Public policies, as a field of knowledge, have been occupying noticeable centrality to debate the major social, economic and environmental issues. These discussions pass through the most distinct problems, such as the fields of education, health, housing, sustainable development, social recognition, among others. A priori, it is denoted that the challenges for implementation of public policies cut across the overcoming of the logic that establishes borders between sectors and the construction of strategies that consider diversity, making up the essence for human development, citizenship formation, and promotion of equalities. Public policies are important to mediate society development and human capabilities. “They are mediations that ensure human rights and citizenship, of universal access”.
Public policies establish standards in governmental plans, making that actions can be thought in an orderly manner and according to demands and social interests, going through a path with discussed and connected objectives and purposes that predict results, so that the public action can be effective in generation of outcomes, constituting activities built with the participation of society and designed for the collective interest.
The current political context constantly threatens public policies, since they are directed at the society wellness. Such a threat arises from a model of development, which is currently hegemonic and legislates for the interests of only a portion of the population, the one which has the economic and political power. This special issue of Trayectorias Humanas Trascontinentales Magazine, of Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Caribbean
International Network (LAEC) “Territories, Vulnerable Populations, and Public Policies”, of Limoges University (France), aims at joining and disseminating contributions in the field of scientific research of several countries in order to reflect on public policies, referring to the importance of understanding how they are presented in their composition, since they arise in an intimate connection with the characteristics of each social reality.