Socio-spatial inequality and local educational action in the construction of caring cities

I am pleased to make available a new publication commissioned by the International Association of Educating Cities,entitled Socio-spatial inequality and local educational action in the construction of caring cities, for the upcoming United Cities and Local Governments' and KNOW programme's GOLD VI report.

The increase in social inequality and the new forms of exclusion and expulsion in cities are increasingly forcing public care policies to be based on the ethics of care. The forms of social isolation and poverty and the attention to the multiple needs of the reproduction of life call for a policy based on a paradigm that prioritises welfare and sustainability. Local governments play a key role in this field, due to their strategic position of proximity and knowledge of community needs. In this challenge, citizenship education is a cornerstone of the development of a strategy that fosters care and prevents social isolation while educating future generations in new values and priorities in order to guarantee social equity. This report identifies five challenges for local political action which use education to respond to the needs derived from the inequality and social fragmentation that characterise 21st-century cities. It concludes with a set of recommendations arising from the reflections made for each of the five challenges.This Working Paper has been produced in the framework of United Cities and Local Governments' 2022 GOLD VI report on Pathways to urban and territorial equality, developed in partnership with the KNOW project (DPU-UCL).

The full reference for the report is as follows:

Bonal, Xavier, Yayo Herrero, Marina Canals, Mª Ángeles Cabeza, and Aina Masgoret. ‘Socio-spatial inequality and local educational action in the construction of caring cities’. GOLD VI Working Paper Series #03 (November 2021). Barcelona: United Cities and Local Governments.

For you convenience a copy is attached to this posting.