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Broadside describing the course of study offered at the Pennsylvania Literary, Scientific, and Military Institute in Bristol, Pennsylvania, signed by Alden Partridge in Norwich, Vermont, on 27 June 1842. Also includes information about tuition, qualifications for admission, lectures, dress, and rules and regulations. ; Printed in Norwich, Vermont? Alden Partridge established the Pennsylvania Literary, Scientific and Military Institute in Bristol, PA, in 1842. The school closed in 1846 and moved to Harrisburg, PA, in 1847. ; THE PENNSYLVANIA Literary, Scientific, and Military Institute, At Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Institution is located on the banks of the Delaware river, two miles from Bristol and seventeen from Philadelphia, with which city there is a daily communication by steamboat and railroad. The situation is one of the most healthy and pleasant in the United States, easy of access from every section of the Union, and surrounded by a rich and beautiful agricultural country. The sons of those parents who may have conscientious scruples relative to bearing arms, will be excused from attending the military duties, if their parents specially request it Captain Partridge would respectfully inform the public that the above mentioned institution will be opened for the reception of students under his direction and superintendence, on Monday the 5th of September, 1842, in the spacious edifice known by the name of Bristol College, near Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. The course of education will be extensive, and well calculated to prepare young men for the correct and efficient discharge of the various duties of life, whether occupying public or private, civil or military stations. The following branches of literature, science and instruction will be embraced in the course of education, viz:—The Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and English languages, Arithmetic, construction and use of Logarithms, Algebra, Geometry, Planometry, Stereometry, Trigonometry, Conic Sections, Surveying, both Theoretical and Practical, Mensuration of Heights and Distances, Civil and Military Engineering, Topographical Drawing, Mechanics, Hydrostactics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Optics, Electricity, Magnetism, Elements of Chemistry, Astronomy, Geography, History, Ethics, Rheto-ric, Logic, Laws of Nations, Natural and Political Law, Mental Philosophy, Permanent and Field Fortifications, Artillery, the attack and defence of fortified places, Castrametation, Tactics, both Ancient and Modern, Practical and Military Instruction, embracing the Schools of the Soldier, Company and Battalion,—also, the turning off, mounting and relieving Guards and Sentinels—the Constitution of the United States, and the Science of Government generally; Political Economy, the use of the Barometer, with its application to measuring the Altitudes of Mountains and other Eminences, Ornamental Penmanship, Music and Fencing. The Military Exercises will be attended to at those hours of the day which are usually passed by students in idleness, or useless amusements, for which they will constitute a healthful and pleasing substitute. They do not interfere in the least with regular study, but on the contrary, by inducing habits of order and regularity, and promoting vigorous health, they aid essentially mental improvement. The regular expenses for the Academic year, of forty-eight (48) weeks, will be as follows, viz: For tuition in any or all of the regular branches of instruction, and board, $154 00 For fuel, lights, use of arms, and accoutrements, 6 00 Amount per annum, $160 00 Washing is not included in the above, as many parents and guardians may wish to regulate it themselves. Arrangements, however, will be made to have the washing done either at or in the vicinity of the institution, on the most reasonable terms, for all those who may wish to have it so done. Arrangements will also be made for furnishing, on reasonable terms, at the institution, books, stationery, uniform clothing, and all other necessary articles, to all those students whose parents and guardians may wish to have them thus furnished. Each student will be required to be furnished on joining the institution, with a single mattrass and pillow, with the necessary bedding, two chairs, a medium sized table, with drawer, or a writing desk, with a small book case at the back, four napkins, a pitcher and two tumblers, &c.; sleeping berths will be provided at the institution at a very moderate price, they will cost but little. All the furniture to be simple and cheap- Tables or desks made of pine and varnished, will answer every purpose. QUALIFICATIONS FOR ADMISSION. Candidates for admission must be of unexceptionable moral character,—be able to read and spell the English language correctly— write a fair legible hand—understand well the ground rules of arithmetic, and also the elements of English grammar. As a general rule none will be admitted under eleven years of age. TERMS OF PAYMENT. The Quarterly bills for the regular expenses (amounting to forty dollars for 12 weeks,) must be paid in advance. The bills for articles furnished at the institution, may be paid in advance, or at the expiration of the quarter, at the option of the parent or guardian; the bills of all banks current, at par, in Philadelphia, and also drafts on Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Boston, will be received in payment of all bills. VACATIONS. There will be one annual vacation, which will commence on the first Monday of September, and continue 4 weeks, SCIENTIFIC AND MILITARY LECTURES. Capt. Partridge will deliver an annual course of Lectures at the Institution, on the several branches of Military Science, on Political Economy, the Constitution of the United States, the Science of Government, &c., &c., which will be free for all the members of the Institution. To those who are not members, but may wish to attend the course, the following charges will be made, viz: To each General and Field Officer of Volunteers and Militia, combined with practical instruction, (if desired,) $'4 00 To each Company Officer, do do, 3 00 To each non-commissioned Officer and Private, 2 00 To gentlemen, not connected with the Military, 5 00 EXTRA BRANCHES. The French and Spanish Languages, Music, Fencing, and Ornamental Penmanship, will be considered extra branches, for which those who attend to them, will be charged for each branch to which he attends, four dollars for thirty-six lessons. EXAMINATIONS. There will be two public examinations each year. The last to be during the week preceding vacation. TIMES OF ADMISSION. The best time for joining the Institution, will be at the expiration of the vacation. Stu-dents will, however, be admitted at any time of the year. DRESS. The students will be required to wear a neat, but plain uniform dress—the same that was formerly worn at Middletown, and is now worn at the Norwich University. The price of the coat will vary from ten to fourteen dollars, according to quality. Blue vests and pantaloons for winter, and white for summer. The whole dress is less expensive than that worn by students generally. PROMISCUOUS REGULATIONS. 1st. The students will be styled Cadets. 2d. Each Cadet who does not wish to complete the full course of instruction, can attend to such branches only as will best qualify him for any particular occupation or profession he may intend to pursue. 3d. Each Cadet will be allowed to progress in his studies as rapidly as possible, consistent with a thorough understanding of the same. By this a good student will be enabled to save much time and expense in the acquirement of any given amount of knowledge. 4th. The discipline will be strict, but correct—in principle, military—in practice, pa-rental. 5th. Good morals, a strict regard for the great principles of religion, and a patriotic attachment to our free institutions, will be strongly and constantly inculcated into the minds of all the Cadets. 6th. The Instruction in every department, will be thorough and practical. The Cadets will be frequently taken out on practical scientific, as well as Military excursions, which will conduce equally to health and improvement. 7th, Habits of industry and economy will be strongly urged and enforced upon all. No unnecessary expenditures will be permitted. 8th. The Institution will be conducted on broad and liberal principles, and all the members, from whatever section they may come, will enjoy equal advantages and equal privileges. A. PARTRIDGE. Norwich, Vt., June 27th, 1842. At a meeting of Citizens and Military, held at Reading on the 20th of May, it was among other things resolved, that it is expedient to establish Independent Military and Literary Academies, on the principles of those of Norwich, Vt., and Norfolk, Va., in Pennsylvania. The following gentlemen were appointed a Committee to assist in carrying out the views of the meeting: Gen. John Davis, of Bucks co.; Gen. C. Schimer, of Northampton co.; Adj. Gen. Diller, Philadelphia; Gen. W. High, Reading; Col. Purdy, Bucks; Col. R. M. Lee, Philadelphia; Col. Kenderton Smith, Philadelphia; Col. W. P. Smith, Philadelphia; Col. Jas. Page, Philadelphia; Col. George Wynekoop, Pottsville; Maj. W. H. Keim, Reading; Capt. J. Archambault, Philadelphia; Capt. Z. Mathews, Norristown; Capt. Boas, Allentown; Lieut. R. K. Scott, Philadelphia; J. 8. Hober, Montgomery; J. S. Bryan, Bucks; W. T. Rogers, Bucks; Daniel Fuller, Esq. No. 92 Arch street, Philadelphia.

This study aims to highlight the issues and challenges of innovation in the olive sector in Bejaia province. To do this, we used a methodology based on the Agricultural Innovation Systems approach, built around the neo-Schumpeterian evolutionary theory, as well as different approaches to institutional change. First of all, the Algerian Agricultural Innovation System has been compared to a sample of olive oil exporting countries. In addition, a retrospective analysis focused on agricultural policy and R&D, as well as olive growing in Algeria. Finally, we have carried out a microeconomic statistical analysis to find out about the determinants of innovation in olive farms. The main result from this research is that innovation in olive growing in Bejaia province faces structural constraints inherent in the overall historical evolution of agriculture in Algeria. In addition, it turns out that olive farmers in Bejaia province seem not to take advantage of their interactions with most of knowledge and information institutions and organizations. ; Ce travail de recherche a pour objet de mettre en évidence les enjeux et les défis en matière d'innovation dans le secteur de l'oléiculture de la wilaya de Béjaïa. A cet effet, nous avons adopté une méthodologie axée sur l'approche des Systèmes d'Innovation Agricole, développée sur la base de la théorie évolutionniste néo-schumpétérienne, ainsi que différentes approches du changement institutionnel. Dans un premier temps, le Système algérien d'Innovation Agricole a fait l'objet d'une analyse comparative par rapport à ceux d'un échantillon de pays exportateurs d'huile d'olive. Par ailleurs, une analyse rétrospective a porté sur la politique et la R&D agricoles, ainsi que sur l'oléiculture en Algérie. Enfin, nous avons effectué une analyse statistique microéconomique afin de mettre en exergue les déterminants de l'innovation dans les exploitations oléicoles. A l'issue de ce travail de recherche, il s'est avéré que l'innovation en oléiculture dans la wilaya de Béjaïa fait ...

This report is a synthesis of the technical assistance (TA) and recommendations, carried out by the World Bank water and sanitation program (WSP) since September 2014. To achieve the target of 100 percent improved sanitation, there is a national drive to improve fecal sludge management (FSM). This TA recognizes that to achieve the goals it is necessary to support the development of national FSM policies, regulations, and guidelines, while also improving capacity at the local level by supporting the implementation of improved FSM models in target cities. The objective of the TA was to provide government with tested advice on how to scale up improved septage management nationwide through: (i) improvement of septage management in three cities through the application of new management models (local level); and (ii) assistance to national government in training and capacity building and the formulation of policies and regulations to improve septage management at scale (national level). This report is structured as follows: chapter one is the executive summary; chapter two gives the background to sanitation in Indonesia and to fecal sludge management in particular; chapter three provides an overview of the TA approach; chapter four gives details of the implementation of the TA; chapter five summarizes the lessons learned; and chapter six outlines the recommendations and next steps.

A competitive city is a city that successfully facilitates its firms and industries to create jobs, raise productivity, and increase the incomes of citizens over time. Worldwide, improving the competitiveness of cities is a pathway to eliminating extreme poverty and to promoting shared prosperity. The primary source of job creation has been the growth of private sector firms, which have typically accounted for around 75 percent of job creation. Thus city leaders need to be familiar with the factors that help to attract, to retain, and to expand the private sector. This document aims to analyze what makes a city competitive and how more cities can become competitive.

This paper is framed as a User's Guide to help city officials and city competitiveness practitioners in implementing interventions. This guide aims to support cities in identifying collaborative configurations of actors from the public and private sector along with the management approaches that can help leadership implement interventions to support the city economy.

The objective of this paper is to synthesize the findings of six individual case studies (Bucaramanga, Colombia; Coimbatore, India; Kigali, Rwanda; Gaziantep, Turkey; Changsha, China; and Tangier, Morocco) by analyzing the similarities and dissimilarities among them and identifying common, cross-cutting themes. The intent is to highlight what institutions and strategies successful cities have relied on to spur economic development, under what conditions such success has occurred, and what lessons of this experience might be applicable to decision makers in other cities.

