History of the journal

The School of Social Sciences of the Technological University of Pereira was created in 1971. From then on, the Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences came into operation. The following decades – 70’s and 80’s – were a stage of institutionalization of the Social Sciences and the configuration of the administrative unit. This, in addition to the context of higher education during those years, failed to evolve to the creation of a platform for scientific dialog and discipline through a serial publication.

Only at the end of the 1980s, did it become apparent that the School of Social Sciences needed its own journal to communicate the research work of its teachers. It was this interest that motivated the creation of the first serial publication that had the name Social Science Notebooks (Cuadernos de Ciencias Sociales), of which its first issue was published in 1985, having as directors the professors Stella Brand de Prado and Morelia Pabón.

 

The purpose of the Cuadernos de Ciencias Sociales was to “disseminate, in the form of articles, the research that professors, students and graduates of the Department of Social Sciences of the Technological University of Pereira are doing as part of their academic task” (presentation).

 

The articles published in the 3 issues that came out, revolved around different topics that, in turn, responded to the multiplicity of approaches with which the first generation of teachers of the School of Social Sciences investigated.

A few years later, and as a matter of the haste that was imposed with the progressive consolidation of the research paradigm, the School of Social Sciences proposed the hard work of returning to a scientific journal.

Thus, The Journal of Regional Historical Studies (Revista de Estudios Históricos Regionales) was published, of which 4 issues were published between 1999 and 2002, with professors Carlos Arnulfo Escobar and Carlos Ramiro Bravo as directors, and an editorial committee composed of professors Pablo Prado Gutiérrez, Gildardo Rivera, Alberto Berón Ospina and Gustavo Guarín Medina.

This journal had a more sophisticated editorial format and served as a dissemination platform for many of the works of the Specialization in Contemporary History and Regional Development. However, the shortcomings generated by the absence of a well-defined editorial policy by the Technological University of Pereira led to the magazine not being edited again.

In this way, several years passed until the research group Politics, Sociabilities and Educational Historical Representations (PSHORE, Category A- Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología), proposed resuming the Journal of Regional Historical Studies (Revista de Estudios Históricos Regionales) , in what can be called a second epoch of this journal.

Thus, in 2009 number 5 was edited, with its director being Professor Jhon Jaime Correa Ramírez (current director of the Master Degree in History of Technological University of Pereira). On this occasion the magazine had the appropriate editorial processes, peer review evaluators, articles registered with Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, publication of unpublished articles that were research results and reviews of recent academic books.

Its director stressed that these were not "works that have spoken the last word in certain fields of research, but are seeking to reopen the debate on issues that appeared to be subject to mitigation, when not of little interest, for an academic community that neglects all those subjects that do not have to do specifically with the new academic jargons "(presentation).

The fifth issue of The Journal of Regional Historical Studies (Revista Estudios Históricos Regionales) was very important because it reflected the first results of a more investigative approach about the history of the city of Pereira and the western centre of Colombia.

In June 2010, issue 6 of The Journal of Regional Historical Studies (Revista de estudios históricos regionales) was published with a more robust version representing in some way the development of historical discipline with the opening of the first cohort of the Master in History.

However, as if the editorial history of the School of Social Sciences should be repeated as in a kind of tragic cycle, the journal was not edited again and issue 7 never saw the printing press, even though the articles were ready.

At present, from the research group PSHORE and the Master of History, the aim is again to consolidate an editorial body that allows this institution to enter into academic dialog with researchers, professors and students in the fields of history, geography, social studies and political studies. With the creation of New Science under the direction of Sebastian Martínez Botero, (Phd in History).

Much more now that the Master in History has become a space for the professionalization of History in the Colombian Coffee Axis, at the time with its four cohorts in research and about to open in 2016 two cohorts with a focus in didactics. Also at a time when the University's School of Social Sciences is close to the opening of a new Bachelor of Science degree in Social Sciences.

It is clear that this editorial history has been marked by moments in which different rhythms have been set, sometimes with a journal and at other times without it. The truth is that these changes have shown that having a means of scientific dissemination corresponds to the academic logic of dialogue and the exchange of contemporary approaches and methodologies that every serious academic community requires.

We therefore hope that New Science contributes significantly to the renewal of the history and social sciences of Pereira and the region[1].

 

[1] Much of the information summarized here can be traced in the degree work of REFLECTION AROUND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, ITS DEVELOPMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DIDACTICS FOR THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS” by Maureen Johana Cardona Otálvaro to qualify for the degree in Ethnoeducation and Community Development from the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, September 2015. (Consult:http://repositorio.utp.edu.co/dspace/bitstream/11059/5695/1/300712C268.pdf).