EDITORIAL

Presentation of Issue 12 N° 1 January-June 2014

This editorial presents the articles that make up the corpus of a robust theoretical investigative work refecting the thoroughness and hard work with which the authors, evaluators and editors have interwoven it from their refections to build rigorous knowledge that contributes to critical thinking in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. In the case of Latin America in particular, the effort accompanying the six-monthly publication of articles in this magazine is highlighted. They are also a good example of serious, responsible, committed communication by a struggling continent. Armed struggle, political struggle, struggle against poverty and exclusion and struggle for the international recognition of this region as the center for the production of knowledge. This issue of the magazine becomes part of the battles of ideas that is being waged with contributions from discipline diversity and dialogue to get to new conclusions and novel questions.

The frst section of the magazine has four articles that delve into a wide range of theoretical issues pertinent to this moment of social sciences in general and Latin American and the Caribbean in particular. The frst of them deals with the processes of political subjectivization in debate with assertive perspectives, which put aside the importance that Evil has in the construction of subjects. In contexts of social inequality and acute armed and political conficts, such as those of our continent, the article’s author reviews the ways Evil plays, so as to understand the practices in which the subjects become political agents. The second theoretical study published in this issue has to do with family studies. The history of this scientifc feld is reviewed here from its contextualized birth to the present, going through various languages and perspectives to arrange what we know about this area and feel encouraged to research and write further.

With the same structure an article outlines the current status of the studies on childhood. From a series of variables that were wisely organized to seek information, a map on the topic is devised with contributions from several disciplines. The last work in this frst section can be located along the same lines; it goes through the representations that have been had about children along history. With greater historical amplitude, the most diverse forms in which Western societies have regarded these subjects are depicted here and reference is made to the place they must occupy in the political community. All these journeys are enriching sources of a social science that from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal receives, and at the same time, builds knowledge, locating itself on the map of the scientifc feld side by side other historically hegemonic regions, not to compare or devaluate but to unify criteria and contribute knowledge, as these articles do so splendidly.

Many of the theoretical journeys become practical in the second section of the magazine containing Studies and Research. The frst eight chapters making up this part tackle the problem of childhood from different perspectives, all of them representative of the complex framework in which this age of life develops at present and in this place or rather these places, because both the authors and the case studies are a portrait of continental diversity. They come from different origins, deal with different issues with different theoretical frameworks, but all of them together enable us to take an absolutely contemporary look at the childhood that is built in the practices and their representation in the scientifc feld. In this context we locate four articles that deal with the affective relations that involve children in their everyday lives. The frst scenario is Mexico where the author analyzes the effects that their mothers’ history and present have on the children, who live in social conditions of vulnerability, as well as the controversial role of the State regarding both parties in the relation. Another paper that ponders the link between mothers and children is the article written in Peru describing this bond in light of the category of childcare and nutritional condition to go back to the question about public policies on these issues.

Parenting styles are another crux that makes us refect on the childhood of our times, an issue which, at the same time, makes us see children in their relational context with other generations, and they are analyzed in one of the articles. The possibility of changing the ways in which parents and children relate opens up a welfare path for the children with attention disorders, as it is explained in yet one more article that analyzes the role of parenting in the child’s cognitive development. In both cases, they are expected to make up a valid theoretical corpus for family interventions so as to achieve the healthy, happy growth of children and the society at large.

There are four articles in this issue that use other approaches to the child’s world, they deal with the educational and school spaces and this context is signifcant to understand the practices of and towards childhood presented there. Once more it is relevant to point out that these cases are written to refect their local character, what is specifc about each of them, and yet, the way in which this mosaic of works can be read like a faithful representation of the diversity in movement with which pedagogy is implemented and pondered in Latin America. That is how one of the texts researches the public policy carried out by the Chilean government in respect of children with poor adaptative behavior at school. By labeling this situation as intellectual disability, the government has implemented regulations and measures on the students that are analyzed here to see their limitations and achievements. The magnifying glass is turned on Colombia to present a case of violence among students at a school, which is not approached from the State frameworks, but rather from the local literary narrative and the power it exerts when it comes to building collective identities that question the relations of coercion among young people.

In another school, in other classrooms, the relation between curriculum and gender is analyzed to go beyond the already obvious notion of inequality and thus delve into the effects that continue to appear in the crossing of these variables. For example, the disembodiment of male and female students and the alleged passive role they play in building their own identity. This same issue is rescued in the last article from this group of works on childhood. The author here questions, from an educational space outside the school, the lack of opportunities children have historically had when it comes to building knowledge and research is implemented with them as a disputing trial facing that tradition. In these cases, the children and young boys and girls are understood as producers of their own world, conditioned but not determined by their context; with the capacity to adapt, oppose and transform the senses and practices in which they are inserted.

