Territory and distance higher education: from global impulses to the metropolises and nooks of Brazil

• Grant number: 24/14775-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Maria Bernardes da Silva
• Grantee: Henrique Caetano Vian
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The modality of distance education (EAD) has grown dramatically in recent years, creating a new geographical situation for higher education in Brazil. In the context of globalization, the global push for the digitalization of education has impacted Brazilian socio-spatial development, aligning with internal hegemonic interests. The development of a favorable state of technology and policy for distance education services has facilitated its spread across multiple spaces. Today, education through digital platforms competes with conventional education systems in large metropolitan areas and even reaches the "nooks of Brazil," places previously unconnected to the possibility of pursuing undergraduate courses at traditional institutions. However, behind the discourse of democratizing access to higher education through EAD lies the mercantile predominance of this modality, primarily based on the economic and territorial expansion of a private educational sector that tends to promote a type of educational consumerism, draining resources from different places and regions. Despite its less expensive, more flexible, and streamlined nature, it is necessary to question the intentions and implications of the private dominance of EAD offerings, especially concerning its alignment with essentially neoliberal principles. Operationally, our research will be based on an explanatory quantitative-qualitative methodological approach, structured into three action axes, enabling us to navigate between the "knowledge of the world" and the "knowledge of places": I) bibliographic and documentary research; II) collection of secondary data, such as the distance education hubs of the main private and public institutions offering this modality in Brazil, and the creation of maps; III) fieldwork in different Brazilian cities and the collection of primary data through interviews with agents associated with the phenomenon of distance higher education in Brazil.