
H
Habermas, J., 6
Hedström, P., 259,260
Hedström, P. and Bearman, P., 259
heterogeneous capacities, 273
heterogeneous developments, 270
heteroreferential mechanisms, 263,
264
Higher Education Institutions (HEI),
206,207,213,216–219,222,
321,322,324–327,330
higher education system, 15
HLB bacteria, 171
Holland, J., 260
Honduras, 4,23–25,28,30–34,36,
39–41,43,48–50
Hope Spot, 68
human capital, 254,255,258,263,
266,268
human development framework, 183
humanitarian engineering, 89
human rights, 216
I
immaterial heritage, 164
incentive systems, 254,257,273,274
inclusion, 210,217
inclusive development, 15,22,232,
289,292,298,303,306,332
inclusiveness, 235
income, 294,302,326,329,331,
335
inequality, 288,289,308,325
inequality in access to HES, 235
Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT), 151,152,
154–158,160,161,173
innovation, 87,207,220,288,289,
292,295,298–308,311,313,
314,321–324,326,328,332,
335
Innovation Diplomacy, 22,25
innovation ecology, 90
innovation systems, 254,257,289,
307
Institute for the Development of
Higher Education in Guatemala
(INDESGUA), 42
institutional accreditations, 256
institutional architectures, 257
institutional design(s), 257
institutions, 206,207,209,211,217,
218
Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario
(ICA), 171,173
Instituto de Investigaciones
Ambientales del Pacífico,
100
integrated research, 56
interaction, 207,220
the Inter-American Development
Bank, 3
interdisciplinary, 56
internal models, 260,263
international cooperation, 170
International Union for Conserva-
tion of Nature’s Red List of
Threatened Species, 69
INDEX 349
intervention, 206,207,209–211,
214,216
INVEMAR, 57
IUCN, 69
J
jobs, 288,297,298,308,328,330,
331
Jurado-Paz, I.M. and Morán-Vallejo,
M.A., 255
K
knowledge, 289,292,295,298,299,
301–303,305–309,311–313,
316–322,324–327,332–335
knowledge-based economies, 289,
299,306
L
labour, 299,308,311–313,316,317,
322,325,330,335
last-mile delivery, 168
Latin America, 23,25,27,28,37,46,
152,287,289,292,295,296,
298,302,309–311,314,316,
328,332
Latin America and the Caribbean
(LAC), 1
Latin American, 23,26,27,29,37,
39
lines of research, 263,265,267,268,
270,273–276,278,279
Linkage with the Environment, 266
local economic development strategies,
14
local innovation ecosystem, 93
logistics app, 168
M
management effectiveness, 56
management of complexity, 256
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), 56
marketplace, 167
Mazucatto, 164
Medellin, 162,169
Mexico, 288–292,294–298,303–
317,319,321–328,330–332,
334,335
Ministry of Education-MEN, 233
MinTIC, 161
modeling scientific capabilities, 264
multidisciplinary, 56
Mumbai, 157
N
Nariño, 170
National Coffee Research Center, 139
National Council of Economic and
Social Policy, 161
National Department of Statistics, 118
National Federation of Coffee, 116
National Higher Education
Information System, 230
national innovation systems, 254,257
national innovation systems and social
inclusion, 8
National Parks, 68
National Systems of Science, Tech-
nology and Innovation (NSSTI),
288,309,325
negotiation, 208,209
neo-extractivism, 255
network of agents, 256,262
new economy, 157
Nicaragua, 4
Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGOs), 94
n-tuple helix, 306
O
on demand economy, 157
350 INDEX
open innovation, 156
opportunities, 289,292,304,321,
330,332,335
Organization for Economic Coopera-
tion and Development (OECD),
2,288–290,293–298,303,
309–314,316,317,325–327,
330,331
Orozco, L.A., 255,256,258,263,
267
Orozco, Villaveces and Aristizabal,
J.P., 255
Ostrom, E., 258,261
P
participation, 207,216
participatory, 56
peace, 205–210,213–219,222
Peace Agreement, 205,206,208–210,
215,223
peace-building, 88
Peace-building Engineering, 89