To evaluate and reflect the sustainability of services in the region, an overall sector sustainability assessment was done, taking into account four main dimensions: access to services, quality of services, efficiency of services, and financing of services. Each of these dimensions is measured through three simple and objective indicators. For each indicator, best practice values are established by looking at the best performers in the region, and countries closest to those best performers are deemed to have a more mature sector. A more complete description of the methodology to assess sector sustainability is included in the Annex of the State of the Sector Regional Report from the Danube Water Program. The outcomes of this assessment for Hungary's water sector are displayed, which also shows average and best practices in the Danube region. The Hungarian sector sustainability score is 74, which is far above the Danube average sustainability of 64, and is among the best practices in the region. The assessment shows that, on average, the country performs well in terms of continuity of access to piped water and flush toilet, collection ratio, nonrevenue water and staffing level. The main deficiencies of Hungary's water sector identified through the sector sustainability assessment are the operating cost ratio, affordability, and investments. The main sector challenges are: achieving full cost recovery; preventing the degradation of assets in the long term; and preparing for the risks caused by climate change.

Global trajectories for reducing carbon emissions depend on the local adoption of alternatives to conventional energy sources, technologies, and urban development. Yet, decisions on which type of capital investments to make, made by local governments as part of the normal budget cycle, typically do not incorporate climate considerations. Furthermore, current academic and professional literature specific to climate change draws attention to decision-making tools that would require access to technical expertise, data, and financial support that may not be practical for cities in low- and middle-income countries. Arguably, the methodologies most able to effect this transformation will be those that are convenient and affordable to administer, and that offer straight-forward low carbon alternatives to traditional forms of infrastructure investment. Current methodologies for capital investment planning that do not take climate change into consideration can result in prioritization of investments that diverge from a low carbon path and a potential missed opportunity to reap financial benefits from efficiency gains. This paper concludes that relatively minor alterations to common procedures can reveal the trade-offs and local benefits of low carbon alternatives in the capital investment planning process. This paper was written as an input to the preparation of the Climate-Informed Capital Investment Planning Guidebook, a how-to guide for local government staff, which will be published in 2015.

The Government of Punjab, through Government of India's (GoI) Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) had requested the World Bank to provide non-lending technical assistance (NLTA) to provide high quality basic urban civic amenities to the residents of cities of Ludhiana and Amritsar in the areas of: water supply, sewerage, storm water drainage, solid waste management, and modern urban transport system. The study is expected to recommend measures and technologies to overcome the existing problems and transform the cities in to modern cities with substantially developed urban civic amenities. Capacity building, institution, and legal reforms will also be the component of the project report. After initial discussions with sector officials, a Bank team visited both Amritsar and Ludhiana cities to identify priority service level innovations and institutional challenges that have to be addressed under this NLTA for achieving desired transformative change. Currently, water supply is drawn from hundreds of unprotected bore wells across length and breadth of the city - which supply polluted water through an unplanned haphazard network. Utility, fully owned by the municipal corporation, will have operational autonomy to manage water and waste water services, whilst still be accountable to the corporation. Financial position will become clear, it can focus on becoming financially self-sustaining. The utility will make long term plans for water supply and sewage; and with government support may also be able to mobilize resources through this is unlikely in the short term in Amritsar.

South Sudan is a fragile country beset by conflicts. The oil shutdown accompanied by a border closure in 2012 was resolved, but ongoing military clashes between factions of the ruling party have affected livelihoods since December 2013. Before the onset of these conflicts, large parts of the population were food insecure (2 out of 3 people) and lived in poverty (1 out of 2 people). This note estimates and juxtaposes the impact of the oil shutdown and the ongoing military conflict on livelihoods based on food price changes, predicted harvest losses and displacement. The resulting poverty estimates help to understand the structural implications of these conflicts. But to validate these numbers, test the underlying modeling assumptions and inform a policy response, new data needs to be collected urgently.

All countries have a formal economy and an informal economy. But, on average, in developing countries the relative size of the informal sector is considerably larger than in developed countries. This paper argues that this has important implications for housing policy in developing countries. That most poor households derive their income from informal employment effectively precludes income-contingent transfers as a method of redistribution. Also, holding fixed real economic activity, the larger is the relative size of the informal sector, the lower is fiscal capacity, and the more distortionary is government provision of a given level of goods and services, which restricts the desirable scale and scope of government policy. For the same reasons, housing policies that have proven successful in developed countries may not be successful when employed in developing countries.

Diplôme attribuée avec la mention très honorable avec félicitations ; RÉSUMÉDans la délimitation de notre corpus, constitué exclusivement de romans relatifs aux fazendas de café esclavagistes, nous avons été amenée à utiliser certaines notions redevables à la sociologie. Tout d'abord, celle où Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco élucide l'ordre esclavagiste comme celui qui, en donnant sa forme à la société brésilienne à un moment donné, exclut par sa propre nature « les hommes libres et pauvres » d'un univers polarisé entre maîtres et esclaves. Cet ordre est celui qui sous-tend toute l'organisation de la période impériale et qui permet à la jeune nation de rebondir, grâce au café, dans les années difficiles qui s'ensuivent à son indépendance en 1822. Dans cette « civilisation du café », d'immenses fazendas, partant des alentours de Rio de Janeiro, couvrent d'abord la vallée du Paraïba, remontant le cour du fleuve en direction notamment de São Paulo. C'est toujours la forme fictionnelle du roman qui semble la mieux adaptée à la fazenda de café littéraire, avec son organisation d'où sont exclus les hommes libres et pauvres, pour lesquels elle n'a pas de place.Leurs propriétaires, des fazendeiros associés à des financiers et à d'autres agents citadins, accroissent leur pouvoir et leur richesse, notamment à partir de 1850, où l'interdiction du trafic négrier libère d'immenses capitaux réinvestis désormais dans la modernisation des villes comme des fazendas. C'est aussi en cette année que s'inaugure une ligne régulière de vapeurs entre Liverpool et Rio de Janeiro mettant en consonance le temps brésilien, impérial et esclavagiste avec le temps industriel et urbanisé de l'Europe. Cette date, souvent évoquée par l'historiographie, a aussi impressionné trois écrivains brésiliens du XIX° siècle qui, tous, choisissent cette décennie comme le noyau central de leurs romans écrits entre 1871 et 1914. La fazenda de café esclavagiste vers le milieu du XIX° siècle au Brésil est un univers en plein épanouissement, où règne en maître absolu sur tout ce qui vit à l'intérieur de ses domaines le fazendeiro. Ce grand propriétaire, en s'enrichissant, abandonnera un mode de vie jusque là austère et isolé ; il voudra s'anoblir et achètera au pouvoir impérial des titres de noblesse qui feront de lui une figure ambiguë, respectée et raillée à la fois, celle des « Barons du café » de la période impériale brésilienne. Souvent évoqués par la littérature dans leurs riches villas citadines, ces nouveaux aristocrates créés par D. Pedro II attirent moins l'attention à l'époque de la construction de leurs personnages et de leur fortune dans les mondes réduits que sont leurs fazendas, polarisées entre la Casa Grande où résident les maîtres et la Senzala réservée aux esclaves. Dans cet univers, les rapports intensément vécus entre les uns et les autres, constitutifs de la vie nationale, composent le noyau d'échanges quotidiens qui envahissent un cadre rural et seigneurial. Trois romans se sont penchés sur ce mode de vie, installant son action dans une riche maison de maître au centre d'une immense propriété où les relations entre dominants et dominés vont évoluer d'une trompeuse harmonie jusqu'à l'éclatement d'une violence tardive mais d'autant plus meurtrière.De ces romans qui constituent le corpus principal de notre thèse, le premier est O tronco do ipê, écrit par José de Alencar en 1871, où apparaît pour la première fois la désignation du siège de la propriété comme Casa Grande, par la suite adoptée par la sociologie et par le langage courant au XX° siècle. Ce terme, plus connu pour son application à la réalité du Nord-est des moulins à sucre, apparaît ainsi comme originaire de la littérature relative à cette vallée caféière, qui a été au centre des discussions économiques et politiques du Brésil impérial et dont la fiction romanesque montre l'ascension fulgurante, suivie de sa disparition encore plus rapide et étonnante, de la mémoire nationale. Le deuxième roman est A escrava Isaura, de 1875, où Bernardo Guimarães a créé l'icône la plus célèbre de la lutte pour l'abolition de l'esclavage au Brésil, dans une œuvre au succès populaire jamais démenti et proportionnel au mépris où il est tenu dans les milieux académiques. Son insertion dans ce corpus permet, en le plaçant à côté des autres deux romans qui traitent du même thème, de mettre en lumière la profonde implication de cette intrigue feuilletonesque et séduisante dans la problématique de son temps et l'habile déconstruction qu'elle fait des clichés usuels dans ce genre de récit. Les deux premiers romans du corpus sont écrits à un moment où le romantisme n'avait pas quitté le centre de la scène littéraire brésilienne, mais où il recevait de plein fouet les attaques d'un régionalisme réaliste, plus représentatif des aspirations qui prenaient corps dans une société qui ne se contentait plus de l'unité impériale et esclavagiste du pays. Finalement, le troisième roman qui se penche sur les fazendas de la vallée est un ouvrage apparemment anachronique, puisque, écrit en 1914, empreint de toutes les tendances qui se croisent dans ce contexte du « Pré-modernisme » brésilien, il met en discussion les problèmes de l'esclavage aboli depuis 1888 et qui n'intéresse plus personne. Les esclaves alors libérés et jetés sur les routes pour mourir de faim, font désormais partie des hommes libres et pauvres toujours exclus de l'organisation sociale du pays. Pour en parler, Coelho Neto crée dans Rei Negro un héros entre romantique et parnassien, une figure olympique et pleinement noire, toutes des caractéristiques associées pour la première fois dans un roman brésilien, ce qui permet de douter de l'anachronisme attribué à cette œuvre. Ce roman vient combler un vide que la fiction romantique brésilienne n'avait pas osé ou pas pu remplir, au moins tant qu'elle était contemporaine de l'esclavage : le droit au centre de la scène pour un protagoniste esclave, le droit à la beauté associée à une peau noire comme l'ébène, le droit à la révolte conduite et assumée par le nègre, sans qu'aucun protagoniste blanc ne vienne lui voler sa fonction de héros romantique, teinté ici du naturalisme, du symbolisme et du régionalisme partout présents dans l'expression littéraire du pays à ce moment-là.Ces romans réunis autour du thème de la fazenda recréent dans leur diversité un même aspect de l'évolution sociale et culturelle du Brésil, la vie et les valeurs qui se développent à l'écart de la ville jusqu'à cette moitié du XIX° siècle qui constitue le moment choisi par les trois auteurs. C'est alors que l'ordre traditionnel se voit contesté par des valeurs nouvelles qui prennent de l'ampleur dans une population qui commence à peser du côté urbain, à échanger des idées avec une Europe en pleine mutation, tout en essayant de consolider son indépendance politique et de réduire sa dépendance économique héritée de l'époque coloniale. Ces facteurs rassemblés et reflétés dans l'espace symbolique d'une vallée autrefois sauvage, rapidement conquise par une culture qui l'occupe, l'enrichit et la détruit en un cycle extraordinairement court, fournissent des caractéristiques communes à nos trois romans. D'autre part, le création littéraire qui en résulte, tout en présentant une grande complexité dès les premier roman du corpus, éprouve le besoin d'expliciter de plus en plus clairement la place centrale de l'esclavage dans la problématique sociale brésilienne.Tout comme la période, le cadre où se situent ces romans fournit des traits déterminants pour leur construction et pour la figuration de la réalité dont ils se chargent. Le fleuve Paraïba, puissant et mythique jusqu'à l'arrivée du café et à la profonde altération de l'environnement alors survenue, est peu à peu ensablé par un sol épuisé et par l'abattage des forêts et se voit petit à petit amoindri, n'étant plus capable des inondations légendaires recréées par Alencar