Reflections on the metastasis of inequalities in Latin American educational structures

Abstract

A trend of increasing commodification in the access to basic services and real estate operations that distribute the population over different residence areas have been eroding the urban social tissue in the majority of the large Latin American cities. In spite of the seriousness of the damage that commodification causes to the tone of urban coexistence, there is a clear deficit with regard to reflections on mechanisms that connect economic inequalities with segmentation and segregation processes in services and places of residence. By discussing the macro- and micro-social mechanisms that intervene in the relation between economic and educational inequalities, the present essay contributes to reduce this deficit. To conclude, the paper suggests some priorities for a regional academic agenda that aims to improve our knowledge of that relation.