Education, Science, and Technology Policies during Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution: Between Cognitive Dependency and the Struggle for the Social State

• Author: Vicente Barragán,Francesco Maniglio
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X221083000
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221083000

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 244, Vol. 49 No. 3, May 2022, 18–30

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X221083000

© 2022 Latin American Perspectives

18

Education, Science, and Technology Policies during

Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution

Between Cognitive Dependency and the Struggle

for the Social State

by

Francesco Maniglio and Vicente Barragán

Translated by

Victoria Furio

Now that the global development of economies is knowledge-based, there is increasing

pressure on peripheral and semiperipheral countries, technologically and economically

trapped by their dependency on the advanced economies. In this context, the education,

science, and technology policies of the Citizens’ Revolution in Ecuador (2007–2017) must

be considered the product of political emergencies and urgent social needs such as the need

to halt the continual increase in inequality, poverty, and institutional instability. The

knowledge economy has created a contradictory relationship between cognitive depen-

dency and social development. The Citizens’ Revolution government attempted to resist

and challenge knowledge rent, opposing appropriation and pillage by transnational com-

panies while pursuing a public system of higher education in science and technology with

increasing participation in human capital flows and access for historically excluded

groups. Whereas these policies have had an impact in terms of access, democratization, and

poverty reduction, they have had the perverse effect of reinforcing the power of the national

elites, reproducing Ecuador’s inequalities and historic injustices.

Ahora que el desarrollo global de las economías se basa en el conocimiento, aumenta la

presión sobre los países periféricos y semiperiféricos, los cuales se encuentran tecnológica

y económicamente atrapados a raíz de su dependencia de las economías avanzadas. En este

contexto, las políticas de educación, ciencia y tecnología de la Revolución Ciudadana en el

Ecuador (2007–2017) deben ser consideradas como el producto de emergencias políticas y

necesidades sociales urgentes, incluyendo la necesidad de frenar el continuo aumento de

la desigualdad, la pobreza y la inestabilidad institucional. La economía del conocimiento

ha creado una relación contradictoria entre la dependencia cognitiva y el desarrollo social.

Francesco Maniglio is a professor at the Universidad Técnica de Manabí, coordinator of the uni-

versity’s Master’s program in social science, and director of the Critical Studies for Social Justice

research group. He is professor of education, science, technology, and labor in the Doctoral pro-

gram in sociology at the Universidade de Brasilia and adjunct researcher in the trAndeS post-

graduate program in sustainable development and social inequalities in the Andean Region of the

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Lima and Freie Universität Berlin. Vicente Barragán is a profes-

sor of political science at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide and a specialist in participatory social

research methodologies. He is the coordinator of the university’s Master’s program in human

rights, interculturality, and development. His research focuses on human rights, democracy, par-

ticipation, communication, and public policy. Victoria Furio is a conference interpreter and trans-

lator located in Yonkers, NY.

1083000LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X221083000Latin American PerspectivesManiglio and Barragán/Education and Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution

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