Abstract

MUHR, Thomas. State intervention, South-South cooperation and structural transformation: the (ignored) case of Brazil-Venezuela cooperation for equity of access to university education, 2003-2016. Rev. Elet. Educ. [online]. 2019, vol.13, n.3, pp.796-812.  Epub Sep 01, 2020. ISSN 1982-7199.  https://doi.org/10.14244/198271993600.

This article re-visits Brazil-Venezuela official cooperation in the period 2003-2016, during which state interventionist policies improved social and educational justice. By drawing from an education governance approach, a pluriscalar analysis of equity of access to university education is conducted, which integrates an account of distributional justice in access to university education in Brazil and Venezuela with a structural approach related to South-South cooperation (SSC) among the two nations as well as within the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). Two interrelated arguments are developed: first, despite persistent inequities in access to university education in both territories, state-interventionist policies enhanced equity of access directly with respect to availability and accessibility. Second, the case of the Brazil/Venezuela Régimen Especial Fronterizo illustrates that SSC can transform the background conditions for educational justice by producing an alternative structure to the neoliberal global governance of education. Empirically, the discussion draws from contents and discourse analysis of 81 cooperation documents signed among Brazilian and Venezuelan state and non-state actors, complemented by municipal, national and regional development plans and commission reports, and 1 month of field research in the Régimen Especial Fronterizo in 2012. Participant observation and 13 semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with officials at different levels of the policymaking processes, academics, as well as local scale actors in distinct cooperation and integration initiatives on both sides of the Brazil/Venezuela border.

Keywords : Brazil/Venezuela international cooperation; Education governance; Education policy; Equity in higher education.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in English     · English ( pdf )