II UNI-COM LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE (ISQOLS) and IX CWI LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE
REPORT OF THE
II UNI-COM LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE:
QUALITY OF LIFE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN
IX CHILDWATCH INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH NETWORK LATIN
AMERICAN CONFERENCE
IV CONFERENCE RESEARCH PROGRAM IN QUALITY OF LIFE
Setember, 16-17, 2013
Faculty of Social Sciences
National University of Lomas de Zamora
ARGENTINA
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II UNI-COM LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE (ISQOLS) and IX CWI LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE
On September 16th and 17th, the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National
University of Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, welcomed the II UNI-COM LATINAMERICAN
CONFERENCE: QUALITY OF LIFE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, the IX
CHILDWATCH
INTERNATIONAL
RESEARCH
NETWORK
LATINAMERICAN
CONFERENCE and the IV CONFERENCE OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAM IN QUALITY
OF LIFE.
The event had an attendance over the 120 people who met permanently, surpassing
the 200 people overall the two days, who assisted to 3 conferences, 4 panels with 12
members and 5 sessions with 30 abstracts, one workshop and the presentation of a film.
It must be emphasized the presence of university professors, university students,
researchers, professionals, authorities and students in their doctoral or master thesis stage,
who work related to the topics of quality of life, youth and childhood, coming from Mexico,
Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, United States, Jamaica, India and from different
universities of Argentina .
The first day began with the presence of the Vice-Dean Francisco Lavolpe who
opened the Congress and then two letters were read: the first one from Richard Estes, past
President of ISQOLS and the second one was from Filomena Maggino, President of
ISQOLS, both recognizing the importance of the continuity of the studies in QOL that has
been realized in the Latin American region and giving their support auguring the success of
this scientific meeting.
The Chair of the Conference Graciela Tonon, (Director of Uni-Com, Vice-president of
External Affairs of the ISQOLS and Invited Researcher of CWI), was in charge of the opening
session explaining the work produced in the Faculty of Social Sciences along the last decade
in the QOL Research Program, exposing results and researches produced, the main
publications (books and papers) and the joint work with the research networks. As well she
told about the creation of UNI-COM in 2011 and its tasks between was mentioned: the PostDoctoral program in QOL, the Scientific Collection of UNI-COM and the Asia-Africa Studies
Area.
The second panel was integrated by Fermina Rojo Perez (ISQOLS Board) and Gloria
Fernandez Mayoralas, both researchers (Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography,
Spain), who approached the issue of the quality of life of elder people in a conceptual way,
and they showed the Spanish case from a series of investigations developed between the
year 2005 and 2011, exposing his methodology and results.
In the afternoon three open sessions were developed and it started with the
conference of Ron Anderson's, Emeritus Professor of the University of Minnesota (USA) who
presented the Collection SpringerBriefs and spoke about his new book World Suffering and
Quality of Life.
One of the session was dedicated to "Quality of life of populations of Latin America
and Asia" in which were exposed papers from USA (happiness in Latin American countries),
Chile (the study of quality of life in adult people that live in rural areas) and Argentina (original
populations; the negative impact of the consumption in the QOL and the practice of Yoga in
the labor life by Lía Rodriguez de la Vega). The other session was dedicated to
"Geographical space and quality of life" with presentations from Argentina. The third one
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II UNI-COM LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE (ISQOLS) and IX CWI LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE
was dedicated to "Health related quality of life" with presentations from Brazil and Argentina,
papers and videos.
The Ambassador of India closed the first day of the Congress speaking about QOL
in India, the role of the women in his country and the challenge of making changes to
improve QOL.
The second day of the Conference began with a panel with the presence of Irene
Rizzini (Brazil ), Norma del Rio (Mexico ) and Maria de los Ángeles Torres (USA) whom
presented the results of a research that culminated with the publication of the book Citizens
in the Present: Youth Civic Engagement in the Americas, describing and comparing the
reality of young people living in Mexico City, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro and taking part
actively in the community and public areas.
The second panel was dedicated to Daily life and QOL of young people with the
presence of Graciela Castro(Argentina), Ricardo Fletes (Mexico) and Antonio Lopez
(Colombia). The first presentation approached the relation between the categories of daily
life, quality of life and youths. The construction of the own body as a political arena by the
youth, was the issue of the second presentation. And the last work of this panel described
the quality of life of the rural young people of the high mountain of Colombian Andes.
The third panel had the presence of four speakers. Ofelia Roldán (Colombia) who
spoke about the education in the processes of nutritional recovery of children; Gloria Lopez
(Venezuela), with her work about maltreatment children, Julie Meeks (Jamaica) exposed his
colloquium about how the infantile early development makes influence in the quality of life,
and finally Ligia Lopez (Colombia) reported the research about political senses and practices
of children and young people in contexts of vulnerability in the coffee region in Colombia.
In the afternoon took place a thematic open session and a workshop.
The session called Children and young people´s quality of life include the following
presentations: "Vulnerability: opinion of children and teenagers" (Venezuela), "Analysis of the
implications of the concept of infantile development in the structure of public policies of
attention to the first infancy in the period 1994 - 2012 in Colombia", "Qualitative studies in
quality of life in young people" (Argentina), "The social policies of employment in the province
of San Luis (2003-2010): some results about the impact in the situation of young people",
(Argentina), "Participation and young people leadership in situation of risk and its incident in
the quality of life" (Venezuela).
Simultaneously to these open board, a Workshop of Dance Movement Therapy in
relation with QOL took place with the assistance of more than 30 participants.
The conference’s closed with the presentation of the film When home is the street, a
work that shows the reality of young people who live in the streets of different cities of Latin
America and also remarks the possibilities of resilience in relation with QOL. The film was
edited by colleagues from Mexico and Brazil.
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