ELLACURÍA AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A DIFFERENT UNIVERSITY: UNIVERSITY FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of a different university based on the work of Ignacio Ellacuría (1930-1989). This is a bibliographic and interpretative research that examines the author's work on this topic, the Escritos Universitarios. It is assumed that the university, or what it should be, arises from the historical reality in which it is inserted. The university is not a univocal concept, nor is there a single model, nor is it identical in its historical and geographical realities. Therefore, there is no conception of a university that is valid forever and everywhere. But not every university is “different”, in the sense given by Ellacuria, that is, counter-hegemonic. We inquire about how a “different” university is possible, what its emancipatory possibilities are, what obstacles to its establishment. It is shown that different universities articulate fundamental values, scientific knowledge and humanistic knowledge with historical reality in order to transform society, according to the criterion defined as “social projection”. It is also clear that, for Ellacuría, since the university is changeable, that is, a historical institution, it is possible to design and configure it so that it can contribute to social transformation in accordance with the needs of the impoverished majorities. It is a university with its science, its technique and its professionalization, in which all this composition takes place through a historical praxis of transforming structures, aiming at liberation, in a process in which truth and justice are identified.