dans un roman précédant, le Guarani. Dans ce roman que l'auteur lui-même situait dans une période coloniale mythifiée, où le langage et les coutumes de l'envahisseur se modifiaient sous l'influx de la nature américaine, le Paraïba était le facteur déterminant du dénouement, puisque c'est lui qui provoque la catastrophique inondation créatrice de la nouvelle humanité qui va occuper l'espace géographique national à partir de cette vallée née en même temps que le pays indépendant. Le fleuve demeure l'espace des mythes dans O tronco do ipê, mais comme un miroir du passé, des légendes et de l'image de la mort qui se cache désormais dans tous les éléments du récit et du paysage. Dans A escrava Isaura, il occupe le fond du décor, les marges de la fazenda, il fait partie de la nature brute domptée et écartée par l'homme du centre du tableau et de l'action. Son cours est évoqué pour tracer les limites d'un immense verger qui allait se perdre dans ses marges escarpées et imposantes, « nas barrancas do grande rio ». Encore majestueux dans ce deuxième roman, bien qu'éloigné par le regard d'un narrateur qui ne s'intéresse qu'aux interactions humaines reflétées dans les discours des personnages, le Paraïba disparaît du décor dans Rei Negro. Dans le dernier roman du corpus, écrit à la veille de la Première guerre mondiale, le paysage n'est plus que symbolique et vaporeux, les terres sont couvertes par des cultures elles-mêmes vues de très loin, tandis que l'eau est devenue un élément sombre et sinistre, apportant la mort et la reflétant. Ce paysage complètement occupé par l'homme n'est évoqué que dans des visions polarisées entre des regards de maîtres et des regards d'esclaves, symbolisant un droit d'appropriation ou la transgression de ce même droit. Dans un conte (« Banzo ») contemporain de son roman, Coelho Neto compare le fleuve desséché et abandonné par le café à l'esclave jeté sur les routes après l'abolition, tous deux vivant de l'aumône d'une pluie ou d'un reste de nourriture. Quant aux terres, elles se transforment tout aussi vite, la forêt sauvage disparaît en quelques années faisant place à l'or vert des caféiers gourmands de terres vierges et d'esclaves en nombre croissant, tous deux engloutis dans la construction de la richesse des fazendeiros. Dans leurs maisons devenues de vrais châteaux, ces propriétaires raffinés ne se contentent plus de l'espace de la fazenda, peut-être trop marqué à la fois par le souvenir lointain d'un travail trop pénible et par la violence nécessaire à son acquisition, toujours présente dans les romans. La propriété de la terre apparaît partout comme originaire de la trahison et de l'usurpation, et le souvenir de ces crimes hante tous les paysages. Abandonnées par leurs propriétaires qui s'en vont vers la capitale ou vers d'autres destinations, maison et plantations tombent en ruine dans la vallée géographique, devenant un thème obsédant pour la fiction. Symptomatiquement, la représentation de la vallée et de ses fazendas dans le dernier roman du corpus est emboîtée dans une sorte d'ellipse qui, associée à l'historiographie, rend évidente la rapidité et la paradoxale fragilité de ce processus. Pour nos trois auteurs, postérieurs à Balzac, leur écriture est une histoire du cœur humain ou histoire sociale, où le terme « histoire » n'indique pas un examen scientifique d'événements passés, mais une invention relativement libre ; ce qu'ils font c'est de la fiction et non de l'history, pour utiliser les termes anglais, particulièrement précis, comme l'a si bien remarqué Auerbach. Ce n'est pas du passé que traite leur écriture, mais d'une époque qui leur est contemporaine et dont la connaissance est indispensable à la compréhension de leurs œuvres, comme l'accentue ce même critique dans son analyse de la représentation de la réalité dans la littérature occidentale.La rapidité des transformations intervenues au Brésil vers la moitié du XIX° siècle a, de toute évidence, retenu l'attention de nos trois romanciers. C'est le passage ravageur du temps le vrai conducteur de leurs intrigues. La représentation qu'ils en donnent reflète le moment fugace de fluctuation entre le monde ancien, rural, fermé, isolé et l'ouverture aux valeurs nouvelles qui aspireront vers la ville, vers l'Europe, vers le monde citadin les propriétaires terriens ainsi que leur richesse. La vallée, désertée par des maîtres qui n'y ont pas créé des racines, ainsi que par le café qui l'a épuisée, s'appauvrit, se dessèche pour être abandonnée au profit d'une avancée vers les terres rouges de l'Ouest pauliste, qui attirent désormais de nouveaux maîtres et de nouveaux travailleurs, les colons européens immigrés, qui viennent remplacer le Noir africain. Accrochée à son économie basée sur la force esclave, qu'elle veut à tout prix conserver, et absorbée par le besoin de rénovation constante de ces « machines humaines » remplaçables à peu de frais jusqu'en 1850, la richesse de la vallée se crée et se détruit en moins d'un siècle, dans un temps qui se précipite vers une modernité qu'elle ne voit pas ou ne veut pas voir venir. La répercussion de tous ces changements offre à nos trois romans un cadre circonscrit où dramatiser et condenser ces événements que nos auteurs ressentent comme décisifs pour les destins de leur société. Situés ainsi entre un ordre conservateur et une aspiration à la modernité que chacun d'eux voit reflétée sous un aspect différent dans la vie de la fazenda, nos trois romanciers ont recours à quelques constantes dans la construction de leurs récits. Les constellations des personnages et le jeu de leurs désirs autour de la propriété de la terre, condition incontournable pour devenir un personnage respectable depuis les premiers temps de la colonie ; l'éducation de l'héritier qui doit se cultiver en Europe mais revenir à un ordre le plus rétrograde qui soit ; les personnages féminins de la sinhá libre et de la mucama esclave qui interagissent à l'intérieur de la Casa Grande sont quelques-uns des thèmes de tout le corpus. Les représentations des esclaves, idéalisés mais point simplifiés chez Alencar, apportent à notre premier roman les voix du mythe, des légendes et de la mémoire du passé. Bernardo Guimarães élabore un personnage d'esclave blanche, tout à fait représentative des changements subis par la société brésilienne vers la moitié du XIX° siècle, chargée de commenter et retourner les raisonnements de ses maîtres dont l'hypocrisie, aujourd'hui patente, était parfaitement en conformité avec la doxa pratiquée par ses contemporains et lecteurs moins avertis. Finalement, l'esclave de Coelho Neto, enfin pleinement noir, est l'instrument de la vengeance épique contre toute une période où sa représentation le condamnait à la farce ou à l'ombre des fonds du tableau romanesque, comme le prouvent d'ailleurs les précédents romans : l'esclave noir de José de Alencar, pour devenir personnage littéraire, doit occuper des espaces mythifiés et légendaires, et l'esclave de Bernardo Guimarães, pour venir débattre dans les salons, est d'abord dépouillée de sa couleur. D'autre part, pour parler des valeurs qui importent à leurs lecteurs sans trop les secouer, les narrateurs de ces romans sont tous très prudents, ironiques, presque sournois dans leurs commentaires et suggestions. Les discours les plus incisifs seront généralement laissés pour le compte de personnages plats, capables d'attirer dans leur interaction la sympathie ou l'aversion de ces lecteurs à la fois éclairés et dépendants des esclaves pour le moindre de leurs gestes, voire pour leur apporter le roman abolitionniste qu'ils s'apprêtent à lire.Les espaces de vie à la fazenda se trouvent représentés dans nos trois romans de différentes manières. La Casa Grande est le lieu du discours civilisé, des échos du monde référentiel et historique contemporain, des arts à la mode et des idées éclairées ou conformistes qui divisent les opinions. Elle est aussi un espace de lecture, activité par ailleurs confiée aux esclaves ; ils sont aussi les seuls personnages chargés de l'acte de raconter. Ainsi, dès le premier roman, c'est dans la cabane de l'esclave que revit tradition orale, c'est là que les légendes sont ressuscitées et la mémoire du passé pieusement conservée. Dans le deuxième, la parole qui raconte retourne au salon en musique, mais portée par une figure d'esclave surdouée qui envahit et occupe entièrement cet espace de sociabilité. Elle ne cède jamais le centre de la scène à ses maîtres ou maîtresses, dont le discours elle réfute point par point, sans jamais se départir de son humilité ; en toute modestie, c'est elle qui occupe le piano pour chanter sa propre épopée (la muse qui l'inspire d'après la narration est la muse épique Calliope) et émouvoir le public le plus traditionnel du pays. Dans le troisième roman, le roi nègre a son propre oracle noir pour recréer un passé de gloire qui lui rendra insupportable l'humiliation de l'esclavage, mais ici les discours les plus significatifs des personnages n'ont plus pour cadre la maison seigneuriale, dont l'espace rétréci et ne peut plus rendre compte de la progression de l'action. À l'opposé de la casa grande, dans la polarisation inhérente à cette organisation, les romans de la fazenda donnent tout d'abord l'impression d'avoir laissé un vide inexplicable, car la senzala, le lieu d'habitation des esclaves n'y apparaît pratiquement jamais et ce qui fait vivre, ce qui permet à la fazenda historique d'exister, soit le travail de la terre, encore moins. Et pourtant, tout est là. Par des allusions, par des histoires racontées dans des digressions opportunes, par des rebondissement provoquées ailleurs qu'au premier plan de l'intrigue. Tout ce que le récit ne dit pas clairement agit sur lui ; tout ce que les intrigues laissent dans l'ombre les éclaire d'une lumière commune, et toutes ces fazendas se constituent ainsi en un univers fictionnel cohérent et problématisé par la structure romanesque. Ces romans mis ensemble offrent des possibilités de lecture inédites, mais il faut aussi les lire « à l'envers », comme le fait remarquer Heloisa Toller Gomes à propos du Tronco do ipê. En portant notre regard au-delà des protagonistes blancs et en concentrant notre attention sur la communauté environnante, et surtout en observant comment les uns et les autres interagissent, nous découvrons la diversité des moyens mis en œuvres par ces textes pour nous fournir un panneau très vivant et illustratif du Brésil esclavagiste au XIX° siècle. Par ailleurs, le brouillage de l'espace des esclaves, avec l'effacement de la senzala qui avait d'abord attiré notre attention, semble susciter encore des discussions, car si la senzala existe jusqu'à la fin de l'esclavage, les cabanes des esclaves avec leur petites plantations vivrières ou d'agrément font tout aussi partie d'un paysage référentiel absorbé et utilisé comme matériau littéraire.C'est dans ce cadre que la lutte entre passéisme et modernité peut se nouer dans des intrigues parfois presque pédagogiques grâce à la concentration permise par la délimitation restreinte du cadre, au nombre relativement réduit des personnages, et au dialogue forcé et constant entre ces deux classes de personnages, les maîtres et les esclaves. Il devient clair que les auteurs de notre corpus ont voulu construire une fiction complexe, capable de toucher un public ambivalent, peu nombreux mais liseur avide, éclairé et esclavagiste à la fois, conservateur mais curieux des nouveautés qui lui arrivent en nombre croissant depuis l'Europe, un public qui commence à changer ses habitudes d'habillement, de sociabilité - et de lecture. ; RESUMONa constituição deste corpus, foram usadas noções fundamentais para a compreensão dos romances das primeiras fazendas de café brasileiras, como aquelas em que Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco elucida a « ordem escravagista » como sendo a que, ao dar forma à sociedade exclui os "homens livres e pobres" de um universo polarizado entre mestres e escravos. A ordem evocada nessa obra é aquela que subtende toda a organização imperial e que possibilita à jovem nação, graças ao café, reconstruir-se nos anos difíceis que se seguem à sua independência em 1822. Esse estudo refere-se à velha "civilização do café" e às imensas fazendas que cobrem inicialmente o vale do Paraíba, a meio-caminho entre o Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, onde fazendeiros associados a comissários e agentes financeiros citadinos formam uma sociedade cada vez mais poderosa, cujas características de ruralidade vão rapidamente ceder espaço à urbanização do país. As mudanças sofridas por essa sociedade se aceleram precisamente em torno do ano de 1850, momento que, freqüentemente evocado pela historiografia, impressionou também três escritores brasileiros do século XIX, que escolhem essa década como o nódulo central de seus romances escritos entre 1871 e 1914. Nos três casos, a forma ficcional do romance parece ser a que mais se adapta à fazenda de café literária, com a sua organização que exclui os homens livres e pobres, para os quais tanto a fazenda como sua representação romanesca parecem não ter lugar.A fazenda de café escravagista, na metade do século XIX é um universo em plena expansão, no qual reina e governa o fazendeiro com poderes absolutos sobre tudo o que vive em suas terras. Este grande proprietário, ao enriquecer, deseja também tornar-se nobre e compra seus títulos do poder imperial, tornando-se assim essa figura ambígua, ao mesmo tempo respeitada e ironizada, do Barão do café do período imperial brasileiro. Freqüentemente evocado pela literatura nas suas mansões citadinas, esses novos aristocratas criados por D. Pedro II, não chamam tanto a atenção na época da construção de seus personagens e de sua fortuna nesses mundos reduzidos que são as fazendas polarizadas entre Casa Grande e Senzala. Nesse universo, as relações intensamente vividas entre mestres e escravos, constitutivos da vida nacional, compõem o nódulo de trocas quotidianas que invadem um quadro rural e senhorial. Três romances se interessaram por esse modo de vida que, na época de sua escritura, dizia respeito à maior parte da população brasileira (no que se refere ao aspecto de ruralidade), instalando sua ação numa rica casa de senhor de escravos no meio