Equity of access to higher education in the context of South–South cooperation in Latin America: a pluri-scalar analysis

Abstract

This article draws from an education governance approach to conduct a pluriscalar analysis of equity of access to tertiary education in the context of South-South cooperation. An account of distributional justice in access to tertiary education in the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is integrated with a structural approach related to South-South cooperation among the two nations as well as within the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), upon which two interrelated arguments are developed: first, despite persistent inequities in access to university education in both territories, state-interventionist policies enhance equity of access directly with respect to availability and accessibility. Second, South-South cooperation transforms the background conditions for educational justice by producing an alternative structure to the neoliberal global governance of education and its agenda of privatisation and commercialisation.

Internationalisation of Venezuelan Higher Education (2004–2014): An Attempt at Ideological Diffusion in Latin America

“…Most studies look at the domestic objective of the subsystem, following the lead of the MPPEU (2015, p. 160) that states that the mission's goal is to make HE a component for the construction of a socialist society. Muhr (2016a) considers the new subsystem inseparable from the state interventionist development strategies implemented by Venezuela, and internationalisation an effort to upscale those policies to the regional level through South-South cooperation. For Gonzalez (2009,182) the anti-imperialist character of the government impelled it to grant HE an important role in Latin American integration and ' cooperation with the peoples of the South.'…”

“…2 Brouwer (2011, 140) notices that the first largest group were Bolivians, and the second oscillated between Ecuadorians and Peruvians, so participation of Mercosur students was not prominent. 3 Cuban personnel in ELAM-Venezuela may have been better prepared, but courses were taught by physicians working in Barrio Adentro (Brouwer, 2011;Muhr, 2016a) with limited time to prepare classes. 4 During his fieldwork, Pineda (2017,(139)(140)272) observed accelerated promotion 'from students to teachers or even to coordinators within some years or even months'.…”

Relações Sul-Sul em Educação: o programa ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! e a cooperação em educação do BRICS em foco

“…A pesquisa de Hickling-Hudson sobre a educação na Revolução Cubana, que evoluiu para um volume editado que ilumina de modo abrangente a multidimensionalidade do "internacionalismo cubano integrando solidariedade e cooperação Sul-Sul" na educação "baseado não em normas de mercado (lucros e competição)" (HICKLING-HUDSON et al, 2012, p. Finalmente, existe um conjunto de trabalhos críticos que abordam a cooperação Sul-Sul por intermédio de lentes da integração regional (regionalismos) e da governança multiescalar. Isso inclui: privatização e descomoditização da educação e maior equidade no acesso à educação em/através da Aliança Bolivariana para os Povos da Nossa América -Acordo Comercial do Povo (ALBA-TCP) e o Mercado Comum do Sul (MERCOSUL ) (MUHR, 2010(MUHR, , 2016b); e, como expressão da aberta luta de classes na América Latina e Caribe, contestando projetos políticos de governança da educação superior no MERCOSUL (AZEVEDO, 2014;PERROTTA, 2016).…”

South–South Cooperation and the Geographies of Latin America–Caribbean Integration and Development: A Socio‐Spatial Approach

“…Second, socio‐spatially public policies are mobilised to redistribute resources from the “dynamic centres” (César ) in the MERCOSUR territorial space to historically marginalised zones, to “contribute to reducing the severe social, economic, productive and commercial asymmetries between the two sides of the border, to contain the rural exodus (of especially young people), [and to] restrain contraband and labour exploitation” (MERCOSUR ). As a key dimension of MERCSOUR South–South cooperation, transnational cross‐border cooperation and integration is strategically promoted, producing distinct scales (such as the Brazil–Venezuela “Special Border Regime”; see Muhr ) by participation of both social and political forces: schools; universities; small and medium enterprises and cooperatives; municipal, federal state and national governments; and MERCOSUR institutions.…”

“…Accordingly, state interventionist practices associated with “distributive socialism” (Harvey :224–225) include the rights‐based equity‐enhancing deprivatisation and decommoditisation of basic goods and services, including cooking gas, education (especially tertiary education and literacy campaigns), electricity, food, health, housing and drinking water (e.g. ALBA‐TCP ; Michelutti ; Muhr , , ; Petrocaribe ). Local scale instances of state‐promoted micro, small and medium family and workers‐run enterprises and cooperatives are examples of a democratisation (collectivisation/socialisation) of ownership and management, as in the “Communal Economic System” in Venezuela (Yaffe ); the Nicaraguan food security structure around the re‐activated state enterprise ENABAS ( Empresa Nicaragüense de Alimentos Básicos ); the Acajutla Water Infrastructure Project in El Salvador and the Artibonite Valley Project for the Intensification of Rice Production in Haiti (Petrocaribe :27); and the co‐management of the Latin American Agroecological Institute “Paulo Freire” ( Instituto Agroecológico Latinoamericano “Paulo Freire” , IALA) in Venezuela, by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement ( Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra , MST), and Vía Campesina (Muhr ).…”