peer economy, 157
Peers.org, 159
perspectives, 55
PESCAPUR, 68
Planes-Satorra, S., 292,299,301,305
platforms, 157,158,171,173
policies, 287,288,292–294,298,
299,302–306,308,309,315,
322,330,335
policy networks, 10
Popayán, 206,207,215
Porter, Michael, 6
positive peace, 89
poverty, 215
public policy, 210,213
Putumayo, 170
R
Radjou, Navi, 143
R&D, 295,298,301,311–313,316,
321–323
Rappi, 158,162–164,169,172,174
rappitenderos, 162–164
recyclable, 167,168
recycling culture, 168
refugia conservation, 78
regional development, 229
regions, 153,156,168,170
regulatory frameworks, 256,273,274
regulatory sandbox, 160
research, 206,207,214–218,220
resilience, 58,101,109
responsible consumption, 167
Revolutionary Armed Force of
Colombia, 118
rights, 209
Rivero, P., 255
rural, 208–210,217
rural businessperson, 165
S
science, 206,207
Science Diplomacy, 22–24
Science, Technology and Innovation
(STI), 288,289,292,295,298,
302–309,321–323,325,326,
328,331–334
Science, Technology and Innovation
Diplomacy (STID), 25,32,33,
37,39–41,44,46,48–50
scientific agents, 263,273,278
scientific collaboration, 263,265,267,
278
scientific production, 257
Scotiabank, 162
security, 207,208
self-referential mechanisms, 263
Sharecollab, 14,162
sharing culture, 162
sharing economy, 152,157–160,162,
164,172–174
INDEX 351
sharing entrepreneurs, 162
Sierra, J., 322–324
social and environmental needs, 2
social exclusion, 3,9,10,152,154,
172
social inclusion, 2,3,7,8,151–169,
171–174,210–212,220,223,
236
social interaction, 217
social intervention, 215,217,220
social networks, 260,262,267
social science, 56
social value, 8,10
social welfare, 289,298
society, 152–155
socio-technical system(s), 182,184,
185,187
Spain, 157
specialization, 266,269,278,279
state, 208–212,216,289,293,296,
297,324,336
STI capacities, 24,25,46,47
STI policy, 5,184,185,232
STI systems, 236
Superintendencia de Sociedades, 163
sustainability, 56,158,167,185–187,
195,196,199,208
sustainable development, 55
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), 55,183,185,190,192,
199,253
Svampa, M., 255
systematizes information, 171
systemic modeling, 258
systems of higher education, 254
T
technological control, 159
technology, 206,207,221,222
technology transfer, 169
territorial approach, 209,210,212
territorial peace, 206–210,212–219
territories, 206–219
third mission, 238,255
three missions of higher education,
228
timeshare, 157
Tirole, J., 153,157
Tolima, 171
tourism, 164,165,170,171,173
tourist, 164,165,170
tourist circuit, 165
transdisciplinarity, 56
transdisciplinary, 56
transdisciplinary approaches, 256
transformations, 182
transformative change, 185,186
transformative change framework, 185
transformative innovation, 14,
184–187,195,199–202
Transformative Innovation Policy
framework (TIP), 12,184,185
transformative perspective, 182
travolution, 170–172
Tulua, 168
U
Uber, 156,158,159,164
Unaula, 187,189,190,192,199,
200
United Nations (UN), 55,183,184,
228
The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), 3
United Nations Educational, Scien-
tific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), 73,74,153,156,
227
United States, 157
Universidad Autónoma
Latinoamericana, 184,187
Universidad de Ibagué (UI), 184,
193–197,199–201
352 INDEX
university, 322,324,330,333
university management, 256,258,
259,279
university management capabilities,
258
university missions, 256
university policy, 184,199–201
university rankings, 256
Uruguay, 4
V
value, 156–159,163,172–174
Venezuelan immigrants, 163,172
violence, 206
virtual education, 161
Vive Digital, 160,161
volunteering, 170
vulnerability, 156
vulnerable populations, 153
W
Worl d B ank, 3,290,294,296–298,
309,310
World Heritage Natural Marine Sites,
77
World Heritage Sites, 73
