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La práctica cultural desde el gobierno
autónomo descentralizado del Cantón Pindal
The cultural practice from the decentralized
autonomous government of Canton Pindal
Carlos Leonel Escudero Sánchez, Phd
*
Emma Patricia Pacheco Montoya, Mtra
*
ABSTRACT
The Decentralized Autonomous Government of the
canton Pidal, performs social practices where a
cultural dimension is expressed, in which infinite
artistic expressions and manifestations of local,
regional and national identity are linked, these
actions place cultural practices in an identity with
respect to ideology, not as false consciousness, This
practice can be carried out following the traditional
ways in which it is done from the municipal activity
where it has served interests linked to the
maintenance of social oppression, or it can deploy
coherent ways with social emancipation in which
people and human groups become protagonists
giving solution to their problems. The research work
created a project with a community self-
development approach to strengthen the cultural
management of the Directorate of Social
Development of the Municipality of Pindal, it began
with an initial participatory diagnosis on cultural
practices, to propose a cultural agenda to improve
the management of the social and cultural area of the
local government of the canton of Pindal through the
methodology of community self-development.
Keywords: Community self-development,
development, culture, social practices, cultural
management, participation.
* Doctor en Ciencias Sociológicas Máster en Desarrollo Universidad
Nacional de Loja. escuderos0968@hotmail.com,
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2343-5376
* Magíster en Derecho Empresarial Universidad Técnica Particular de
Loja eppacheco@utpl.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6606-8855
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RESUMEN
El Gobierno Autónomo Descentralizado del cantón
Pidal, realiza prácticas sociales donde se expresa una
dimensión cultural, en que se enlazan infinidades de
expresiones artísticas y manifestaciones de identidad
local, regional y nacional, estas acciones ubica a las
prácticas culturales en una identidad respecto a la
ideología, no como falsa conciencia, sino como
escenario de lucha cotidiana de intereses, esta
práctica puede ser realizada siguiendo los modos
tradicionales con que se hace desde la actividad
municipal donde ha servido a intereses ligados al
sostenimiento de la opresión social, o puede
desplegar modos coherentes con la emancipación
social en que las personas y grupos humanos
devengan en protagonistas dando solución a sus
problemáticas. El trabajo investigativo creo un
proyecto con enfoque de autodesarrollo
comunitario para fortalecer la gestión cultural de la
Dirección de Desarrollo Social del Municipio de
Pindal, se empezó con un diagnóstico inicial
participativo sobre las prácticas culturales, para
proponer una agenda cultural para mejorar la gestión
del área social y cultural del gobierno local del cantón
Pindal a través de la metodología del autodesarrollo
comunitario.
Palabras clave: Autodesarrollo comunitario,
desarrollo, cultura, prácticas sociales, gestión cultural,
participación
INTRODUCTION
From a usual environment it is necessary to bear in mind that every action of the human being
when elaborating meanings encompasses culture, therefore, in every social practice it expresses
a cultural dimension, linked to an economic dimension understood at the usual principle that
makes it feasible to proceed, and a political dimension in which disputes of interests are exposed
within links of power and subordination of the subjects involved.
"The cultural identity of a people is historically defined through multiple aspects in which its
culture is embodied, such as language, an instrument of communication among the members of
a community, social relations, rites and ceremonies, or collective behaviors, that is, the systems
of values and beliefs... A characteristic feature of these elements of cultural identity is its
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immaterial and anonymous character, since they are the product of the community" (González
- Varas 2008: 2).
In the Ecuadorian cultural territory, in which infinite artistic expressions are linked, there are
also numerous cultural samples as manifestation of local, regional and national identity, where
the cultural promotion organizations formulate nascent circumstances that originate
transformations in society. It is necessary to link these delegations or government institutions
with municipal SDGs in order to strengthen activities in this field.
When cultural activities are formulated by a political subject, as in the case of the Pindal Local
Government, they should contain actions on the scope of meanings of social practice in the place
where such activity is exercised. This places cultural practices in an identity with respect to
ideology, not as false consciousness, but as a scenario of daily struggle of interests; however, due
to the institutional scope of the Municipality of Pindal, the cultural practices that it can carry out
in the practical order, cannot encompass the entire system of meanings present in society, nor
be reduced to the elitist vision that it is only art and literature.
