HUMAN RIGHTS IN UNIVERSITY EXTENSION: ACTIONS WITH SOCIAL INNOVATION POTENTIAL

Abstract

The article discusses the relationship between human rights, university extension and social innovation. The focus of the study on national socioeconomic and cultural contexts marked by inequality and exclusion mobilizes the problem: What are the requirements for extension actions endorsed by human rights to constitute social innovation? The goal of the investigation proposes to analyze the potential of extension actions endorsed by human rights in constituting social innovation as they promote dialogue between academic knowledge and human rights. The method, according to the qualitative approach, brings together conceptual and documentary arguments through the development of bibliographic and documentary review procedures. The results demonstrate that the extension actions proposed in the IES (Higher Education Institutions, in Portuguese) studied have great adherence to the principles of national policy and assumptions of social innovation in dialogue with human rights. Extension actions constitute social innovation as they promote dialogue between academic knowledge and human rights. In this sense the strategies of co-responsible participation with/in the community in the formulation, application and evaluation of the extension actions analyzed becomes a vital condition for university extension to produce social innovation.