On October 18th, the Abya Yala UPS Publishing House presented the book series "Ciudades para la gente" (cities for people) in an event attended by professors and experts from national and international institutions. 

The series "Ciudades para la gente in Latin America and the Carribean" is made up of four books and is the result of research about urban topics carried out by researchers from CLASCO's Popular Habitat and Inclusion Group, Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro and Universidad Politécnica Salesiana. 

The series is the result of the need to keep the memory of a process of working on two themes: popular habitat and social inclusion, where academia participates and works together with communities and contributes with its knowledge to building a different habitat with access for all.

The presentation of the books was presided by José Juncosa, vice president of the university's branch Quito and director of the Abya Yala –UPS Publishing house; Pedro Abramo, professor at the Instituto de Pesquisa y Planeamiento Urbano Regional de la Universidad Federal del Río de Janeiro, Brazil; Enrique Ortiz from Mexico; Jenny Diaz, popular leader of the Committee for Community Development Los Pinos, Ecuador; Jaime Erazo, PhD in Urban and Environmental Studies at the College of Mexico, Ecuador; Marcelo Rodríguez PhD in Urban Regional Planning by the the Instituto de Pesquisa y Planeamiento Urbano Regional de la Universidad Federal del Río de Janeiro, Chile; Teolinda Bolivar, PhD in Urban Planning from the University of Paris, a researcher and professor at Universidad Central de Venezuela and Gino Grondona, researcher and professor at UPS.

The university's vice president in Quito welcomed all the participants by highlighting that "the project reminds us what we should recover and what we have lost. We must give new meaning to and rethink the need of working together, to be available for people and learn more about their proposals.

Through a video conference, Teolinda Bolivar spoke to attendees about the cooperative work of the series which explains the experiences of deprived neighborhoods in Latin America and the Carribean. Abramo spoke about popular habitat not only as a social, historical reality but as an opportunity for academic discussion and reflection because "it articulates a series of knowledge, coexistence of academic disciplinary knowledge, where academia discusses and learns along with popular knowledge and intelligence." 

Ortiz said that talking about cities means envisioning the city people can build in the future, with the involvement of academia, processes and strengths. "It's not about imposing solutions, it's about exchanging what we know. The university should get involved with people, change its attitude, exchange knowledge and break the two dominating perspectives: money and acquisition of property"

Before concluding, Marcelo Rodriguez from Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro, thanked UPS and the Psychology major where the research began: Latin American Social Psychology Community. He said that "it is necessary to build social bonds, collective work for another world that is possible with strength and social participation of people, because cities are a reflection of what we are".