Higher education and social mobility: a proposal for a socio-spatial analysis

Abstract

The present article aims to show a proposal for the study of social mobility processes associated with higher education institutions (HEIs) from a socio-territorial perspective. The proposal is part of the spatial shift in social sciences that considers that space is not a neutral variable, but rather an element in which the political, social, and economic aspects of a society are manifested. First we present a description of the socio-territorial approaches to the study of educational phenomena. Then, we define the dimensions of analysis of social mobility and describe the relationships between higher education and spatial mobility. Later, we offer a theoretical-methodological proposal for the study of social mobility from the socio-territorial perspective. Finally, we show an example of the application of this proposal based on a case. Socio-territorial approaches are an invitation to analyze educational and social phenomena from different levels of approach and take space as a central element.