This article aims at interpreting the history of Desarrollo y Sociedad in search of clues about its present situation and its future challenges. Using a database with detailed information covering the journal’s forty years of existence we can trace the characteristics and changes it has gone through. These have been four decades of analysis of Colombia’s economic reality combined with analysis of economic conditions and a diverse set of authors. The continuities and breaks in the journal’s history and in its environment lead us to explore its future role.