de uma imensa propriedade na qual as relações entre dominantes e dominados vão evoluir de uma enganosa harmonia à explosão de uma violência tardia mais tanto mais mortífera.Desses romances que constituem o corpus principal de nossa tese, o primeiro é O tronco do ipê, escrito por José de Alencar em 1871, onde aparece pela primeira vez a designação da sede da propriedade como Casa Grande, em seguida adotada pela sociologia e pela linguagem corrente durante o século XX. Esse termo, mais conhecido por sua aplicação à realidade do Nordeste dos engenhos de açúcar, aparece assim como originário da literatura relativa a esse vale cafeeiro, que esteve no centro das discussões econômicas e políticas do Brasil imperial, e cuja ficção romanesca mostra a ascensão fulgurante, seguida de seu desaparecimento ainda mais rápido e surpreendente, da memória nacional. O segundo romance é A escrava Isaura, de 1875, no qual Bernardo Guimarães criou o ícone mais célebre da luta pela abolição da escravidão no Brasil, numa obra cujo sucesso popular nunca desmentido é proporcional ao desprezo que lhe votam os meios acadêmicos. Sua inserção neste corpus, ao lado dos outros dois romances que tratam do mesmo tema, permite esclarecer a profunda implicação dessa intriga folhetinesca e sedutora na problemática de seu tempo, bem a como a hábil desconstrução dos clichês usuais nesse gênero de narrativa. Os dois primeiros romances foram escritos num momento em que o romantismo ainda não tinha abandonado o centro da cena literária brasileira, mas em que ele já era alvo dos ataques furiosos de um regionalismo mais preocupado com o realismo e mais significativo das aspirações que tomavam corpo numa sociedade que não se satisfazia mais sob a unidade imperial e escravocrata do país. Finalmente, o terceiro romance a tratar das fazendas do vale é uma obra taxada de anacronismo pois, escrita em 1914, prenhe de todas tendências que se cruzam nesse contexto do Pré-modernismo brasileiro, põe em discussão os problemas da escravidão abolida desde 1888 e que não interessa mais ninguém. O país tem pressa de esquecer tanto o antigo regime escravagista quanto os escravos libertados para fazer parte dos homens livres e pobres que continuam excluídos da nova organização social do país. Para tanto, Coelho Neto cria em Rei Negro um herói romântico e parnasiano, uma figura olímpica e plenamente negra, características essas associadas pela primeira vez num romance brasileiro, o que permite duvidar do anacronismo atribuído a uma obra que vem preencher um vazio que a ficção romântica brasileira não pudera ou não ousara ocupar, pelo menos enquanto contemporânea da escravidão: o direito ao centro do palco para um protagonista escravo, o direito à beleza associado a uma pele negra como o ébano, o direito à revolta conduzida e assumida pelo negro, sem que nenhum protagonista branco venha lhe roubar sua função de herói romântico, tingido aqui pelo naturalismo, pelo simbolismo e pelo regionalismo presentes na expressão literária do país nesse momento.Os romances reunidos em torno do tema da fazenda recriam em sua diversidade um mesmo aspecto da evolução histórica do Brasil, a vida e os valores que se desenvolvem à margem da cidade até essa metade do século XIX que constitui o momento escolhido pelos três autores. É então que a ordem tradicional se vê contestada por valores novos que se amplificam numa população que começa a pesar do lado urbano, a trocar idéias com uma Europa em plena mutação, enquanto tenta consolidar sua independência política e reduzir sua dependência econômica herdada da época colonial. 1850 é o ano em que a cessação do tráfico de escravos africanos libera enormes quantidades de divisas e fornece aos fazendeiros os créditos que vão mudar um modo de vida até então austero e isolado. É também nesse ano que é inaugurada uma linha de navios a vapor entre Liverpool e o Rio de Janeiro, pondo em consonância o tempo brasileiro, imperial e escravocrata, com o tempo industrial e urbanizado da Europa. Esses fatores reunidos e refletidos num espaço simbólico de um vale outrora selvagem, rapidamente conquistado por uma cultura que o enriquece e o destrói num ciclo extraordinariamente curto, fornecem as características comuns que vão se acentuar na passagem do primeiro ao último romance.Tanto quanto o período, o cenário desses três romances fornece traços determinantes para sua construção e para a representação da realidade que eles trazem. O rio Paraíba, poderoso e mítico até a chegada do café e à profunda alteração do meio-ambiente sobrevinda então, já não é mais capaz das inundações legendárias recriadas por Alencar num romance precedente, O Guarani. Nesse romance que o próprio autor situava num período colonial mitificado, em que a linguagem e os costumes do invasor se modificavam sob o influxo da natureza americana, o Paraíba era o fator determinante do desenlace, pois é ele que provoca a catastrófica inundação criadora da nova humanidade que vai ocupar o espaço geográfico nacional a partir desse vale nascido ao mesmo tempo que o país independente. O rio permanece o espaço dos mitos no O tronco do ipê, mas como um espelho do passado, das lendas e da imagem da morte que se esconde doravante em todos os elementos da narrativa e da paisagem. Em A escrava Isaura, ele ocupa o fundo do cenário, as margens da fazenda, faz parte da natureza bruta, domada e afastada pelo homem do centro do quadro e da ação. Seu curso é evocado para traçar os limites do imenso pomar que ia se perder nas suas margens escarpadas e imponentes, "nas barrancas do grande rio". Ainda majestoso nesse segundo romance, se bem que descartado pelo olhar de um narrador que só se interessa pelas interações humanas refletidas nos discursos dos personagens, o Paraíba desaparece do cenário em Rei Negro. Nesse último romance do corpus, escrito às vésperas da Primeira Guerra Mundial, a paisagem torna-se simbólica e vaporosa, as terras são cobertas de culturas vistas de bem longe, enquanto a água se torna um elemento sombrio e sinistro, trazendo a morte e refletindo-a. Esta paisagem completamente ocupada pelo homem só é evocada em visões polarizadas entre olhares de mestres e olhares de escravos, simbolizando um direito de apropriação ou a transgressão desse mesmo direito. Num conto ("Banzo") contemporâneo de seu romance, Coelho Neto compara o rio ressecado e abandonado pelo homem ao escravo jogado nas estradas após a abolição, os dois vivendo da esmola de uma chuva ou de um resto de comida.Quanto às terras, elas se transformam tão depressa quanto o rio; a floresta desaparece em alguns anos, dando lugar ao ouro verde dos cafezais famintos de terras virgens e de escravos cada vez mais numerosos, ambos engolidos na construção da riqueza dos fazendeiros. Em suas mansões que se transformam em verdadeiros castelos, esses proprietários refinados não se contentam mais com o espaço da fazenda, talvez duplamente marcado pela lembrança longínqua de um trabalho demasiado penoso, ou pela violência necessária à sua aquisição. Nos romances, a propriedade da terra aparece sempre ligada à traição e à usurpação, e a lembrança desses crimes assombra todas as paisagens. Abandonadas por seus proprietários que partem para a capital ou ainda mais longe, casa e plantações ficam arruinadas, o que é um outro tema obsedante para esta ficção. Sintomaticamente, a representação do vale e de suas fazendas no segundo tempo de escritura dos romances, encaixa-se numa espécie de elipse que, associada à historiografia, torna evidente a rapidez e a paradoxal fragilidade desse processo. À medida que se aproximam a Abolição e a República, e que se percebem os progressos reais então conquistados, os escritores são obrigados a constatar a grande decepção que esses dois acontecimentos representaram para aqueles que ainda acreditavam em mudanças profundas, quando foram escritos os dois primeiros romances. Para os três autores, como para Balzac, sua escritura é uma "história do coração humano" ou "história social", na qual o termo história indica, não um exame cientifico de acontecimentos passados, mas uma invenção relativamente livre; o que eles fazem é fiction e não history, para usar termos ingleses particularmente precisos, como bem notou Erich Auerbach. Para esses escritores posteriores a Balzac, não se trata de passado, mas de uma época que lhes é contemporânea. Assim, o conhecimento do referente histórico é indispensável à compreensão de suas obras, como acentua esse mesmo crítico na sua análise da representação da realidade na literatura ocidental, ao evocar, após a obra de Balzac, a íntima relação entre a construção do romance de Stendhal, Le rouge et le noir, e os anos 1830 na França.A rapidez das transformações ocorridas no Brasil por volta da metade do século XIX não podia deixar de chamar a atenção de nossos três romancistas. A representação construída por eles reflete o momento fugaz de flutuação entre o mundo antigo, rural, fechado, isolado, e a abertura aos valores novos que atrairão para a cidade, para a Europa, para o mundo citadino os donos das terras com suas riquezas. O vale, desertado por senhores que não criaram raízes, bem como pelo café que o esgotou, empobrece, seca, para ser abandonado em proveito de uma corrida para as terras vermelhas do Oeste paulista, que atraem a partir de então novos senhores e novos trabalhadores, os colonos europeus imigrados, que vêm substituir o negro africano. Apoiada na sua economia baseada na força escrava, que ela quer conservar a qualquer preço, e absorvida pela necessidade de renovação constante dessas "máquinas humanas" facilmente descartáveis até 1850, a riqueza do vale se cria e se destrói em menos de um século, num tempo que se acelera para precipitá-lo numa modernidade que ele não vê ou não quer ver chegar. A repercussão de todas essas mudanças na fazenda oferece aos três romances um quadro circunscrito para dramatizar e condensar esses acontecimentos que nossos autores sentem como decisivos para os destinos de sua época.Assim, situados entre uma ordem conservadora e uma aspiração à modernidade que cada um deles vê refletida sob um aspecto diferente na vida da fazenda, os três romancistas recorrem a algumas constantes na construção de suas narrativas. As constelações de personagens e o jogo de seus desejos em torno da propriedade da terra, condição indispensável para fazer parte dos "homens bons" e respeitáveis desde os primeiros tempos da colonização; a educação do herdeiro que deve se cultivar na Europa para depois voltar à ordem a mais retrógrada; as personagens femininas da sinhá livre e da mucama escrava que interagem no interior da Casa Grande são alguns dos temas que percorrem todo o corpus. As representações de escravos, idealizadas mas não simplificadas por Alencar, trazem para o primeiro romance as vozes do mito, das lendas e da memória do passado. Bernardo Guimarães elabora um personagem de escrava branca, perfeitamente representativa das mudanças sofridas pela sociedade brasileira na metade do século XIX, encarregada de comentar e retornar os argumentos de seus mestres, cuja hipocrisia, hoje patente, estava perfeitamente em conformidade com a doxa praticada por seus contemporâneos e leitores menos prevenidos. Finalmente, o escravo de Coelho Neto, enfim plenamente negro, é o instrumento da vingança épica contra todo um período em que sua representação o condenava à farsa ou à sombra dos fundos do quadro romanesco, como provam aliás os romances precedentes: o escravo negro de José de Alencar, para se tornar personagem literário, deve ocupar espaços mitificados e legendários, e o escravo de Bernardo Guimarães, para vir debater nos salões, é primeiro despojado de sua cor. Por outro lado, para falar de valores que importam a seus leitores sem desestabilizá-los, os narradores desses romances são todos muito prudentes, irônicos, dissimulados em seus comentários e sugestões. Os discursos mais incisivos ficam geralmente por conta de personagens planos, capazes de atrair a simpatia ou a aversão desses leitores ao mesmo tempo ilustrados e dependentes dos escravos para o menor gesto, até mesmo para lhes trazer o romance abolicionista que eles se preparam para ler.Os espaços de vida na fazenda se acham representados nos três romances de diferentes maneiras. A Casa Grande é o lugar do discurso civilizado, dos ecos do mundo referencial e histórico contemporâneo, das artes da moda e das idéias esclarecidas ou conformistas que dividem as opiniões. É também um espaço de leitura, atividade que aliás passa progressivamente dos mestres aos escravos, que em todos os relatos são os únicos personagens encarregados do ato de contar. Assim, desde o primeiro romance, a tradição oral revive na cabana do escravo, onde as lendas são ressuscitadas e a memória do passado é piedosamente conservada; no segundo, a voz que conta (e canta) retorna ao salão, espaço agora inteiramente ocupado por uma figura de escrava excepcional. Ela não cede jamais o centro do palco a seus sinhôs ou sinhás, cujo discurso ela refuta ponto por ponto, sem jamais abandonar sua humildade; sempre modesta, é ela que ocupa o piano para cantar sua própria epopéia (a musa que a inspira, segundo a narração, é a musa épica Calíope) e emocionar o público mais tradicional do país. No terceiro romance, o rei negro tem seu próprio oráculo negro para recriar um passado de glória que torna insuportável a humilhação da escravidão, mas aqui os discursos mais significativos dos personagens não têm mais por cenário uma casa senhorial, cujo espaço encolheu e não pode mais dar conta da progressão da intriga. Do lado oposto à casa grande, na polarização inerente a essa organização, os romances da fazenda dão inicialmente a impressão de ter deixado um vazio inexplicável, pois a senzala, o lugar de moradia dos escravos, não aparece praticamente nunca, menos ainda aquilo que faz viver, que possibilita a existência da fazenda, ou seja, o trabalho da terra. E, no entanto, tudo está presente. Por alusões, por histórias contadas em digressões oportunas, por peripécias provocadas fora do primeiro plano do relato. Tudo o que a narrativa não diz claramente age sobre ela; tudo que as intrigas deixam na sombra as esclarece com uma luz comum, e todas essas fazendas constituem assim um universo ficcional coerente e problematizado pela estrutura romanesca. Esses romances oferecem possibilidades de leitura inéditas, mas deve-se lê-los "pelo avesso", como nota Heloísa Toller Gomes a propósito do O tronco do ipê. Projetando nosso olhar além das personagens brancas e concentrando nossa atenção sobre a comunidade negra, sobretudo observando como uns e outros interagem, descobrimos a diversidade dos meios empregados por esses textos para nos fornecer um painel vivo e ilustrativo do Brasil escravocrata do século XIX. Aliás, os contornos mal delimitados do espaço dos escravos, que desde o início tinha atraído nossa atenção, não ficam mais claros na historiografia, pois se a senzala existe até o final da escravidão, as cabanas dos escravos, com suas pequenas roças ou jardins, também fazem parte de uma paisagem referencial absorvida e utilizada como material literário.É nesse quadro que a luta entre passadismo e modernidade pode se travar em intrigas às vezes quase pedagógicas graças à concentração possibilitada pela delimitação restrita do quadro, ao número relativamente reduzido de personagens, e ao diálogo forçado e constante entre essas duas classes de personagens, os senhores e os escravos. A introdução dessas duas linguagens diversas na intriga romanesca, bem como a imbricação dramática entre tempo e espaço que predominam na construção de nossos romances, foram explicitados graças aos conceitos de "polifonia" e de "cronótopo" desenvolvidos por Mikhaïl Bakhtine. Torna-se claro que os romancistas do corpus queriam construir uma ficção complexa, capaz de sensibilizar um público ambivalente, pouco numeroso mas leitor ávido, ilustrado e escravagista ao mesmo tempo, conservador mas curioso das novidades que lhe chegam em número cada vez maior da Europa, um público que começa a mudar seus hábitos de vestuário, de moradia, de sociabilidade e, o que mais nos interessa, de leitura.

