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This article analyses different initiatives that have emerged from the top-down and everyday bottom-up peace approach after the peace agreement in Colombia and have led to establishing dialogues among different actors to contribute to the peacebuilding process. Three years ago, Colombia signed a peace agreement with the largest guerrilla group in Latin America. After this signature, the big challenge has been the implementation of the deal in the most conflictaffected territories, characterised by poverty, high rates of violence, unemployment, etc. Despite the pitfalls in building positive peace, many communities have started generating spaces by themselves and have created initiatives of peacebuilding through nonviolent actions, the acceptance of differences, active participation and empowerment and the acknowledgement that dialogue is the only way to achieve cooperation and to rebuild another story rather than conflict. This paper seeks to examine the different characteristics that have shaped dialogue-based practices when they are produced with a top-down and a bottom-up approach of peacebuilding. To do this, it is necessary to identify the parties participating in these encounters, their motivations, conditions that have allowed parties to establish a dialogue, and the results. This paper notes that in a post-conflict society, dialogues coming from the top-down will take longer in accomplishing positive peace, rather than the dialogues that have emerged from the bottom up which may be the engine to social mobilisations and the way to capitalise on social skills in achieving justice, truth, and reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the different dimensions of women's empowerment that can arise during the entrepreneurial process. It considers the changes in these dimensions as women advance in the development of their new ventures, differentiating characteristics according to the context (urban or rural). Another contribution refers to which empowerment factors developed by female entrepreneurs are key to reducing poverty. The proposal develops a multiple correspondence analysis and an ordered probit model, with data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Colombia. The results make it possible to identify what is needed to strengthen the empowerment of women through entrepreneurship, and the resources available for this. Furthermore, the relationship found between economic empowerment factors and family income provides evidence for the importance of empowerment for poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of women's earnings on domestic violence in rural Colombia during the period 2009-2013. To this end, it builds an indicator of domestic violence against women at the municipal level, based on the number of visits of women who attended health facilities where a report on suspected domestic violence was issued by their physician, which overcomes the bias introduced by self-reporting victims. Results indicate that greater income generation by women in rural areas in most economic activities (coffee, fruits, commerce, and industry) decreases domestic violence, while in services, the opposite occurs. The latter could be the result of the mainly menial jobs women perform in this sector, which may be undervalued in their homes, thus making them more vulnerable. The study also finds that improvements in the municipality's economic activity and access to education contribute to the reduction of domestic violence against women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on micro and small sized enterprises in developing countries shows their existential difficulties. This is particularly true for those in marginal areas with multiple challenges including pollution prevention. Environmental agencies tend to require capital intensive end-of-pipe solutions or regulatory measures that close down polluting enterprises. Both knowledge of and interest in how to make poor micro enterprises more sustainable are needed. This paper addresses this by (a) developing a problem-driven and context-oriented Systematic Approach to Social Inclusion (SASI) method, and (b) applying it successfully in the context of micro tanneries in Villapinzón Colombia over a period of eight years. The concept of cleaner production was systematically integrated into this method that was inspired by Lewin's theory of change and insights from negotiation and conflict resolution. The results show that cleaner production implementation needs comprehensive, systemic policy mechanisms based on participatory approaches taking into account the socio-economic constraints of the micro-industries that combine supportive capacity building and command-and-control policies. Moreover, rules encouraging cleaner production need to be sensitive to the regulatory context in which it is applied, which in this case concerned land use planning and zoning regulations. The SASI approach effectively encouraged micro tanners to make their industries more viable and clean, while it simultaneously convinced the environmental agency to recognise and value these industries. This paper argues that integrating cleaner production in SASI is a learning and socio-technical change process, urgently needed for micro-industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show the possibility of the agen-cy from an ethics course as part of executive training the force. Be part of the progress made in discussions on the concept of agency, particularly in American sociology. Next, we proceed to present the practices developed with students, in order to suggest possi-bilities for the agency from themselves. Finally, we discuss about the possibilitiesthat this proposal may be useful in the institutional development of the Na-tional Police of Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]