Given that the cultural management of the Local Government gives coherence to social practice,
it must be formulated and implemented considering and establishing an orientation around
elements of identity, heritage, cultural consumption and artistic and literary creation that allows
the socio-cultural project to be promoted. This practice can be carried out following the
traditional ways in which it is done from the municipal activity and that has served interests
linked to the support of social oppression, or it can deploy coherent ways with social
emancipation in which people and human groups become protagonists in the confrontation and
solution of their vital problems.
Bearing in mind that the formulation, implementation and control of policies for the management
of cultural practices, like any other, must be done from a community approach that stimulates
and enables the establishment of respectful links between all the subjects involved, so that
processes of participation and cooperation around community projects can take place among
them. Only in this way can they become individual and collective subjects of processes in which
their own emancipation is gestated.
In order to lead the canton of Pindal towards social development through the action of the local
government, the serious differences that prevail in the community must be resolved in depth.
This action must be able to significantly improve the living conditions of the community, where
members have the same opportunities to develop their aspirations to the fullest, without
undermining the development opportunities of future generations, recognizing the particularities
of the sector.
On the other hand, it will be important for the community to adopt a plural culture that reflects
all the diversity of its components and at the same time transcends them in order to go beyond
multiculturalism (De Vallescar, 2000), which can be reduced to a mere juxtaposition of cultures,
and move towards a deeper spirit of interculturalism (P, Ames. 2002) adapted to a world of
movements, contacts, exchanges, etc., that give rise to identities and cultures that give rise to
identities and cultures of different cultures, giving rise to dynamic and flexible identities and
cultures, neither static nor rigid, to integrate this spirit of development into social policy,
democratic governance, media and culture, heritage preservation, etc. Here education can and
should play a role in preparing people for life in the multicultural community, inculcating values
and attitudes that foster tolerance, mutual respect and democratic behavior, as well as a basic
knowledge of others.
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Cultural goods and values that are an expression of the nationality or identity of a people, such
as tradition, customs and habits, as well as the set of immaterial and material goods, movable
and immovable, that have a special historical, artistic, aesthetic, plastic, architectural, urban,
archaeological, environmental, ecological, linguistic, sound, musical, audiovisual, filmic, scientific,
testimonial, documentary, literary, bibliographic, museological, anthropological interest, and the
manifestations, products and representations of popular culture.
In this context, it is necessary an agenda of activities that includes the socio-cultural spaces that
would involve the community quality that emerged in the research process, this will be within
the logic of action and participation, since it began with an initial participatory diagnosis on
cultural practices. The methodology in community development was used, which assumes the
need to work with the subjects involved in the management of the social and cultural area of
the local government.
The community ceases to be understood as a scenario and becomes a quality of the cultural
management of the social and cultural area of the government of Pindal. Its result will be
expressed in cultural practices carried out around community projects promoted, stimulated
and facilitated by the subjects of government management.
Cultural practice can be understood as a system of symbolic approximation, as the set of
behaviors, actions, gestures, statements, expressions and conversations that carry a meaning, by
virtue of which individuals communicate with each other and share spaces, experiences,
representations and beliefs (Thompson, 1993). The generality of practices and actions are
objectively balanced among themselves through an unconscious process, where the acquisition
of aesthetic competencies is the product of the effects produced by the cultural transmission of
both the school and the family; and the generation of new forms of consumption that represents
its effect.
García Canclini, in the introduction to Pierre Bourdieu's book, Sociology and Culture,
distinguishes three modes of production of symbolic goods found in the market that are
distinguished from one another by the elements that characterize them: "These modes of
cultural production are differentiated by the composition of their publics (bourgeoisie/middle
classes/popular), by the nature of the works produced (works of art/goods and messages of mass
consumption) and by the political-aesthetic ideologies that express them (aestheticist
aristocratism/asceticism and pretentiousness/functional pragmatism)" (Bourdieu,1985:15). In this
way, social classes are sustained on the basis of the particularity of the social and cultural
practices exercised, and one of the forms of distinction is the establishment by the dominant
class of legitimate art. To give coherence to the above, there is a particular aesthetic for each of
the social classes that Bourdieu distinguishes. We can speak of a bourgeois aesthetic (according
to statistics, they are the ones who go to the museum the most and spend the most time
contemplating and admiring works of art), an aesthetic of the middle sectors (they exchange
museums for shopping malls, they use the technique of photography to solemnize the most
intense moments of their lives), and a popular aesthetic (it is governed by the scarcity of
economic resources and the need to acquire practical and functional things). Thus, the interest
of this research is to recognize the way in which cultural practices, collective or individual, can
be approached in such a way that a new individual or collective tendency towards the generation
of a sense of belonging to the identity of the Pindalenses can be built.