Forty-five years of existence of "Cuadernos de Administración" is and will always be a reason for celebration for the academy: The School of Administration and its Editors confirm their enthusiasm and conviction, by continuing to edit and successfully fulfilling the purpose for which they were created. The "Cuadernos" have been a means of information on scientific academic developments in the field of business administration and related areas of knowledge. For the authors and editors of this publication, the greatest satisfaction is knowing that their writings, periodic content, messages, findings and opinions have been understood, studied and applied. As readers, the motivation is to find great innovations in each edition, which will allow them to understand how to overcome the current challenges that they are currently experiencing in the fields of economics, business, management, as well as a guide on how to adapt to the new onus's realities. And even more, to help you to plan the immediate future that serves as a guide to modern management and mainly in the different areas: public, industrial, commercial, health, justice and education. In short, we are always waiting for new information and guidance services to make the necessary decisions in the orientation and administration of organizations with leaders awarded to contribute the improvements of future societies. For the Founders of the magazine "Cuadernos" is an honor and pride, to celebrate forty-five years, from the first publication to see our dreams materialized and turned into such an impressive publication, reaching 45 years is the evidence of the great achievement, " Having done it well", that we celebrate today. In 1976 in the Department of Administration, with the collaboration of our Master Andrés Sevilla and the professor Leonel Monroy, we created: a means of communication and information of knowledge and academic developments. "Cuadernos" was part of the strategy and information medium of the innovations of our teachers, when we began to conceptualize and direct the New School of Administration in the 1970s. Andres Sevilla, Hugo Restrepo, Hernando Arellano, Jaime Lopez, Leonel Monroy, Leon Blank, Alberto Merlano, Alberto Guitis, Miguel Bernal, Octavio Garcia, Fabio Villegas, Jose Manuel Arenas, Hernan Alvarez, Harold Edgar Perea, Bernardo Barona, Ricardo Pabon, come to mind in these moments of celebration. To all of them, an immense gratitude for their support, collaboration - and for their contributions - in the realization of this academic strategic component. The results of "Cuadernos" in its forty-five years of existence have been reflected in the editions and articles of researchers, our university's professors and business leaders, with national and international recognition, for the innovations presented, in the scientific field of business management. To all of them, our deepest gratitude for their work in the realization of our dreams, they have all played the role of managers and actors of this great academic educational development. Finally, like forty-five years ago, let me remember the projection of those dreams. we said at that time:"This is the first issue of the Cuadernos de Administración, a newsletter for teaching purposes, which we hope will become the magazine of the School of Management of the Universidad del Valle.""The Department of Business Administration, which gave a decisive impetus to the administration of organizations in the region more than ten years ago, has since been constantly evolving; its task of producing knowledge to teach and to share it with other sectors of the university and the city through this means of information.""Individuals inclined for the profession of business management have been helped by us to improve their knowledge in the field of the organization and its dynamic agent the administrator. We desire, in the years to come, to maintain the service of those whom we have served (our graduates) and will serve; similarly, to new sectors that have not had a link with the University; we want to be an authoritative voice in a society that must and needs to be well managed.""One way to do this is by guiding, through qualified information, all those who run and manage organizations (public and private), with the desire to be used for their daily work, today and tomorrow. We want this to be your newsletter, for you to understand that it is, to feel it and to want it to be." We hope in this way, through you, transcend the community." Milton J. Mora Lema Cali, 1976.Let us now share some reflections that could contribute to the future of "Cuadernos" and its information mission in the field of Management, for the academic training of current and future generations. Clearly, in the last years of the 20th and 21st centuries, a transformative revolution has occurred in all fields and levels, from the individual to the organizational globalization of human talent. We, as actors and managers of new developments, must then reflect on how our present actions can impact the future, our environment and the quality of life of our children, relatives and living beings. And this means accepting responsibility for our decisions and actions in the face of these potential problems. It is necessary to become aware of the need to avoid the undesirable future and to choose other alternatives to obtain sustainable development. And from this vision, participate with reliable information that guides management training. Undoubtedly, the development and growth of contemporary societies are a consequence of the level of education, strategies and institutional educational models. In the field of management and business, educational models have contributed to the formation of leaders with levels of knowledge of contemporary organizations, aware of these realities and with the ability to analyze management decisions. In our case, "Cuadernos", faithful to its development mission, will continue to maintain its leading role, providing information on research, knowledge innovations in Management and Management training and the like of the modern world. In this context, what should be its orientation to contribute to the solution of the main problems that we are experiencing, in Western societies, for example, in the management of ecosystems, in the quality of life of the surrounding societies, in modern management for companies and businesses in the industrial, commercial, public institutions, health, justice and other fields. What competencies, concepts and distinctive values are necessary to guide the formation of the leaders of the organizations, their ethical and human formation, that they contribute to consolidating justice and equity for their societies? The training of modern management must be aimed at contributing to the construction of a better world with quality of life for the benefit of all human beings and their ecosystems. What then will be the role of the "Cuadernos" of the future "? The knowledge, science and technology, in the world's leading countries, have become strategies to generate new processes of political, educational and institutional development. Scientific and technological innovations, new knowledge and information have generated cultural changes, new technological developments applied to the innovation of new processes, new ways of working and major changes in contemporary organization, which have required the development of qualified human talent in these cutting-edge technologies. A society stronger in scientific and technological knowledge requires greater investments in education, research and development. There must be policies and strategies where the citizen can value the importance of knowledge and its application, based on the scientific and technological results generated in the country for the solution of real problems in Colombia today aggravated by the post-pandemic Covid 19. The use of technology is allowing us to solve the main challenges of the planet: feeding the entire population, to guarantee access to drinking water, education for all, sustainable energy and caring for the environment, among others. Within this trend, what should be the orientation of Cuadernos, to detect the new trends and innovations that have transformed, the economies, the management and administration of contemporary organizations? Of course, these challenges would imply being open to transform in the field of education, in the habitual mentalities, the strategies of the businesses and the styles of management. With educational innovations, online content is growing, and will continue in this trend improving, as well as, the obsolescence of knowledge every five years and the content of teaching changing every year. These challenges imply a revolution in the content and the media of Cuadernos?"Each edition of the journal Cuadernos would be full of: Timely research, relevant business and management advice, interesting case studies The participation of teachers and researchers will be the backbone of the Journal, with their contributions from the new findings, obtained in the doctorate and teaching research. This academic technological contribution, when applying science to practice, would lead to development, growth and would raise the levels of knowledge and training to the postgraduate and professional levels, as well as the quality of life. The content of our magazine would be designed to inform and inspire its readers to grow and achieve their individual goals. "The above reflections would be a great challenge for the Faculty of Administration Sciences and therefore, for Cuadernos de Administración to continue and maintain its informative academic leadership. Playing the role of Alma Mater, spreading knowledge to sensitize and train its leaders and citizens, with training for modern management, administration and leadership solutions and developments. In this way, the "Cuadernos" magazine will continue to contribute to the economic, technological and cultural growth of its readers, fulfilling the mission for which they were created and also contributing to the development of the New Colombia that all Colombians yearn for. Let us keep making our dreams come true. Thanks. ; Forty-five years of existence of "Cuadernos de Administración" is and will always be a reason for celebration for the academy: The School of Administration and its Editors confirm their enthusiasm and conviction, by continuing to edit and successfully fulfilling the purpose for which they were created. The "Cuadernos" have been a means of information on scientific academic developments in the field of business administration and related areas of knowledge. For the authors and editors of this publication, the greatest satisfaction is knowing that their writings, periodic content, messages, findings and opinions have been understood, studied and applied. As readers, the motivation is to find great innovations in each edition, which will allow them to understand how to overcome the current challenges that they are currently experiencing in the fields of economics, business, management, as well as a guide on how to adapt to the new onus's realities. And even more, to help you to plan the immediate future that serves as a guide to modern management and mainly in the different areas: public, industrial, commercial, health, justice and education. In short, we are always waiting for new information and guidance services to make the necessary decisions in the orientation and administration of organizations with leaders awarded to contribute the improvements of future societies. For the Founders of the magazine "Cuadernos" is an honor and pride, to celebrate forty-five years, from the first publication to see our dreams materialized and turned into such an impressive publication, reaching 45 years is the evidence of the great achievement, " Having done it well", that we celebrate today. In 1976 in the Department of Administration, with the collaboration of our Master Andrés Sevilla and the professor Leonel Monroy, we created: a means of communication and information of knowledge and academic developments. "Cuadernos" was part of the strategy and information medium of the innovations of our teachers, when we began to conceptualize and direct the New School of Administration in the 1970s. Andres Sevilla, Hugo Restrepo, Hernando