Educational Institutions as Socio-Cultural and Economic Engines: A Theoretical Proposal from Community Education in Vulnerable Urban Contexts

Abstract

This theoretical proposal recognizes in educational centers – especially those located in areas of informal urbanity, the latent power of becoming true civilizing centers: devices capable of regenerating the social fabric, improving the local economy and reconstituting the cultural memory of historically fractured communities. From a comparative perspective that dialogues with educational management models such as the Japanese and with Latin American community education practices, a framework is proposed to rethink the school not only as a space for instruction, but as a symbolic territory where identity is reactivated, links are reconstructed and solidarity microeconomies are created. From a qualitative and theoretical-propositional methodology, notions of cultural citizenship, identity, local development and educational architecture are examined, articulating them with socioeconomic realities of peripheral Ecuadorian neighborhoods. The findings suggest that the educational center, open, resignified and linked to its environment, can become the ethical, cultural and economic engine that these communities require to move towards a dignified, cohesive and sustainable life.