The conceptual framework is based on the community approach to cultural practice as a
requirement for the coherent realization in the conditions of the emancipatory project. From
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such approach, the subjects involved in the formulation, execution and control of the cultural
practice were identified for their participation and cooperation in its establishment as a
community project. For this reason, group methods of diagnosis and intervention are used in
order to make possible in these subjects a development of critical conscience around such
practice.
In order to achieve the articulation of cultural activities formulated by the Municipality of Pindal
to its population, it should begin to motivate the community through a system of social relations.
"Cultural practice constitutes a dimension of social practice, that which constitutes the
production, reproduction and conservation of the meaning and sense with which all human
action is endowed." (Alonso Freyre and collective, 2004).
In this way, culture will be promoted and strengthened through the accumulation of people who
have common interests, facilitating adequate access to heritage, where the community learns to
internalize a repertoire of norms, values and ways of perceiving reality, which would later be
refined in a Cultural Agenda, which responds to the desire to remember the identity of the
canton of Pindal with its history, the men and women who live it and are the protagonists, in a
way that guarantees the knowledge and training of present and future generations.
This research was based on developing a project with a focus on community self-development
to strengthen the cultural management of the Directorate of Social Development of the
Municipality of Pindal, it is within the logic of action and participation, since it began with an
initial participatory diagnosis on cultural practices, to propose a cultural agenda to improve the
management of the social and cultural area of the local government of the canton of Pindal
through the methodology of community self-development.
With this methodology we worked with the subjects involved in the management of the social
and cultural area of the local government. This work was oriented to produce a transformation
in the traditional way in which this management is done because it contains a welfare logic in
which the population is reduced to a cultural consumer, that is, to objects of policies oriented
to their cultural practices in which they are not elevated to subjects of such practices.
The intervention to the subjects of government involved was oriented to promote the
development in them of a critical awareness of the need to break with traditional management
and adopt instead a community management that stimulates the protagonism of the population
through the participation and cooperation of people in community cultural projects based on
their needs and potentialities.
The community ceases to be understood as a scenario and becomes a quality of the cultural
management of the social and cultural area of the government of Pindal. Its result was expressed
in cultural practices carried out around community projects promoted, stimulated and facilitated
by the subjects of governmental management.
The study started from an organization and bibliographic review, the learning acquired about the
principle of community self-development, the realization of workshops that served to achieve a
deliberative level and the exploration of important profiles with various actions synthesized and
given in the long and short term through a schedule of events with deadlines and concrete
commitments. After the application of the methodology, several conclusions were reached for
those who participated in this process, such as the Directorate of Social Development of the
Municipality of Canton Pindal.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
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The study started from an organization and bibliographic review, the learning acquired
about the principle of community self-development, the realization of workshops that
served to achieve a deliberative level and the exploration of important profiles with
various actions synthesized and imparted in the long and short term through a program
of events with deadlines and concrete commitments.
The characteristics of this work are based on a dialectic conception of reality with a
methodological approach oriented from research - action - participation, whose basic
objective is the transformation of everyday life by the people who suffer the problems
to be solved:
• It is considered that the social reality is dynamic, global and built in a process
of interaction with it.
• The professional was involved as a person with the participants in the
research, achieving their collaboration, which allowed understanding their
causes and rescuing their skills, feelings, ancient traditions, individual and
collective wisdom that exists submerged in the way of life and culture of the
Pindalese community.
• The researcher played an important role in the performance of the
intervened, in the processes of production of scientific knowledge and its
output to the social practice.
• The professional made the intervened understand the dialectic process of the
subject and the object of community research, which implies always keeping
in mind the psychological and social, individual and collective, intra and inter-
subjective interplays.
• In the research process, the system of relationships between the municipal
institution and society was integrated, where the social could be explained in
the individual, group and institutional, in addition, to understand and interpret
both the historical-cultural and the current in the determination of the
subject that becomes the object of study of this work.
• Conceptualize the reality of Pindal after the data were collected.
• The set of knowledges and knowledge was understood by means of an
intersubjective sharing, through interactive communication with the officials
of the Department of Social Development of the Municipality and the
community, research, among them, resulting from self-reflection and
collective effort.