Arellano, Jaime Lopez, Leonel Monroy, Leon Blank, Alberto Merlano, Alberto Guitis, Miguel Bernal, Octavio Garcia, Fabio Villegas, Jose Manuel Arenas, Hernan Alvarez, Harold Edgar Perea, Bernardo Barona, Ricardo Pabon, come to mind in these moments of celebration. To all of them, an immense gratitude for their support, collaboration - and for their contributions - in the realization of this academic strategic component. The results of "Cuadernos" in its forty-five years of existence have been reflected in the editions and articles of researchers, our university's professors and business leaders, with national and international recognition, for the innovations presented, in the scientific field of business management. To all of them, our deepest gratitude for their work in the realization of our dreams, they have all played the role of managers and actors of this great academic educational development. Finally, like forty-five years ago, let me remember the projection of those dreams. we said at that time:"This is the first issue of the Cuadernos de Administración, a newsletter for teaching purposes, which we hope will become the magazine of the School of Management of the Universidad del Valle.""The Department of Business Administration, which gave a decisive impetus to the administration of organizations in the region more than ten years ago, has since been constantly evolving; its task of producing knowledge to teach and to share it with other sectors of the university and the city through this means of information.""Individuals inclined for the profession of business management have been helped by us to improve their knowledge in the field of the organization and its dynamic agent the administrator. We desire, in the years to come, to maintain the service of those whom we have served (our graduates) and will serve; similarly, to new sectors that have not had a link with the University; we want to be an authoritative voice in a society that must and needs to be well managed.""One way to do this is by guiding, through qualified information, all those who run and manage organizations (public and private), with the desire to be used for their daily work, today and tomorrow. We want this to be your newsletter, for you to understand that it is, to feel it and to want it to be." We hope in this way, through you, transcend the community." Milton J. Mora Lema Cali, 1976.Let us now share some reflections that could contribute to the future of "Cuadernos" and its information mission in the field of Management, for the academic training of current and future generations. Clearly, in the last years of the 20th and 21st centuries, a transformative revolution has occurred in all fields and levels, from the individual to the organizational globalization of human talent. We, as actors and managers of new developments, must then reflect on how our present actions can impact the future, our environment and the quality of life of our children, relatives and living beings. And this means accepting responsibility for our decisions and actions in the face of these potential problems. It is necessary to become aware of the need to avoid the undesirable future and to choose other alternatives to obtain sustainable development. And from this vision, participate with reliable information that guides management training. Undoubtedly, the development and growth of contemporary societies are a consequence of the level of education, strategies and institutional educational models. In the field of management and business, educational models have contributed to the formation of leaders with levels of knowledge of contemporary organizations, aware of these realities and with the ability to analyze management decisions. In our case, "Cuadernos", faithful to its development mission, will continue to maintain its leading role, providing information on research, knowledge innovations in Management and Management training and the like of the modern world. In this context, what should be its orientation to contribute to the solution of the main problems that we are experiencing, in Western societies, for example, in the management of ecosystems, in the quality of life of the surrounding societies, in modern management for companies and businesses in the industrial, commercial, public institutions, health, justice and other fields. What competencies, concepts and distinctive values are necessary to guide the formation of the leaders of the organizations, their ethical and human formation, that they contribute to consolidating justice and equity for their societies? The training of modern management must be aimed at contributing to the construction of a better world with quality of life for the benefit of all human beings and their ecosystems. What then will be the role of the "Cuadernos" of the future "? The knowledge, science and technology, in the world's leading countries, have become strategies to generate new processes of political, educational and institutional development. Scientific and technological innovations, new knowledge and information have generated cultural changes, new technological developments applied to the innovation of new processes, new ways of working and major changes in contemporary organization, which have required the development of qualified human talent in these cutting-edge technologies. A society stronger in scientific and technological knowledge requires greater investments in education, research and development. There must be policies and strategies where the citizen can value the importance of knowledge and its application, based on the scientific and technological results generated in the country for the solution of real problems in Colombia today aggravated by the post-pandemic Covid 19. The use of technology is allowing us to solve the main challenges of the planet: feeding the entire population, to guarantee access to drinking water, education for all, sustainable energy and caring for the environment, among others. Within this trend, what should be the orientation of Cuadernos, to detect the new trends and innovations that have transformed, the economies, the management and administration of contemporary organizations? Of course, these challenges would imply being open to transform in the field of education, in the habitual mentalities, the strategies of the businesses and the styles of management. With educational innovations, online content is growing, and will continue in this trend improving, as well as, the obsolescence of knowledge every five years and the content of teaching changing every year. These challenges imply a revolution in the content and the media of Cuadernos?"Each edition of the journal Cuadernos would be full of: Timely research, relevant business and management advice, interesting case studies The participation of teachers and researchers will be the backbone of the Journal, with their contributions from the new findings, obtained in the doctorate and teaching research. This academic technological contribution, when applying science to practice, would lead to development, growth and would raise the levels of knowledge and training to the postgraduate and professional levels, as well as the quality of life. The content of our magazine would be designed to inform and inspire its readers to grow and achieve their individual goals. "The above reflections would be a great challenge for the Faculty of Administration Sciences and therefore, for Cuadernos de Administración to continue and maintain its informative academic leadership. Playing the role of Alma Mater, spreading knowledge to sensitize and train its leaders and citizens, with training for modern management, administration and leadership solutions and developments. In this way, the "Cuadernos" magazine will continue to contribute to the economic, technological and cultural growth of its readers, fulfilling the mission for which they were created and also contributing to the development of the New Colombia that all Colombians yearn for. Let us keep making our dreams come true. Thanks.

Forty-five years of existence of "Cuadernos de Administración" is and will always be a reason for celebration for the academy: The School of Administration and its Editors confirm their enthusiasm and conviction, by continuing to edit and successfully fulfilling the purpose for which they were created. The "Cuadernos" have been a means of information on scientific academic developments in the field of business administration and related areas of knowledge. For the authors and editors of this publication, the greatest satisfaction is knowing that their writings, periodic content, messages, findings and opinions have been understood, studied and applied. As readers, the motivation is to find great innovations in each edition, which will allow them to understand how to overcome the current challenges that they are currently experiencing in the fields of economics, business, management, as well as a guide on how to adapt to the new onus's realities. And even more, to help you to plan the immediate future that serves as a guide to modern management and mainly in the different areas: public, industrial, commercial, health, justice and education. In short, we are always waiting for new information and guidance services to make the necessary decisions in the orientation and administration of organizations with leaders awarded to contribute the improvements of future societies. For the Founders of the magazine "Cuadernos" is an honor and pride, to celebrate forty-five years, from the first publication to see our dreams materialized and turned into such an impressive publication, reaching 45 years is the evidence of the great achievement, " Having done it well", that we celebrate today. In 1976 in the Department of Administration, with the collaboration of our Master Andrés Sevilla and the professor Leonel Monroy, we created: a means of communication and information of knowledge and academic developments. "Cuadernos" was part of the strategy and information medium of the innovations of our teachers, when we began to conceptualize and direct the New School of Administration in the 1970s. Andres Sevilla, Hugo Restrepo, Hernando Arellano, Jaime Lopez, Leonel Monroy, Leon Blank, Alberto Merlano, Alberto Guitis, Miguel Bernal, Octavio Garcia, Fabio Villegas, Jose Manuel Arenas, Hernan Alvarez, Harold Edgar Perea, Bernardo Barona, Ricardo Pabon, come to mind in these moments of celebration. To all of them, an immense gratitude for their support, collaboration - and for their contributions - in the realization of this academic strategic component. The results of "Cuadernos" in its forty-five years of existence have been reflected in the editions and articles of researchers, our university's professors and business leaders, with national and international recognition, for the innovations presented, in the scientific field of business management. To all of them, our deepest gratitude for their work in the realization of our dreams, they have all played the role of managers and actors of this great academic educational development. Finally, like forty-five years ago, let me remember the projection of those dreams. we said at that time:"This is the first issue of the Cuadernos de Administración, a newsletter for teaching purposes, which we hope will become the magazine of the School of Management of the Universidad del Valle.""The Department of Business Administration, which gave a decisive impetus to the administration of organizations in the region more than ten years ago, has since been constantly evolving; its task of producing knowledge to teach and to share it with other sectors of the university and the city through this means of information.""Individuals inclined for the profession of business management have been helped by us to improve their knowledge in the field of the organization and its dynamic agent the administrator. We desire, in the years to come, to maintain the service of those whom we have served (our graduates) and will serve; similarly, to new sectors that have not had a link with the University; we want to be an authoritative voice in a society that must and needs to be well managed.""One way to do this is by guiding, through qualified information, all those who run and manage organizations (public and private), with the desire to be used for their daily work, today and tomorrow. We want this to be your newsletter, for you to understand that it is, to feel it and to want it to be." We hope in this way, through you, transcend the community." Milton J. Mora Lema Cali, 1976.Let us now share some reflections that could contribute to the future of "Cuadernos" and its information mission in the field of Management, for the academic training of current and future generations. Clearly, in the last years of the 20th and 21st centuries, a transformative revolution has occurred in all fields and levels, from the individual to the organizational globalization of human talent. We, as actors and managers of new developments, must then reflect on how our present actions can impact the future, our environment and the quality of life of our children, relatives and living beings. And this means accepting responsibility for our decisions and actions in the face of these potential problems. It is necessary to become aware of the need to avoid the undesirable future and to choose other alternatives to obtain sustainable development. And from this vision, participate with reliable information that guides management training. Undoubtedly, the development and growth of contemporary societies are a consequence of the level of education, strategies and institutional educational models. In the field of management and business, educational models have contributed to the formation of leaders with levels of knowledge of contemporary organizations, aware of these realities and with the ability to analyze management decisions. In our case, "Cuadernos", faithful to its development mission, will continue to maintain its leading role, providing information on research, knowledge innovations in Management and Management training and the like of the modern world. In this context, what should be its orientation to contribute to the