Decoloniality, Liberatory Education, and the Right to the City: The Praxis of Technical Advisory Services by Extension Groups of the Red ULACAV in Buenos Aires and Recife

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the praxis of technical advisory services carried out by Latin American university extension groups that seek to strengthen community participation and advance the struggle for the right to the city. Within their theoretical–methodological approaches, the article identifies the articulation of contributions from decolonial critical thought, Paulo Freire’s theory of liberatory education, and the Lefebvrian concept of the right to the city. Two extension groups were selected for analysis, with which the authors engaged directly during the research process: the Taller Libre de Proyecto Social [Free Studio for Social Design] (TLPS) at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), and the Comunidade Interdisciplinar de Ação, Pesquisa e Aprendizagem [Interdisciplinary Community of Action, Research, and Learning] (CIAPA) at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). Adopting a dialectical approach, the methodological procedures included interviews with group members and participant observation of their technical advisory praxis in two communities: Rodrigo Bueno (Buenos Aires) and Vila Sul (Recife). Field reports and documents produced during the advisory processes were systematized, along with original photographic records. The findings have indicated that the extension practices, grounded in decolonial and Freirean theoretical–methodological frameworks, and in the concept of the right to the city, strengthen the social production of habitat, expand political agency and community organization, and challenge hegemonic models of urban planning. In doing so, the study demonstrates the transformative potential of territorial praxis in the Latin American context.