• The subject category comes to occupy a central place as a moment of
integration between the psychological and social aspects of the individual or
group. They are subjects in the process of scientific inquiry, whose purpose
is social transformation.
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• The different human activities of the canton were investigated in terms of
culture and their daily actions were shared with them.
• We used in this work: observation, analysis and synthesis of reports related
to the research that helped the process of community intervention
RESULTS
The Decentralized Autonomous Government of Pindal Canton enjoys political,
administrative and financial autonomy, and is governed by the principles of solidarity,
subsidiarity, territorial equity, integration and citizen participation; it also has legislative
and executive powers within the scope of its competencies and territorial jurisdictions,
in order to improve the management of its competencies and promote its integration
processes.
The Directorate of Social Development executes community participation projects,
Socioeconomic Management: Education, Culture and Sports; Tourism Management and
Local Microenterprise. This agency carries out activities that are of benefit to the
population such as social, community, cultural, sports, recreational and other activities
that are attached to the work done by the Patronato de Amparo Social del Municipio.
This Directorate of Social Development of the municipality of Pindal, through its
structure and its POA (Annual Operating Plan), deviates from the institutional guidelines,
moves away from any practice of Cultural Management, is identified through eminently
democratic and participatory formalities; seeks as far as possible to meet the established
objectives.
With the research, it was achieved that the subjects of this institution and management
have a critical conscience about the need to break with the traditional management
around cultural projects, in this way they can stimulate the protagonism of the
population of Pindal through participation as the basis of a process of self-development.
This work dealt with processes and phenomena of social character, the research is
conceived from the community in which it is assumed as a process of self-development
with the participation and cooperation of the people. The compilation of the information
was carried out from documentary sources that rest in the Municipality of Canton Pindal,
which was very useful to give homogeneity to the investigative work. After this, we
turned to other existing sources in the community, this information obtained was very
fragmented, dispersed, heterogeneous and outdated; we gave it an order and sequence,
and identified various elements: historical context, cultural profile, collective identities,
values, vision of the future, housing patterns, consumption patterns, electoral behavior,
level of organizational development, etc. In this way we moved from everyday thinking
to reflective thinking and vice versa, where we accepted the group that was intervened
in its totality, knowing it in its singular space-time, with its singular demands, with its
singular problems, with its own needs, this research process consists of five different
stages, which I specify below.
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CONCLUSIONS
The strengthening of the cultural management of the Department of Social Development
of the municipality of Pindal Canton from the principle of community self-development
involves assuming this principle as a conceptual and methodological axis, which was
encouraged to the authorities, officials and employees to develop a critical awareness in
them so that they overcome the traditional mode of cultural management for another
where the protagonism of the population is encouraged in the deployment of socio-
cultural project. This department concentrates several departments such as social,
community, cultural, sports, recreational and others.
The vital problems and disagreements presented by the Social Development
Department are due to the lack of participation and cooperation of the population in
cultural actions undertaken and developed by them, this causes the absence of
empowerment of officials, employees and the community in general, which is expressed
in the limitation and deterioration of collective commitments. The methodology of
community self-development instituted an intervention device that strengthened the
officials and employees of this Directorate of Social Development of the Municipality of
Pindal in their daily actions, so that they can reach a critical awareness of the need to
break with traditional management and adopt instead a community management that
stimulates the protagonism of the population through participation and cooperation in
cultural projects.
The workshops served as an instrument to train municipal government personnel to
develop a critical awareness of the need to change from traditional management to
community management, i.e., to one based on participation and cooperation in
sociocultural projects. The officials and employees of the Social Development
Directorate who were trained will be in charge of facilitating the methodology of
community self-development to the population of Pindal through workshops, in order
to stimulate the protagonism of the population around cultural projects.
In this context, the first thing is for the Municipality of Pindal to build its own cultural-
community project to prepare its children, youth and adults, within the framework of
an endogenous, cooperative and solidary effort, based on a diagnosis not only of its
deficiencies but, above all, of its strengths to overcome the weaknesses of top-down,
authoritarian and manipulative projects that do not promote processes of human growth
and development both individually and as a group and community based on the needs of
human beings. In this way, the community involved in collective emancipatory projects
of self-development that take into account the sustainability of the equality of human
beings and above all of their own species, will participate and be part of community
development, integral and integrative, the same that will assume an integral and systemic
vision of the formative, thought from learning and the world of culture in a broad sense.
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