solution of the main problems that we are experiencing, in Western societies, for example, in the management of ecosystems, in the quality of life of the surrounding societies, in modern management for companies and businesses in the industrial, commercial, public institutions, health, justice and other fields. What competencies, concepts and distinctive values are necessary to guide the formation of the leaders of the organizations, their ethical and human formation, that they contribute to consolidating justice and equity for their societies? The training of modern management must be aimed at contributing to the construction of a better world with quality of life for the benefit of all human beings and their ecosystems. What then will be the role of the "Cuadernos" of the future "? The knowledge, science and technology, in the world's leading countries, have become strategies to generate new processes of political, educational and institutional development. Scientific and technological innovations, new knowledge and information have generated cultural changes, new technological developments applied to the innovation of new processes, new ways of working and major changes in contemporary organization, which have required the development of qualified human talent in these cutting-edge technologies. A society stronger in scientific and technological knowledge requires greater investments in education, research and development. There must be policies and strategies where the citizen can value the importance of knowledge and its application, based on the scientific and technological results generated in the country for the solution of real problems in Colombia today aggravated by the post-pandemic Covid 19. The use of technology is allowing us to solve the main challenges of the planet: feeding the entire population, to guarantee access to drinking water, education for all, sustainable energy and caring for the environment, among others. Within this trend, what should be the orientation of Cuadernos, to detect the new trends and innovations that have transformed, the economies, the management and administration of contemporary organizations? Of course, these challenges would imply being open to transform in the field of education, in the habitual mentalities, the strategies of the businesses and the styles of management. With educational innovations, online content is growing, and will continue in this trend improving, as well as, the obsolescence of knowledge every five years and the content of teaching changing every year. These challenges imply a revolution in the content and the media of Cuadernos?"Each edition of the journal Cuadernos would be full of: Timely research, relevant business and management advice, interesting case studies The participation of teachers and researchers will be the backbone of the Journal, with their contributions from the new findings, obtained in the doctorate and teaching research. This academic technological contribution, when applying science to practice, would lead to development, growth and would raise the levels of knowledge and training to the postgraduate and professional levels, as well as the quality of life. The content of our magazine would be designed to inform and inspire its readers to grow and achieve their individual goals. "The above reflections would be a great challenge for the Faculty of Administration Sciences and therefore, for Cuadernos de Administración to continue and maintain its informative academic leadership. Playing the role of Alma Mater, spreading knowledge to sensitize and train its leaders and citizens, with training for modern management, administration and leadership solutions and developments. In this way, the "Cuadernos" magazine will continue to contribute to the economic, technological and cultural growth of its readers, fulfilling the mission for which they were created and also contributing to the development of the New Colombia that all Colombians yearn for. Let us keep making our dreams come true. Thanks. ; Forty-five years of existence of "Cuadernos de Administración" is and will always be a reason for celebration for the academy: The School of Administration and its Editors confirm their enthusiasm and conviction, by continuing to edit and successfully fulfilling the purpose for which they were created. The "Cuadernos" have been a means of information on scientific academic developments in the field of business administration and related areas of knowledge. For the authors and editors of this publication, the greatest satisfaction is knowing that their writings, periodic content, messages, findings and opinions have been understood, studied and applied. As readers, the motivation is to find great innovations in each edition, which will allow them to understand how to overcome the current challenges that they are currently experiencing in the fields of economics, business, management, as well as a guide on how to adapt to the new onus's realities. And even more, to help you to plan the immediate future that serves as a guide to modern management and mainly in the different areas: public, industrial, commercial, health, justice and education. In short, we are always waiting for new information and guidance services to make the necessary decisions in the orientation and administration of organizations with leaders awarded to contribute the improvements of future societies. For the Founders of the magazine "Cuadernos" is an honor and pride, to celebrate forty-five years, from the first publication to see our dreams materialized and turned into such an impressive publication, reaching 45 years is the evidence of the great achievement, " Having done it well", that we celebrate today. In 1976 in the Department of Administration, with the collaboration of our Master Andrés Sevilla and the professor Leonel Monroy, we created: a means of communication and information of knowledge and academic developments. "Cuadernos" was part of the strategy and information medium of the innovations of our teachers, when we began to conceptualize and direct the New School of Administration in the 1970s. Andres Sevilla, Hugo Restrepo, Hernando Arellano, Jaime Lopez, Leonel Monroy, Leon Blank, Alberto Merlano, Alberto Guitis, Miguel Bernal, Octavio Garcia, Fabio Villegas, Jose Manuel Arenas, Hernan Alvarez, Harold Edgar Perea, Bernardo Barona, Ricardo Pabon, come to mind in these moments of celebration. To all of them, an immense gratitude for their support, collaboration - and for their contributions - in the realization of this academic strategic component. The results of "Cuadernos" in its forty-five years of existence have been reflected in the editions and articles of researchers, our university's professors and business leaders, with national and international recognition, for the innovations presented, in the scientific field of business management. To all of them, our deepest gratitude for their work in the realization of our dreams, they have all played the role of managers and actors of this great academic educational development. Finally, like forty-five years ago, let me remember the projection of those dreams. we said at that time:"This is the first issue of the Cuadernos de Administración, a newsletter for teaching purposes, which we hope will become the magazine of the School of Management of the Universidad del Valle.""The Department of Business Administration, which gave a decisive impetus to the administration of organizations in the region more than ten years ago, has since been constantly evolving; its task of producing knowledge to teach and to share it with other sectors of the university and the city through this means of information.""Individuals inclined for the profession of business management have been helped by us to improve their knowledge in the field of the organization and its dynamic agent the administrator. We desire, in the years to come, to maintain the service of those whom we have served (our graduates) and will serve; similarly, to new sectors that have not had a link with the University; we want to be an authoritative voice in a society that must and needs to be well managed.""One way to do this is by guiding, through qualified information, all those who run and manage organizations (public and private), with the desire to be used for their daily work, today and tomorrow. We want this to be your newsletter, for you to understand that it is, to feel it and to want it to be." We hope in this way, through you, transcend the community." Milton J. Mora Lema Cali, 1976.Let us now share some reflections that could contribute to the future of "Cuadernos" and its information mission in the field of Management, for the academic training of current and future generations. Clearly, in the last years of the 20th and 21st centuries, a transformative revolution has occurred in all fields and levels, from the individual to the organizational globalization of human talent. We, as actors and managers of new developments, must then reflect on how our present actions can impact the future, our environment and the quality of life of our children, relatives and living beings. And this means accepting responsibility for our decisions and actions in the face of these potential problems. It is necessary to become aware of the need to avoid the undesirable future and to choose other alternatives to obtain sustainable development. And from this vision, participate with reliable information that guides management training. Undoubtedly, the development and growth of contemporary societies are a consequence of the level of education, strategies and institutional educational models. In the field of management and business, educational models have contributed to the formation of leaders with levels of knowledge of contemporary organizations, aware of these realities and with the ability to analyze management decisions. In our case, "Cuadernos", faithful to its development mission, will continue to maintain its leading role, providing information on research, knowledge innovations in Management and Management training and the like of the modern world. In this context, what should be its orientation to contribute to the solution of the main problems that we are experiencing, in Western societies, for example, in the management of ecosystems, in the quality of life of the surrounding societies, in modern management for companies and businesses in the industrial, commercial, public institutions, health, justice and other fields. What competencies, concepts and distinctive values are necessary to guide the formation of the leaders of the organizations, their ethical and human formation, that they contribute to consolidating justice and equity for their societies? The training of modern management must be aimed at contributing to the construction of a better world with quality of life for the benefit of all human beings and their ecosystems. What then will be the role of the "Cuadernos" of the future "? The knowledge, science and technology, in the world's leading countries, have become strategies to generate new processes of political, educational and institutional development. Scientific and technological innovations, new knowledge and information have generated cultural changes, new technological developments applied to the innovation of new processes, new ways of working and major changes in contemporary organization, which have required the development of qualified human talent in these cutting-edge technologies. A society stronger in scientific and technological knowledge requires greater investments in education, research and development. There must be policies and strategies where the citizen can value the importance of knowledge and its application, based on the scientific and technological results generated in the country for the solution of real problems in Colombia today aggravated by the post-pandemic Covid 19. The use of technology is allowing us to solve the main challenges of the planet: feeding the entire population, to guarantee access to drinking water, education for all, sustainable energy and caring for the environment, among others. Within this trend, what should be the orientation of Cuadernos, to detect the new trends and innovations that have transformed, the economies, the management and administration of contemporary organizations? Of course, these challenges would imply being open to transform in the field of education, in the habitual mentalities, the strategies of the businesses and the styles of management. With educational innovations, online content is growing, and will continue in this trend improving, as well as, the obsolescence of knowledge every five years and the content of teaching changing every year. These challenges imply a revolution in the content and the media of Cuadernos?"Each edition of the journal Cuadernos would be full of: Timely research, relevant business and management advice, interesting case studies The participation of teachers and researchers will be the backbone of the Journal, with their contributions from the new findings, obtained in the doctorate and teaching research. This academic technological contribution, when applying science to practice, would lead to development, growth and would raise the levels of knowledge and training to the postgraduate and professional levels, as well as the quality of life. The content of our magazine would be designed to inform and inspire its readers to grow and achieve their individual goals. "The above reflections would be a great challenge for the Faculty of Administration Sciences and therefore, for Cuadernos de Administración to continue and maintain its informative academic leadership. Playing the role of Alma Mater, spreading knowledge to sensitize and train its leaders and citizens, with training for modern management, administration and leadership solutions and developments. In this way, the "Cuadernos" magazine will continue to contribute to the economic, technological and cultural growth of its readers, fulfilling the mission for which they were created and also contributing to the development of the New Colombia that all Colombians yearn for. Let us keep making our dreams come true. Thanks.

