A tour of CLACSO's Platforms for Social Dialogue

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Transcript of Karina Batthyány's column
in InfoCLACSO – December 20, 2023

At CLACSO, we are watching closely what is happening today in Argentina, in the streets, the mobilizations, especially with a certain degree of vigilance and alert regarding the decisions being made by the current government of Javier Milei.

We were talking with the CLACSO Member Centers of Argentina, directors, researchers, and other researchers, analyzing and raising the challenges ahead and how we can, from our institution, articulate alternatives and think of proposals so that there are no setbacks in this current situation in the country.

Overview and review of all CLACSO Platforms for Social Dialogue (PDS)

The Platform for Social Dialogue on Rights, Violence, and Gender Equality is a central issue for Latin America and the Caribbean and for each of our countries, because it centralizes topics related to gender inequalities and, particularly, gender-based violence. This remains a key issue on our region's agenda, as it has one of the highest rates of violence against women and gender minorities in the world.

Furthermore, we also address another critical issue for gender equality: the matter of care work. In this unequal distribution of unpaid and care work between men and women, women in Latin America and the Caribbean perform, on average, twice as much care work as men. This issue also connects to other dimensions such as wage inequality, inequality in political, social, and cultural participation, and other forms of gender inequality.

Regarding the environment, climate change, and social development , both the environment and climate change are central issues for the region at this time. It is a challenge for the social sciences to address the social dimensions of these transformations at the climate and environmental levels, because it calls into question the viability of the activities we, as individuals and future generations, undertake in pursuit of development and social well-being.

Furthermore, we cannot forget that climate change is a global problem, but one that is particularly critical and dramatic in Latin America. Central America and the Caribbean are prime examples, where these climatic and environmental transformations are currently having very concrete consequences for the population's living conditions. We have been working to deepen our understanding of concepts such as just transitions, incorporating the criteria of environmental and social justice analyzed from a Latin American and Caribbean perspective, so that the region is not once again relegated to the place it has traditionally been given as a result of colonialism.

In relation to the PDS ( Performance-Based Studies) on social movements and activism in Latin America and the Caribbean , we have a region characterized by the diversity and strength of its social movements and activism, and the ways in which they address their various themes and expressions. For example, the feminist movement has been at the forefront of many recent social transformations.

In terms of migration and human mobility , CLACSO has always understood this issue as a human right. Furthermore, we have focused our efforts in Central America on the problems faced by migrants, the violation of their rights, and the intersection of various dimensions of inequality within their migration situation.

Regarding the PDS (Platform for Sustainable Development) "Inequalities and Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean , " inequalities are a cross-cutting theme across all platforms, but we always place the issue of poverty at the center due to what is happening today in many of our countries. Specifically in Argentina, this is dramatically expressed in the increase in the population living in poverty and in the human rights violations that this entails, not only in economic terms, but also in social and cultural terms.

The trajectory of the PDS (Program for the Development of Social Sciences) , "Reconfigurations of Work in the Contemporary World ," is very important. The social sciences are under intense scrutiny regarding the need to update both empirical evidence and theoretical frameworks to understand these configurations and new realities associated with the practice of work. Work must be understood in a broad sense. It relates to the world of work from a more traditional perspective, but also to other forms of work that contribute to generating well-being at a social level. I am referring to unpaid work, community-based work, and work within social organizations. In other words, work must be understood as a broad concept, encompassing its various forms of expression and reconfiguration in contemporary societies.

Building on the social dialogues within the PDS (Program for Social Development) on Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace , specifically the 40-50-50 cycle, we must point out that democracy has unfortunately been called into question in our region. This is an issue we believed to be firmly established: democratic systems and the democratic expression of society. Today, in various countries of the region, the rights associated with democratic systems are being challenged. Particularly in the Southern Cone, we have adopted the 40-50-50 framework, given the 40 years of democracy in Argentina and the 50 years since the civil and military coups in Uruguay and Chile, to reflect on the current challenges to democracy through the lens of historical memory.

Finally, with the PDS ( Public Policy Development Strategy) on the Right to Education, Public Policies, and Pedagogical Alternatives, our goal is to guarantee education as a public good for everyone throughout their lives and at all levels. Implementing this approach in all countries is not so simple, given those who directly attack the right to public education or those who do so through budget cuts, reducing funding for public universities in various countries of the region. Education is for everyone; it should not be a commodity. We must emphasize this idea of ​​education as a public good throughout life.

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