Instituto Fronesis - Pedagogía, comunicación y sociedad

Creamos el Instituto Fronesis en Quito, en 1991, y organizamos este sitio web en 1999, pensando únicamente en concentrar nuestros escritos y permitir su acceso público y gratuito. A lo largo de estos años, el sitio creció y se diversificó, hasta convertirse en un verdadero portal. El área de Educación y Comunicación, a cargo de Rosa María Torres, incursionó en otros ámbitos y se extendió a través de diversas redes y comunidades virtuales. El área de Economía, a cargo de José Luis Coraggio, se desarrolló, cobró gran impulso y pasó a tener un sitio específico.

Este es un portal abierto, accesible a todo tipo de lectores, que articula diversos campos de conocimiento y de acción, así como diversos ámbitos - nacional, latinoamericano y mundial. Es un portal que recoge el espíritu de la fronesis, al plantearse como una herramienta al servicio de una amplia gama de sectores y actores, que genera y difunde información, alienta el pensamiento crítico y el debate social en torno a la información y el conocimiento, y promueve el intercambio y la fertilización de experiencias, el encuentro y la organización ciudadana a nivel nacional, regional e internacional.

Este portal aloja el Pronunciamiento Latinoamericano por una Educación para Todos, una iniciativa latinoamericana surgida en el año 2000, que se volvió proceso a través de la red virtual Comunidad E-ducativa. Aquí se aloja también un pedazo de la historia institucional del Ministerio de Educación y Culturas del Ecuador (MEC) durante la breve gestión del Movimiento de Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik (PK) en el gobierno (2003); rota la alianza política, el nuevo ministro y el partido en el gobierno eliminaron del sitio del MEC toda la información relativa a la gestión de PK.

Este sitio web ha sido útil en la búsqueda de caminos para construir otra economía a partir de la economía popular, desde la perspectiva de una economía centrada en el trabajo, asociativa, basada en valores solidarios y democráticos. En esa búsqueda ha entrado en contacto con proyectos inter-institucionales como Urbared, la Red Latinoamericana de Investigadores en Economía Social y Solidaria (RILESS) y la Maestría en Economía Social (MAES) de la Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (UNGS), en Argentina.

Dada la fragmentación y la descoordinación inter-agencial dentro de la cooperación internacional, así como la desinformación ciudadana al respecto, decidimos juntar, desplegar y dar seguimiento aquí a las principales iniciativas internacionales para la educación suscritas en los últimos treinta años por gobiernos y agencias internacionales.

Este portal, y las diversas redes y espacios ciudadanos que alimenta y de los cuales se alimenta, son un servicio público hecho de manera gratuita, en base a trabajo voluntario y sin financiamiento. Esto nos permite la autonomía de pensamiento y de acción indispensable para producir conocimiento, debatir ideas, ejercer la crítica y desarrollar alternativas al modelo neoliberal y al pensamiento único que lo sostiene.

About this Portal

We created fronesis in 1991 and organized this web site in 1999, just thinking of a place to concentrate our writings and publications and to provide free and public access to them. Over the years, the site grew and became a portal. The area of Education and Communication, in charge of Rosa-María Torres, embraced new fields and gave birty to a number of virtual networks and communities. The area of Economis, in charge of José-Luis Coraggio, grew and developed into a specific site.

This is an open portal that is accessible to any user and reader, and that articulates our fields of work and our action at binational (Argentina-Ecuador), regional and international level. The portal reflects the spirit of fronesis by attempting to serve a wide spectrum of sectors and actors, by generating and disseminating information and knowledge, by promoting critical thinking and social debate on such information and knowledge, and by encouraging the exchange and cross-fertilization of experiences, social encounter and social organization nationally, regionally and internationally.

Besides face-to-face activities on the ground, we provide a number of e-services including the moderation of several electronic networks - Comunidad E-ducativa, Ed-Community (in English), PronunArgentina, Debateducacion and Ecuador-Lee-Escribe- and other virtual spaces such as Foros de Fronesis. All portal sections are regularly fed by visitors and by members of the various networks linked to it.

This portal is a tool serving the building of another society, another economic model and another education model. Its configuration reflects many of our convictions and values:

We believe that the analysis and transformation of reality must be historic and systemic, requiring multisectoral and integral approaches. Thus, this is not a sectoral portal; it amalgamates alternative thinking on economic, social, educational and cultural issues.
We believe in the need to think and act locally, and to think and act globally, synchronizing the local, the national and the global, and in the importance acknowledging linguistic diversity and the need for multilingual communication. Thus, this is a Latin American portal but connected to the world, and at least bilingual in its presentation and in some basic texts.
We believe in starting from what exists, learning from diversity, breaking with institutional barriers, and galvanizing efforts. Thus, we deal with and encourage the participation of all actors: governmental and non-governmental, public and private, social movements and grassroots organizations, international agencies, initiatives from the South and from the North.
We belive in the value of gratitude, example and memory. Thus, we reserve here a special place to honour Latin American educators and thinkers that have left us an invaluable legacy of ideals and of struggle for a different society and a different education.
We believe in the extraordinary potential of arts and laughter as political and communicational weapons. That is why we created a special place for some of our brilliant illustrators and cartoonists.
We believe in the importance of those who dedicate to teaching, to information and to communication activities, and in the need to assist them with alternative practical tools. This is the purpose of the section "Calendar with Contents", under development, a collaborative effort aiming to help teachers, jounalists and communicators.

This portal houses the Latin American Statement for Education for All, a Latin American initiative born in 2000, which became process thanks to Comunidad Educativa, a virtual community created for its signatories. It also houses a piece of the institutional history of Ecuador's Ministry of Education and Cultures, during the short period that the Plurinational Movement Pachakutik co-governed the country (2003); after the collapse of the political alliance, all the information related to this administration was eliminated by the new Minister and the government authorities.

This site has been instrumental in the search of paths to develop an alternative Economy, from Popular Economy and from the perspective of a work-centered, associative economy based on values of solidarity and democracy. It has linkages with inter-institutional projects such as Urbared, RILESS (Red Latinoamericana de Investigadores en Economía Social y Solidaria -Network of Latin American Researchers on Social Economy) and MAES (Maestría en Economía Social -Masters Programme in Social Economy, offered by Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (UNGS) inArgentina.

Given the fragmentation and lack of co-ordination of international co-operation, as well as the lack of public information on such co-operation, we decided to gather, display and follow-up here the main international initiatives related to education signed over the past three decades by international agencies and national governments.

This portal, and the diverse networks and virtual fora that feed and are fed by it, are a public service, done for free, with voluntary work and without funding. This allows us the autonomy of thought and of action required for producing knowledge, debating ideas, exercising criticism and developing alternatives to the current neoliberal model and the dominant thinking that perpetrates it.