Journal of Business and entrepreneurial
April - June Vol. 7 - 2 - 2023
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e-ISSN: 2576-0971
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Page 105-115
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
* MagÃster 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 artÃsticas y manifestaciones de identidad
local, regional y nacional, estas acciones ubica a las
prácticas culturales en una identidad respecto a la
ideologÃa, 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 metodologÃa 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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107
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.
GarcÃa 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