The following three articles in the magazine deal with similar subjects that inquire about the relation between young people and political participation, querying the common sense built about this social group and bringing down myths that do not contribute to the formation of a society of equals. The frst of them traces the causes for poor political participation among young people in Chile and places it in relation with the brand personality of political parties, which would seem to generate self- marginalization among the new voters. On the other hand, the senses that young voters in the City of Manizales, Colombia gave to the experiences and expectations during the political debates in the 2010 elections are analyzed in this article that visualizes the value of the electoral process from the perspective of the direct contact this group had with politics rather than from certain ideological or cybernetic-militant meta-narrations. In concomitance with this statement, the last article about the young visualizes other practices and senses that this population sector confers to politics in several experiences of social movements in Colombia. From the particularity of each scenario and taking charge of the history of certain struggles and places, the young people show there as well as in the rest of the continent, that they are part of the reality in which they live not only because they feel its effects but also because they produce effects on it.

“Ten years after; academic and professional itineraries of public school graduates in Manizales, Colombia”, technological and scientifc research article the academic and professional insertion strategies of a cohort of urban public school graduates in the city of Manizales (Colombia) are described.

The last part of this section consists of fve articles that are not directly related with children’s or young people’s problems; however, they ask the fundamental questions from the perspective of social sciences in the region, especially in Colombia, where the articles were written. In this land of violence with a strong fghting and refection spirit we have research that establishes a dialogue with the above- mentioned articles. One of them devises statistic analyzers to refect upon the attitudes that adults have towards politics hinting at some irregularities according to age, gender and economic situation. One of the papers considers the factors that urge women to use the maternity services offered by the State, developing certain levels of autonomy, always in relation to some social variables that have an impact when it comes to making decisions. There is another article that also focuses on mothers and it questions the generation of useful contexts to devise a decent life plan for these women. Through an intervention made from community family therapy it deals with the development of resilience to build a better life.

And the article that unravels the narratives by two politicians kidnapped by the FARC deals with this need to overcome circumstances. Their accounts are studied during and after their captivity to visualize their most important meanings as well as the effects that this experience had on their life in community after their return. The fear that accompanies these accounts reappears in the last article in this section. It starts with the life testimonies of university professors to study the fears that they feel, transmit and are transmitted to them. As subjects of their own history, these education workers analyze their past and present to objectify their practice and become aware of their work’s effects.

In general terms, in the issue we are presenting there underlie the circulation of ideas and the exchange of thoughts that force us to go back on our own realities to modify them, at the same time; they demand from us the habit of tolerance for what is different. That is why the magazine also accepts the contribution from many countries and disciplines without essentializing or folklorizing the Latin American, Caribbean or Iberian character, but rather rescuing it, recovering the buried knowledge and the local experiences to continue building more and better social science with an emphasis on childhood and youth.

The Third Section on Reports and Analyses is an invitation to the Post-doctoral Program of Research on Social Sciences, Childhood and Youth whose enrollment is open for doctors in any feld of the social sciences and the humanities with an interest in contributing to the understanding of childhood and the youth as transdisciplinary objects of knowledge, politics and practices in the continent’s and the Caribbean’s childhood and youth.

In this same section there is information from Bulletin N° 91 of the Organization of Iberian- American States about “Human Rights and Sustainable Development”, “Sustainability as a cultural, techno-scientifc revolution and growth” and “Education for sustainability”.

One of the magazine’s most important policies is the visibility and impact of its contents, that is why we are glad to inform that this strategy has yielded excellent results, one of whose greatest achievements so far has been its inclusion in the Thomson Reuters Index, former ISI, which is along with Scopus, the most important one at a global level regarding diffusion of science and it maintains a database of citations covering thousands of magazines known as the Science Citation Index (SCI) that can be consulted on line through the Web of Science (WOS) service. This database makes it possible for the researchers to identify what article has been most frequently cited and by whom. The magazine will be seen at the Thomson Reuters web page in a few days since at the moment they are making adjustments in the magazines received.

As to indexation at Scopus, we have already taken the frst steps in compliance with this index’s methodology and the necessary information has been submitted so that our inclusion in their database is studied; this process lasts between six months and a year, at the end of which we hope to be able to tell the good news that we belong to Scopus. This is an application that we have fled for two years approximately and it has required that adjustments be made in the magazine on the basis of the international recommendations that we have incorporated into the magazine and at the sites where is it diffused.

In the permanent qualifcation effort, we are taking steps to improve our current B category in the Capes, Brazil classifcation. Also in Brazil we participated in the 15 years celebration of Scielo Citation Index, held in Sao Paulo in October, 2013. The objective of this encounter was to highlight and debate the state of the art of scientifc communication in open access, the new tools and challenges for the development of academic publications and the Scielo Program. There were 63 presentations whose themes were: research policies and scientifc communication; open access, current status and tendencies; science-metry –measuring the quality of research and the magazines -; tendencies and innovation in scientifc communication, and experiences, solutions, products and services of scientifc communication.

As to the Colciencias Publindex, the magazine continues to hold Category A 2 and it will be presented once again to this year’s (2014) frst call to be re-indexed.

In the second semester of the year 2013 we were accepted in the following databases: ProQuest Social Science Journals, ProQuest Research Library, ProQuest Education Journals, IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Science, ProQuest Sociology and ProQuest Central.

