Study of the Bonds Established at Social Programs Implementation in Cali, Colombia, Using the Contextual Interaction Theory

Abstract

This study aims to research the contextual interaction processes set during the implementation of four social programs in Cali. The purpose of this is to identify the social bonds and the approaches to social programs that are configured at the implementation level between the different actors involved. The four programs to be analyzed were selected following a typology where they can be compared according to the degree of interaction and the homogeneity in the tasks involved. Therefore, the chosen programs were studied through 14 semi-directed interviews conducted with the stakeholders: public officials, community-based intermediaries, and beneficiaries. The main results highlight the challenge that the diversity of the communities set to the programs. These are all complex situations that question the totalizing role of the institution within the resolution of the community’s problems, and that open spaces to other approaches, such as the governance, where implementation interfaces located in the same communities of the intervention, on the edge of the limits of the State.