A political sociology of adult education : a research agenda

With the publication of the Southam Report in Canada (1987) showing the widespread functional illiteracy of vast sectors of the Canadian population, and the renewed discussion on the shortcomings of literacy training programmes in the U.S. (Kozol, 1985; Gee, 1986), adult education has become again a priority for policy makers in industrial advanced societies. This article challenges some of the bask assumptions of conventional mainstream adult education, taking advantage of the experience and theories mainly developed in dependent-development societies of Latin America. A political sociology of adult education takes as a starting point the relationships between the capitalist state and adult education. Therefore, the notion of the State should be considered central to any attempt to understand the "new" rationale for policy formation in this field. Some questions and queries on adult education policy formation are advanced here, and a new agenda for research is advocated.peer-reviewe

Neoliberalism, globalization agendas and banking educational policy : is popular education an answer?

Discussing the tensions between the global and the local, this paper offers a description of cosmopolitan and local competing globalization agendas. Three agendas, as ideal types, are highlighted: the Hyper-Globalizers, Skeptics and Transformationists. After explaining the competing agendas for globalization and some of their potential impacts in education, three main claims are made in this paper. The first one is that the dominant technocratic rationale in policy making, which is part and parcel of a neoliberal regime, constitutes a form of banking education so brilliantly criticized by Paulo Freire. This technocratic rationality is based on instrumental rationality discussed by Max Weber, Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas. A second claim is that there is a great potential for challenging the intellectual narratives and praxis of neoliberal education in the new approach of a global citizenship education portrayed in the First Global Educational Initiative announced by the U.N. General Secretary and currently being implemented by UNESCO. The final claim is a question: could popular education be an answer to the growing inequality, poverty, and lack of solidarity in the contemporary world? The basic premise of this paper is that neoliberalism, emerging as the dominant face of globalization may be conducive to what has been termed banking education. The distinguished tradition of popular education in Latin America is considered as a possible alternative.peer-reviewe

Fifty Years After Angicos. Paulo Freire, Popular Education and the Struggle for a Better World that is Possible

The main thesis of this paper is that Freire’s original experience in Angicos anticipated a grand design for social transformation of educational systems.As such it brought together two key concepts that formulated the basis of his educational system: popular culture as an counter-hegemonic project and popular education, more particularly what was later called citizen schools or public popular education as keystone of his new educational system.I use the term Paulo Freire System to show that his original attempts were not only to challenge pedagogical the prevailing banking education system that was so pervasive in Brazil and Latin American at the time. In challenging the hegemony of banking education, its narrative, theoretical foundations, epistemology and methodology, Freire and his team sought to create a new system that could replace the old one. They saw banking education not only as obsolete in terms of modernization of systems but also oppressive in gnoseological, epistemological and political terms. In the conclusion of this paper I will discuss the twins obsessions of Freire, already present in the Angicos experience and that will stay with him throughout his life: the relationship between democracy,citizenship and education, and education as a postcolonial ethical act of social transformation. I would like to emphasize therefore that the Paulo Freire system, as conceived in the Angicos experience and its after math was a much larger and comprehensive system that originally considered, even by his critics.Key-words: Angicos; social transformation; banking education; oppression; postcolonial education

My last conversation with Paulo Freire

Carlos Alberto Torres relata a sua última conversa com Paulo Freire, em 1997, por telefone, a partir do aeroporto de Madrid

The state of the art in comparative education and WCCES at a crossroads in the 21st Century

The focus of this work is the potential contributions and emerging challenges in comparative education. Globalization has brought a heterogeneous world globalization, having the global capitalism mostly as an expression, whereas there has been place enough for dissent. Limited theory and empirical research defeat the purpose of comparative education as an intellectual field for the analysis of globalization and anti-globalization. The author, based on the journey of a critical theorist as WCCES president, establishes a brief historical perspective of comparative and international education. Regarding the latter not as a discipline, but as an interdisciplinary field, he states that in this period we learned to work in three broad orientations: scientific, pragmatic and an international dimension of education, eminently global. However, the best contributions of comparative and international education have not taken place in WCCES. Therefore, this work concludes with proposals for the Council. The most important are the adoption of the positions of the Incheon Meeting, as well as to assume that our commitment remains firm in favour of equity transformational projects. Key words: comparative and international education; critical theory; globalization; global capitalism; WCCES

Global Understanding and Global Citizenship Keynote Speech for the Closing Ceremony of the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU)