In order to maintain permanence in the indexes and bibliographic bases the magazine has made adjustments that continue in this issue, such as its intention of publishing the issues in the frst month of each semester: in January the frst issue and in July the second. In addition, the Creative Commons license and the DOI identifcation are assigned to each article as well as a presentation of the statistic reports of the magazine’s impact factor, along with the ethics and good practices statement.

The magazine continually advertises its diffusion and exchange by means of subscriptions and physical trades with other national and international research centers and universities. It also permanently sends information about the articles published in the magazine that may of the interest of international researchers and it invites them to use these references in their own articles.

The magazine’s editorial team, made up by four people led by the director-editor and with vast experience in the editorial work of scientifc publications, are in charge of coordinating communication among the actors in the publication process and the actions undertaken in this context are carried out by the editorial and scientifc committees, the authors, the evaluators, the English and Portuguese translators, who are native speakers, professionals with a PhD specialized in felds of the social sciences; the copy editors and the people who make the graphic printing and the online publication as well as the bibliographic indexes. It is really hard work that is carried out endeavoring constantly for the sake of the publication with the utmost dedication required by international requisites. In turn, our national and international evaluators, whom we would like to thank in particular, are people of high professional and research standing, which enables our database in the Open Journal System platform to be updated in the compliance with scientifc production standards, for our evaluators are the authors of articles that have been published in the last two years in indexed magazines, which is one of the most important requirements of international indexes, that is why there is a generalized opinion that our evaluative concepts are solid. We also support the policy that evaluations are made in the shortest possible period of time. We invite those who comply with the requirements to be evaluators to submit their applications to the magazine’s address so that we can send them the form the evaluators must fll in which will then be fed into the evaluators’ editorial system in the Open Journal System (OJS) platform, with which we have been working for three years. This will be our fourth year working fully with the OJS in all the editorial processes.

The flters used to receive the articles make use of the latest technologies and software which enable us to detect the percentage of similarity with other documents that appear on the net, so that the articles comply with the requirement of being unpublished in their entirety or in part. The software we use is Turnitin and it is applied as a frst step to all the articles presented in the magazine. In the coming year we will continue with this dynamic of new development and permanent updating of our processes, which will be refected in the magazine’s webpage.

32 articles were evaluated for this issue and 12 were not included, which represents 37, 5 % of papers that were not accepted. In this issue 90% of the articles are the results of fnished research.

The magazine’s Editorial and Scientifc Committees meet four times a year and their members participate by being present in person or virtually. Editorial policies and new developments are drawn up and the new issue to be published is analyzed in these meetings.

Of the two calls made in the year 2013 for monographic issues, the frst about “Youth movements, political participation of the young and public policies for the youth in Ibero-America and the Caribbean”, Issue 12, N° 2 July-December 2014, expired on November 15; and the other call: “Childhood, social institutions and political contexts in Latin America and the Caribbean”, Issue 13, N° 1 January-June 2015, expires on June 30, 2014, so we invite you to send us your articles. We urge you to consult the author guides where you can fnd the latest adjustments made in article presentation.

From the magazine’s direction you are offered the possibility of getting to know the magazine through teleconferences, in case the research and people in general from the academic social sciences community express their interest in it; to this end we have specialized teams and good human and technical support.

We are interested in your sending interviews and systematizations to be published in the third and fourth sections of the magazine, as well as in your permanent visit to the magazine’s website, which we are feeding on a weekly basis with novel and updated information. Our web page is interactive and dynamic and it has been adjusted to the requirements of the most demanding international indexes; this allows a permanent dialogue with the people who are on line with us.

Our magazine continues its work as one of the most important media in the feld of childhood and youth from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal, thanks to the joint effort made and the to the open-access, free-of-charge policy. This enables the multiplication and creation of research and academic communities about this new feld of knowledge, that of childhood and the youth.

We invite all those who are members of the magazine’s community, which has become a veritable network, to link it to your web pages and other sites of interest. This is a magazine that belongs to all and it accepts suggestions; in addition, the information you send will be published.

The knowledge generated and spread from the magazine is the community’s patrimony; therefore, we intend that it be used as a tool that has an impact on public policies and projects of social and educational development on childhood and youth, because it is our interest to maintain and nurture the dialogues of the society at large with the powers that be and the decision makers in the economic, political, cultural, social and educational spheres; this participation is of the utmost importance for the magazine.

The coming year of 2014 is shaping up as the platform from which, on the basis of the magazine’s achievements, the human factor made up by all of us will participate fully in the process of transformation and change towards the defnite inclusion of our scientifc, academic and research production among the most widely recognized currents of global knowledge; that horizon we are building in our geographical area with its struggles, contradictions and longings grows with determination, dignity and persistence, from the critical perspectives of Latin American and Caribbean thinking, which rises with a powerful, clear voice.

Director-editor,

Héctor Fabio Ospina

Guest editor,

Paula Shabel
Universidad de Buenos Aires

Associate Editors,

Sônia Maria da Silva Araújo
Universidade Federal do Pará, Brasil

Liliana Del Valle
Department of Education, Medellín, Colombia

Marta Cardona
Member of the Coordinating Committee of the Masters in Education and Human Rights from the Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana, Medellín, Colombia.