The research activity carried out during the three years of the PhD course attended, at the Engineering Department of the University of Palermo, was aimed at the identification of an alternative predictive model able to solve the traditional building thermal balance in a simple but reliable way, speeding up any first phase of energy planning. Nowadays, worldwide directives aimed at reducing energy consumptions and environmental impacts have focused the attention of the scientific community on improving energy efficiency in the building sector. The reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions for heating and cooling needs of buildings is an important challenge for the European Union, because the buildings sector contributes up to 36% of the global CO2 emissions [1] and up to 40% of total primary energy consumptions [2]. Despite the ambitious goals set by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) at the European level [1], which states that, by 2020, all new buildings and existing buildings undergoing major refurbishments will have to be Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) [3,4], the critical challenge remains the improvement of the efficiency when upgrading the existing building stock to standards of the NZEB level [5]. The improvement of the energy efficiency of buildings and their operational energy usage should be estimated early in the design phase to guarantee a reduction in energy consumption, so buildings can be as sustainable as possible [6]. While a newly constructed NZEB can employ the "state of the art" of available efficient technologies and design practices, the optimization of existing buildings requires better efforts [7]. One way or the other, the identification of the best energy retrofit actions or the choice of a better technological solution to plan a building is not so simple. It has become one of the main objectives of several research studies, which require deep knowledge in the field of the building energy balance. The building thermal balance includes all sources and sinks of energy, as well as all energy that flows through its envelope. More in detail, the energy demand in buildings depends on the combination of several parameters, such as climate, envelope features, occupant behaviour and intended use. Indeed, the assessment of building energy performance requires substantial input data describing structures, environmental conditions [8], thermo-physical properties of the envelope, geometry, control strategies, and several other parameters. From the first design phases designers and researchers, which are trying to respect the prescriptions of the EPBD directive and to simultaneously ensure the thermal comfort of the occupants, must optimize all possible aspects that represent the key points in the building energy balance. As will be shown in Chapter A, the literature offers highly numerous complex and simplified resolution approaches [9]. Some are based on knowledge of the building thermal balance and on the resolution of physical equations; others are based on cumulated building data and on implementations of forecast models developed by machine-learning techniques [10]. Several numerical approaches are most widespread; these have undergone testing and implementing in specialised software tools such as DOE-2 [11], Energy Plus [12], TRNSYS [13] and ESP-r [14]. Such building modelling software can be employed in several ways on different scales; they can be simplified [15,16] or detailed comprehensively by different methods and numerical approaches [17]. Nevertheless, they are often characterised by a lack of a common language, which constitutes an obstacle for making a suitable choice. It is often more convenient to accelerate the building thermal needs evaluation and use the simplified methods and models. For example, a steady state approach for the evaluation of thermal loads is characterised by a good level of accuracy and low computational costs. However, its main limitation is that some phenomenon, such as the thermal inertia of the building envelope/structure, may be completely neglected. On the other hand, the choice of a more complex solution, such as the dynamic approach, uses very elaborate physical functions to evaluate the energy consumption of buildings. Although these dynamic simulation tools are effective and accurate, they have some practical difficulties such as collecting detailed building data and/or evaluating the proper boundary conditions. The use of these tools normally requires an expert user and a careful calibration of the model and do not provide a generalised response for a group of buildings with the same simulation, because they support a specific answer to a specific problem. Meanwhile the lack of precise input can lead to low-accuracy simulation. Anyway, in all cases it is necessary to be an expert user to implement, solve and evaluate the results, and these phases are not fast and not always immediately provide the correct evaluation, conducting the user to restart the entire procedure. In the field of energy planning, in order to identify energy efficiency actions aimed at a particular context, could be more convenient to speed up the preliminary assessment phase resorting to a simplified model that allows the evaluation of thermal energy demand with a good level of accuracy and without excessive computational cost or user expertise. The aim of this research, conducted during the three years of the PhD studies, is based on the idea of overcoming the limits previously indicated developing a reliable and a simple building energy tool or an evaluation model capable of helping an unskilled user at least in the first evaluation phase. To achieve this purpose, the first part of the research was characterised of an in-depth study of the sector bibliography with the analysis of the most widespread and used methods aimed at solving the thermal balance of buildings. After a brief distinction of the analysed methods in White, Black and Grey Box category, it was possible to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each one [9]. Based on the analysis of this study, some alternative methods have been investigated. In detail, the idea was to investigate several Black-Box approaches; mainly used to deduce prediction models from a relevant database. This category does not require any information about physical phenomena but are based on a function deduced only by means of sample data connected to each other and which describes the behaviour of a specific system. Therefore, it is fundamental the presence of a suitable and well-set database that characterise the problem, so that the output data are strongly related to one or more input data. The completely absence of this information and the great difficulty in finding data, has led to the creation of a basic energy database which, under certain hypotheses, is representative of a specific building stock. For this reason, in the first step of this research was developed a generic building energy database that in a reliable way, and underlining the main features of the thermal balance, issues information about the energy performances. In detail, two energy building databases representative of a non-residential building-stock located in the European and Italian territory have been created. Starting from a well-known and calibrated Base-Case dynamic model, which simulates the actual behaviour of a non-residential building located in Palermo, it was created an Ideal Building representative of a new non-residential building designed with high energy performances in accordance whit the highest standard requirements of the European Community. Taking into consideration the differences existing in the regulations and technical standards about the building energy performance of various European countries, several detailed dynamic simulation models were developed. Moreover, to consider different climatic characteristics, different locations were evaluated for each country or thermal zone which represent the hottest, the coolest and the mildest climate. The shape factor of buildings, which represents the ratio between the total of the loss surfaces to the gross heated volume of a building, was varied from 0.24 to 0.90. To develop a representative database where the data that identify the building conditions are the inputs of the model linked to an output that describes the energy performances it was decided to develop a parametric simulation. In detail different transmittance values, boundary conditions, construction materials, and energy carriers were chosen and employed to model representative building stocks of European and Italian cities for different climatic zones, weather conditions, and shape factor; all details and the main features are described in Chapter B. These two databases were used to investigated three alternative methods to solve the building thermal balance; these are: • Multi Linear Regression (MLR): identification of some simple correlations that uses well known parameters in every energy diagnosis [18–20]; • Buckingham Method (BM): definition of dimensionless numbers that synthetically describe the relationships between the main characteristic parameters of the thermal balance [21]; and • Artificial Neural Network (ANN): Application of a specific Artificial Intelligence (AI) to determine the thermal needs of a [22] building. These methods, belonging to the Black-Box category, permit solving a complex problem easier with respect to the White-Box methods because they do not require any information about physical phenomena and expert user skills. Only a small amount of data on well-known parameters that represent the thermal balance of a building is required. The first analysed alternative method was the MLR, described in Chapter C. This approach allowed to develop a simple model that guarantees a quick evaluation of building energy needs [19] and is often used as a predictive tool. It is reliable and, at the same time, easy to use even for a non-expert user since an in-depth knowledge in the use phase is not needed, and computational costs are low. Moreover, the presence of an accurate input analysis guarantees greater speed and simplicity in the data collection phase [23]. The basis for this model is the linear regression among the variables to forecast and two or more explanatory variables. The feasibility and reliability of MLR models is demonstrated by the publication of the main achieved results in international journals. At first, the MLR method was applied on a dataset that considered heating energy consumptions for three configurations of non-residential buildings located in seven European countries. In this way, it was developed a specific equation for each country and three equations that describe each climatic region identified by a cluster analysis; these results were published in [19]. In a second work [18], it was applied the same methodology to a set of data referring to buildings located in the Italian peninsula. In this case, three building analysed configurations, in accordance to Italian legislative requirements regarding the construction of high energy performance buildings, have been employed. The achievement of the generalised results along with a high level of reliability it was achieved by diversifying each individual model according to its climate zone. It was provided an equation for each climate zone along with a unique equation applicable to the entire peninsula, obviously with different degrees of reliability. An improved version of the latest work concerning the Italian case study appeared in the paper published in [20]. The revised model provided an ability to predict the energy needs for both heating and cooling. Furthermore, to simplify the data retrieval phase that is required for the use of the developed MLR tool, an input selection analysis based on the Pearson coefficient has been performed. In this way the explanatory variables, needful for an optimal identification of thermal loads, have been identified. Finally, a comprehensive statistical analysis of errors ensured high reliability. The second analysed alternative method represents an innovative approach in developing a flexible and efficient tool in the building energy forecast framework. This tool predicts the energy performance of a building based some dimensionless parameters implemented through the application of the Buckingham theorem. A detailed description of the methodology and results is discussed in the Chapter D and is also published in [21]. The Buckingham theorem represents a key theorem of the dimensional analysis since it is able to define the dimensionless parameters representing the building balance [24]. These parameters define the relationships between the descriptive variables and the fundamental dimensions. Such a dimensional analysis guarantees that the relationship between physical quantities remains valid, even if there is a variation of the magnitudes of the base units of measurement [25]. The dimensional analysis represents a good model to simplify a problem by means of the dimensional homogeneity and, therefore, the consequent reduction in the number of variables. Therefore, this model works well with different applications such as forecasting, planning, control, diagnostics and monitoring in different sectors. The application of the BM for predicting the energy performance of buildings determined nine ad hoc dimensionless numbers. The identification of a set of criteria and a critical analysis of the results allowed to immediately determine thought the dimensionless numbers and without using any software tool, the heating energy demand with a reliability of over 90%. Furthermore, the validation of the proposed methodology was carried out by comparing the heating energy demand that was calculated by a detailed and accurate dynamic simulation. The last Black-Box examined model was the application of Artificial Neural Networks. The ANNs are the most widely used data mining models, characterised by one of the highest levels of accuracy with respect to other methods but generally have higher computational costs in the developing phase [26]. The design of a neural network, inspired by the behaviour of the human brain, involves the large number of suitably connected nodes (neurons) that, upon applications of simple mathematical operations, influence the learning ability of the network itself [27]. Also in this case, as described in Chapter E, this methodology was applied at the two different energy databases. In [22], the ANN was used to predict the demand for thermal energy linked to the winter climatization of non-residential buildings located in European context, while in another work under review, the ANN was used to determine the heating and cooling energy demand of a representative Italian building stock. The validation of the ANNs was carried out by using a set of data corresponding to 15% of the initial set which were not used to train the ANNs. The obtained good results (determination coefficient values higher than 0.95 and Mean Absolute Percentage Error lower than 10%) show the suitability of the calculation model based on the use of adaptive systems for the evaluation of energy performance of buildings. Simultaneously, a deep analysis of the investigated problem, underlines how to determine the thermal behaviour of a building trough Black-Box models, particular attention must be paid to the choice of an accurate climate database that along with thermophysical characteristics, strongly influence the thermal behaviour of a building [9]. In detail, to develop a predictive model of thermal needs, it is also necessary to pay close attention to the climate aspects. In the literature, many studies use the degree day (DD) to predict building energy demand, but this assessment, through the use of a climatic index, is correct only if its determination is a function of the same weather data used for the model implementation. Otherwise, the predictive model is generally affected by a greater evaluation error; all these aspects are deeply discussed analysing a specific Italian case study in Chapter F, and the main results are published in [8]. The results achieved during the three years of PhD research, make it possible to affirm that each model can be used to solve thermal building balance by knowing merely a few parameters representative of the analysed problem. Nonetheless, some questions may be asked: Which of these models can be identified as the most efficient solution? Is it possible to compare the performances of these models? Is it possible to choose the most efficient model based on some specific phase in the evaluation? To attempt to answer these questions, during the research period it was decided to compare the three selected alternative models by applying a Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA), that explicitly evaluates multiple criteria in decision-making. It is a useful decision support tool to apply to many complex decisions by choosing among several alternatives. The idea rising thanks to the scientific collaboration with the VGTU University of Vilnius, Lithuanian, in the person of Prof. A. Kaklauskas and Prof. L. Tupènaitè, experts in the field of multi-criteria analysis. At the first time a multi-criteria procedure was applied to determine the most efficient alternative model among some resolution procedures of a building's energy balance. This application required extra effort in defining the criteria and identifying a team of experts. To apply the MCA, it was necessary to identify the salient phases of the evaluation procedure to explain the most sensitive criteria for acquiring conscious, truthful answers that only a pool of experts in the field can provide. Details of this work were carried out during the period of one-month research in Vilnius, from April to May 2019, where it was possible to improve the application of the Multiple Criteria Complex Proportional Evaluation (COPRAS) method for identifying the most efficient predictive tool to evaluate building thermal needs. These results are collected in Chapter G and the main results are explained in a paper under review in the Journal "Energy" from September. The identification of the most efficient alternative model to solve the building energy balance through the application of a specific MCA, allowed to deepen the identified methodology and improve research. In particular, the most efficient alternative resolution model was the subject of the research that took place during the research period at the RWTH in Aachen University, Germany with Prof. M. Traverso, Head of the INaB Department, from September 2018 to March 2019. The experience in the field of LCA and the possibility of identifying the environmental impacts linked to the building system, has led the research to investigate neural networks for a dual and simultaneous environmental-energy analysis. The results confirm that the application of ANNs is a good alternative model for solving the energy and environmental balance of a building and for ensuring the development of reliable decision support tools that can be used by non-expert users. ANNs can be improved by upgrading the training database and choosing the network structure and learning algorithm. The results of this research are collected in Chapter H and published in [28].