Conferência de Carlos Alberto Torres na Cerimónia de Encerramento do International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU), realizada na Friedrich Schiller University Jena, na Alemanha, sobre Global Understanding and Global Citizenship. Torres estrutura a sua interessante e muito atual keynote em torno de dois eixos temáticos: um primeiro, refere-se à fundamental dinâmica da vida humana; num segundo, aborda a importância da compreensão para a sobrevivência da democracia, do planeta e das civilizações humanas na terra. &nbsp

Consideraciones sobre la economía política venezolana: petróleo, chavismo y la naturaleza política del cambio paralelo

Este trabajo se plantea hacer una revisión breve sobre la economía venezolana en las últimas décadas. El punto de partida es una discusión sucinta sobre el petróleo en su dimensión analítica, a la luz del pensamiento de la economía política venezolana. Seguidamente, es presentado un abordaje en perspectiva histórica que destaca elementos relevantes para entender la Venezuela que recibió el gobierno de Hugo Chávez, tomando el período que va desde el “puntofijismo” (1958) hasta la crisis neo-liberal de los 90’s. Luego, es abordada la asunción de la “Revolución Bolivariana” destacando fechas, datos socioeconómicos y las transformaciones más importantes en la sociedad venezolana. Por último, se levanta la controversia del cambio paralelo en Venezuela como elemento desestabilizador de la economía pero en su dimensión política, pues como será presentado, no existen variables macroeconómicas que expliquen su variación atípica a partir del año 2013. La investigación es subsidiada por el método inductivo de investigación científica, amparado en la técnica de revisión bibliográfica y la consulta de fuentes primarias como datos del Banco Central. En síntesis, espera demostrarse que: i) El petróleo en su dimensión analítica precisa una conceptuación precisa y ajustada al pensamiento más avanzado de la economía política; ii) la política chavista tuvo un impacto social significativo en la economía venezolana pero mantuvo y agudizó el cuadro de economía dependiente del petróleo, y iii) a pesar de algunos desajustes endógenos en la política económica, los determinantes del cambio paralelo venezolano son de naturaleza política y exógena

Ordem Social Competitiva e Desenvolvimento Econômico: as origens do Estado social sueco.

Nesta pesquisa pretende-se encontrar evidencias sobre a relação entre a emergência do quadro social competitivo na Suécia e seu desenvolvimento econômico. Através da revisão bibliográfica constatou-se que, mediante ativação política dos trabalhadores e sobre algumas condições favoráveis, sem necessidade de uma revolução violenta e com diversas reformas graduais, é possível que em um país periférico e dependente se consolide uma ordem social competitiva que permita as condições necessárias para seu desenvolvimento e a substituição da dependência pela interdependência.Programa de IC - UNIL

Social capital in poor communities: a case study from rural northern Peru

This thesis examines the prospective value of social capital for developmental purposes. It contends that the role that social relationships play in poor actors’ efforts to cope with and move out of poverty needs to be assessed under a dual understanding of social structure, as both the medium and outcome of social action. The study adopts Bourdieu’s ‘theory of practice’ as its main theoretical approach. Actors’ investments in and uses of relationships were analysed in relation to their objective conditions—stocks of capital—and associated practices and strategies. Social capital was operationalised as both networks of relations (local, external, and vertical) and social resources (mediated access to assets of local economic relevance). This approach was empirically examined via a two-year longitudinal study that followed the experiences of residents of two poor rural villages located in the Department of Lambayeque, in Northern Peru, with regard to their quotidian practices and involvement in a participatory development intervention that conducted basic infrastructure, productive, and informational investments. The study used a mixed-method approach comprising in-depth and unstructured interviews with residents and project staff; household surveys (three waves); and participatory observation. The evidence obtained showed that residents make extensive use of their relationships for economic purposes. Most valuable social resources and connections, however, were unequally accessed by residents according to their levels of poverty. This unequal (re)production of social capital was found to be related to actors’ material conditions and quotidian practices. This social dynamic tended to be reproduced within the participatory intervention examined, leading to an unequal expansion of social capital and related benefits among its beneficiaries. The study concludes that the structural conditionality of the processes of using and building social capital makes it intimately associated with socioeconomic inequalities. The theoretical and practical implications of this work are discussed in the concluding chapter

INM ozone measurements in the Antarctic region

Presentación realizada para el Sauna Workshop celebrado en Tenerife, España el día 10 de noviembre de 200