Design and research are two fields of knowledge that each has its traditions, methods, standards and practices. These two worlds appear to be quite separate, with researchers investigating what exists, and designers visualising what could be. This book builds a bridge between both worlds by...

The word Matopiba refers to the region that is formed by municipalities in the frontier of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, which in the last two decades has been rapid transformations in its dynamics of land occupation due to expansion of the agricultural activity, a...

Conventional banking practices do not easily accommodate the financial needs of poor persons. Group-lending, on the other hand, has found several advantages in the context of poor borrowers with no collateral to offer. An important advantage is that the bank’s losses due to unsuccessful...