Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to offer a research agenda to improve on representative, participatory and deliberative forms of democracy. It argues for an inclusive democracy built upon a cybernetic understanding of governance and organization structure. Design/methodology/approach -Based on complexity management strategies, the paper offers a conceptual construction of governance and democracy. The case of Colombia over the past 60 years is used to illustrate these strategies; it makes apparent that in spite of good intentions, the cybernetics of the country and its cities has faltered over this period, hindering its democracy. To learn how to overcome this weakness and support the evolution towards an inclusive democracy, the authors propose a research agenda aimed at studying the viability of cities. Findings -The paper indicates that there is a broad field to apply management cybernetic tools in the political domain, as for example the classic archetypes that inhibit the emergence of effective structural recursion and people's local participation in global issues, restricting their social inclusion. Research limitations/implications -In many Colombian cities and towns people live in very difficult conditions and to survive they often fall into corruption, but others display apparent resiliency, solidarity, communitarian organization and so forth. Learning about good practices should help visualise strategies towards democratic inclusion and good governance. Social implications -The main question supporting the whole research could be expressed as, how is it possible to reduce power imbalances that inhibit and restrict the effective participation of its citizens? The corresponding answer will imply improving citizen's quality of life beginning with democratic structures to live in and to practice active citizenship. Originality/value -The paper offers insights about inclusion and effective governance; it argues that "connecting" a local person's views and actions to global policies is feasible and that this is necessary for effective inclusion.

This paper is an account of management and organisational interventions in multiple institutions and enterprises in Colombia during the past 10 years, mainly influenced by Stafford Beer's ideas and work. It offers comments about the use of these ideas in three projects; particularly it focuses on an intervention in the National Controller's Office. These are accounts of failure and success. However, assessments of success and failure are tempered by difficulties in appreciating the complexity of social processes and our inability to see cause-effect connections. The paper offers insights about concrete aspects of these interventions and the footprints they have left in the country.

La Ética de la hospitalidad de Daniel Innerarity propone que la construcción de identidad pasa por el reconocimiento de lo extraño como parte constitutiva de lo propio. En este artículo mostramos que esta relación entre lo extraño y la identidad puede analogarse a los descubrimientos sobre inmunología que explica el biólogo y filósofo chileno Francisco Varela: el sistema inmunológico es un proceso cognitivo en el que se construye la identidad corporal a través de la distinción entre el sí mismo y lo extraño. En esa distinción, el sistema reconoce lo extraño, apropiándoselo. Las similitudes entre Innerarity y Varela permiten ver, por ejemplo, que la homofobia y el chovinismo pueden analogarse a una comprensión errada de la defensa de la identidad.

La educación consiste en hacer ver al educando que está constituido por, y es parte de, múltiples sistemas y subsistemas de índole social, ambiental y cósmico. Esta educación representa un desarrollo al mismo tiempo cognitivo, ético, emotivo y espiritual. Esta visión de la educación se opone a diversas formas de reduccionismo que no dejan ver las conexiones importantes entre los fenómenos y entre éstos y el observador. En términos éticos, este aprendizaje consiste en el reconocimiento y la producción de juegos de suma positiva. Espiritualmente, consiste en un sentimiento de vínculo con la totalidad, que produce asombro, gratitud y respeto ante el milagro de la existencia.

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