The evolution of the public university system in Argentina through expansive waves: Differentiation in the formation of labor force and capital accumulation (1971-2015)

Authors

  • Mariana Mendonca Universidad de Buenos Aires
  • Nicolás Sebastián Pérez Trento Universidad Nacional de Quilmes

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.4914

Keywords:

Argentine University, Differentiation, Labor force, Capital acumulation

Abstract

Over the last five decades, the university system underwent three attempts at reform aimed at improving its performance and transforming some of its characteristics. However, although these processes resulted in a quantitative expansion of the number of institutions, they did not achieve overall qualitative changes. In this paper, we aim to analyze the content of these processes in relation to the specific character of capital accumulation in Argentina. Our hypothesis is that, on the one hand, the process of capital accumulation requires that only a small fraction of workers expand their productive attributes to a range that corresponds to the completion of a university degree, while it is enough for another major fraction to make a partial advance in their careers. And, on the other hand, the consolidation of a large mass of surplus population in recent decades resulted in capital no longer requiring the same range of development of productive attributes from the generality of individuals who completed the secondary education, which was expressed in the degradation of part of that cycle. This process, however, has advanced to such an extent that the training of workers with non-degraded productive attributes does not cover the existing demand for them. Therefore, the university system also began to play the role of allowing a fraction of this population to reach or surpass this development.

 

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Author Biographies

Mariana Mendonca, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Magíster y Doctora en Ciencias Sociales (Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento). Licenciada y Profesora de Sociología (Universidad de Buenos Aires). Becaria Postdoctoral (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas). Docente en la carrera de Sociología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Nicolás Sebastián Pérez Trento, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes

Magíster y Doctor en Ciencias Sociales (Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento). Licenciado en Sociología (Universidad de Buenos Aires). Becario postdoctoral (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas). Docente de la Licenciatura en Sociología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

 

Published

2020-03-30

How to Cite

Mendonca, M., & Pérez Trento, N. S. (2020). The evolution of the public university system in Argentina through expansive waves: Differentiation in the formation of labor force and capital accumulation (1971-2015). Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28, 49. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.4914

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Section

Articles