Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies (ICO)

The Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies (ICO) is one of the four units which integrate the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (UNGS) and carries out research about modern problems in cities, particularly in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region, with the purpose to form highly trained professionals to intervene in the democratic, equitable and sustainable development processes.

Why an institute and what are the problems it deals with?

The UNGS is a public institution founded in 1993. Its work is dedicated to solving area problems, which makes the interdisciplinary work and linking between research, teaching and professional and community services easier. The fields of knowledge and training make up the different academic units: Institute of Science (ICI), Institute of Human Development (IDH), Institute of Industry (IdeI) and Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies (ICO). The Institutes are responsible for all the academic activities and establish close links between each other.

The metropolitan problems are the subject of study and training at the Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies. Its complexity requires approximations that integrate the different dimensions that constitute it: political, social, economical, organisational, urban and environmental. At the same time, it is necessary to supply significant knowledge for a proper diagnosis of the situation and also to contribute – from a research, training and professional services perspective – to the identification of trends and to the proposal of possible solutions.

Within this framework, the objectives identified by the Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies are the following:

1. Develop scientific research orientated to a better understanding of the possibilities and obstacles in urban regional development.

2. Contribute to the design of public policies and equitable, efficient and participative community action programmes.

3. Contribute to the development of a public arena in which problems of urban life are discussed.

4. Contribute to the continual training of professionals especially qualified to work in the generation of equitable and democratic processes of sustainable development.

Tutorial system

The tutorial model aims to optimise the academic development process of the students, through individual and group strategies of orientation and follow up.

Advantages of studying in a university campus

The campus has the advantage of offering the students access to high value resources such as Computing Lab, Geographical Information System Lab, Ecology Lab, Scholars Rooms, Library and different areas to meet and relax.

Scholarship system

The UNGS offers a broad Scholarship Programme which includes: economical scholarship support for degree students, research and teaching scholarships for advanced students and graduates from our university, and scholarships in academic management and community services.

Pre-professional experience

The Internship Program and the participation in research projects directed by research-professors permits the students to acquire a broad pre-professional experience, as much in the academic areas as in other organisations, public and private.

Research

The areas where the research is developed in theInstitute are tackled together and are orientated to find the most efficient conceptual and empirical diagnostic frameworks, explanation and elaboration of the possible alternatives and to deal with the larger problems that the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (RMBA) faces.

It is also fundamental for research to interact with the social and political agents related to the subject of study. In this sense, in addition to carrying out the type of research that will ensure the participation of social actors as well as access to the results, the Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies organizes public meetings to discuss the RMBA’s problems and their possible alternatives.

Research Areas

• Social Policy
• State, Government and Public Administration
• Urban Economic Systems
• Urban Ecology
• Urbanism

Geographical Information System Lab (LabSIG)

The lab has a specialist team, with latest generation equipment and up to date software.The SIG’s database includes cartographic information of RMBA and a large part of the municipal areas of Buenos Aires province, census information from the National Institute for Statistics and Census (INDEC), and data collected form different researches and services carried out by ICO.

Degree Offer

UNGS’s pedagogical offer focuses the attention on the students’ learning process and orientates the research according to the objectives of the degrees. The degrees are organised in two cycles, which give the students the opportunity to advance progressively in their choice:

a) General University Cycle, of two and a half years in length, where students choose between one of the five specialisations.

b) Degree Cycle, also lasting two and half years. Four of the five specialisations of General University Cycle give access to the degrees from this Institute.

Public Administration 

Degree Co-ordinator: Sergio Agoff (sagoff@ungs.edu.ar)

The degree in Public Administration trains qualified professionals to tackle, in a critical and comprehensive way, the complexity of the state problems and their relationship with society. It provides conceptual and methodological instruments that are needed by the graduates to work both in research and lecturing, as well as in consultancy or assessment in the different instances of government and public bodies.

Urban Ecology

Degree Co-ordinator: María Di Pace (mdipace@ungs.edu.ar)

The degree in Urban Ecology forms professionals focussing on environmental problems with an emphasis on cities. Through its profile, substantially technical, it expects its graduates to be capable of analysing and providing solutions to environmental problems in cities. Supported bythe Professional Association ofNatural Science of the Buenos AiresProvince and the Environmental Professionals Association of the City of Buenos Aires.

Social Policy

Degree Co-ordinator: Daniela Soldano (dsoldano@ungs.edu.ar)

The degree in Social Policy was created with the purpose of training professionals able to give answers to one of the main important contemporary issues, such as the social and economic standards of living of the population. For this reason, the Social Policy graduates are professionals that are able to analyse social problems, produce knowledge about them and formulate proposals to improve them.

Urbanism

Degree Co-ordinator: Alicia Novick (anovick@ungs.edu.ar)

The degree in Urbanism trains professionals capable of understanding the urban problems from a multidisciplinary perspective and to design solutions to improve the living conditions of the population. Cities, as complex entities, require the production of specific knowledge that will enable their analysis and comprehension, as well as the suitable instruments to intervene in their evolution.

Postgraduate

www.ungs.edu.ar/posgrado/

Masters in Social Economics (MAES)

Academic Director: José Luis Coraggio • maes@ungs.edu.ar • Duration: 720 hours • Locations: Campus of UNGS and Buenos Aires of Universidad Nacional de Luján, 871 Ecuador Street, Ciudad de Buenos Aires • Object: Contribute to the specialised and continued training of Latin American professionals capable of developing a conceptual framework, undertaking empirical research, designing and implementing policies, programmes and projects related with social economy concepts.

Postgraduate Degree in Local Development in Urban Regions (CEDLRU)

Academic Director: Raúl Fernández Wagner • cedl@ungs.edu.ar • Duration: 400 hours • Location: UNGS Campus • Objective: Form and enable human resources for the interpretation and intervention in local development processes in large urban regions.In particular the aim is to give a broad training in the interpretation of the processes of complex social change; deepen the knowledge of the different sectoral dimensions of the problems of local development, and improve the capacity to manage methodologies and other intervention instruments that are part of the development process.

Professional services to the community

The professional services to the community are encompassed in the institutional objectives of the UNGS and they are supposed to contribute to knowledge and technologies, while at the same time, contributing to the teaching and research through the participation of researchers, lecturers, students and graduates.

The provided services include a multitude of forms of interdisciplinary work, which range from legal assessment to field work, going through all the stages that are necessary to reach a diagnosis, methodology design, planning, technical assistance, training, and supporting the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, plans and programmes in the community, institutions and enterprises.

The ICO provides services in a broad spectrum of problems linked to the social policies, government and public administration, the local development, social economy, urban ecology and urban development. It relies on a Geographical Information System Lab, which contributes to the analysis of the surrounding territorial dimension of the problems, as well as the geo referencing and systemisation of the data that the Institute produces, in the framework of its research activities, teaching and services.

Professors and Researchers

Administrative support staff:

Victoria Bourdieu, Gastón Cabo, Carolina Castagneto, Martín Lira, Juan Roselló.