Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.co/rss.php?pid=2011-032420090002&lang=es vol. num. 4 lang. es http://www.scielo.org.co/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.co http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200002&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Aside from his fame as the author of the best-selling novel Maria, Jorge Isaacs was well-known in his time for his adventurous undertakings. However, for most people nowadays the name of this author only evokes memories of a romantic nineteenth-century writer who forms part of the obligatory cannon in school. This article, not only tracks the author's family origins and his literary career, but it also allows the reader to become acquainted with the numerous political, scientific and academic activities that Isaacs carried out almost until the end of his life, the liberal and progressive character of his ideas, and the love-hate relationship that because of his ideals he had with his native region and his countrymen. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200003&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es From a procedural perspective, this article explores and analyzes the forms of social configuration of regional power during the years prior to the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and the impact that his murder had on such processes. The author highlights the position achieved by marginal social groups as a consequence of the sociopolitical transformations that occurred during the decades of 1930 and 1940. He also discusses the tensions present among the established sectors and how, after April 9th 1948, a considerable change in the equilibrium of power between social sectors occurred and altered the previous trend. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200004&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es This article tackles, from a quantitative perspective, the economic historiography in el Valle del Cauca for the nineteenth and twentieth -centuries, with the aim of presenting a preliminary approximation to a historiographical balance on this topic. Through the analysis of aspects, such as the type and frequency of publications, the authors, their nationality and disciplines represented, the themes developed, the chronology and the spaces studied, this article will access the level of development that this historiographical subfield has achieved in the study and analysis of the regional economy. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200005&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es This article presents the results of an investigation on the tasks of anthropologists in the region of the Valle del Cauca. It describes these tasks regarding the practical works they perform, their role and social place, their academic production and their contributions to the social science discipline The author asserts that interdisciplinary practices, although positive for a holistic understanding of cultural problems, dissolve the methodological boundaries and of the tools inherent to the study of regional anthropology. The article identifies some distinctive features of these practices and the challenges presented to the formation of new anthropologists in Valle del Cauca. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200006&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es This article examines the key characteristics among political elite groups in Cali during the last four decades of the twentieth-century. One can assert that a gradual change has occurred from a political elite group with a strong entrepreneurial component and close ties to the business sector, to one whose character is both political and professional. What has not varied however, are the political party affiliations that have remained loyal to either the Liberal or the Conservative party, even as the number of political factions have increased, political elite groups still ascribe to traditional parties. From this, we can affirm that the local political system is still tightly closed, even after the institutional changes generated by the end of el Frente Nacional and the 1991 constitution. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200007&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es This article presents a bibliographical review of the main studies on the subject of ''elites'' in the city of Cali. The text summarizes the assumptions and conclusions of five empirical perspectives on the subject, which reveals how the ''elites'' have been studied according to their values; their methods and strategies to maintain hegemony at the political and economic level; and the role they have played in the development of the region. The author proposes questions that might open new research possibilities in this field. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200008&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es The idea of a ''Bolivarian revolution'', promoted by the president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez, may seem new and innate within the current turn towards the left in several South American countries. However, this idea was already known and fostered in the first half of the XXth century, when several revolutionary political movements sought the support of Moscow in their attempt to seize power in Andean countries. This article examines the influence of the Third International on the plans of the revolutionary groups in the so-called Bolivarian countries, and notes the similarities and differences between this relationship and the one that Chavez currently has with some Venezuelan leftist movements. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200009&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Brasil, like many countries in Latin America, has a strong inequality in income distribution and opportunities among its population. In the educational realm, the XXth century saw the democratization of the access to education in this country. However, the expansion of the public educational network occurred without a warrant of quality for everyone and, therefore, the distinction between rich and poor survived in the educational system. This article presents the results of an investigation that, utilizes data from the national exam of secondary education to show the strong correlation between the socioeconomic conditions of the families and the quality of the basic education that can be enjoyed by the students of the province of Rio de Janeiro. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200010&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Social representation theory from authors like Moscovici and Jodelet constitutes a critical proposal to analyze social reality in its complexity. This article adopts this theory to study the representations of business ethics as a social process by a Venezuelan managerial community, employing a methodology that incorporates an interpretative approach and a complementary method. The social representations revealed were: responsibility, solidarity and honesty. The results showed a conceptualization of business ethics that converges with social responsibility as corporative and communitarian. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200011&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Within the context of the catholic religion, femininity and feminine sexuality are configured according to specific dogmas and social representations, in which Christ's image - and all of what that implies - acts as a fundamental element in the construction of the conceptions that women consecrated to religious life have about sexuality, eroticism, body and love. This article seeks to explore from a sociological point of view the conceptions of two nuns about the aforementioned topics. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200012&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Part of a research proyect carried out among teenagers in the town of Catambuco (Nariño, Colombia), this article exposes and reflects about social representations related to gender and identity that prevail in the attitudes and beliefs of this poblational segment.Here, the authors recognize the existence of stereotypes, opinions, values and norms that form the meaning of being in the world as a man or a woman, and discuss the implications that such representations have on gender equity. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200013&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Sociologists today are faced with a fundamental dilemma: whether to conceive of the social world as consisting primarily in substances or processes, in static ¨things¨ or dynamic, unfolding relations. Relational-actor and norm-based models, diverse holisms and structuralisms, and statistical ¨variable¨ analyses continue implicitly or explicitly to prefer the former point of view. By contrast, this ¨manifesto¨ presents an alternative, ¨relational¨ perspective, first in broad philosophical outlines, then by exploring its implications for both theory and empirical research. In the closing pages, it ponders some of the difficulties and challenges now facing relational analysis, taking up in turn issues of boundaries and entities, network dynamics, casualty, and normative implications. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242009000200014&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Although social history and entrepreneurial history are traditionally seen as mutually exclusive, one as a vision of history ''from below'' and the other as a vision ''from above'', in practice this is not always so. The author of this article invites to reflect about the relationship between these two subfields, in which, without forgetting the existence of social conflicts, notes the need of not conceiving history solely as a clash of contraries, either of social forces or disciplinary perspectives. Therefore, this article presents the historiographical and methodological trajectory of each one of these subfields, in order to be conscious about their differences and, at the same time, be able to establish the common areas that would allow collaboration between the researchers of each one of them.