Browsing by Author "Villalobos C."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Agency, Power, and Privilege in a Mass University System.: An Analysis about the (Re) production of Political and Intellectual Elites in ChileAgencia, poder y privilegio en un sistema universitario masifi Un análisis sobre la (re) producción de las élites político-intelectuales en Chile
    (2022) Quaresma M.L.; Madrid S.; Villalobos C.
    © 2022, Universidad Austral de Chile. All rights reserved.The article analyzes how members of the Chilean elites have mobilized their experience through the university to (re)produce their position of privilege. Based on an approach that stresses the agency of the actors in the process of social (re)production, we conducted six biographical interviews with members of the political- intellectual elite, alumni of Economics, Law, and Civil Engineering at the two most prestigious Chilean universities. The results show that these universities are configurated as spaces that allow subjects to activate knowledge and networks that are key to reach their current positions of political-intellectual decisions. This activation of privilege occurs through socially expectable educational trajectories, the development of relevant social relations, the openness to the social diversity that the university space provides, and the cosmopolitan experiences promoted in these elite universities. In this fashion, this paper contributes to the study of the university elite, emphasizing the agency of the actors in the process of social (re)production.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Cultural tastes and practices of students from elite universities and careers in ChileGustos y prácticas culturales de estudiantes de carreras y universidades de élite en Chile
    (2023) Villalobos C.; Quaresma M.L.; Bonilla A.; Kuzmanic D.; Valenzuela J.P.
    © 2023 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. All rights reserved.Few empirical works have jointly addressed Bourdieu’s arguments on habitus, cultural capital, and social reproduction through education. Based on a survey applied to more than 1.200 students from universities and careers traditionally associated with the economic, political, and cultural elites in Chile, this article analyzes their cultural tastes and practices to assess the validity and applicability of Bourdieu’s theses in this context. Employing both Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Latent Class Analysis, this paper identifies seven response profiles regarding the cultural taste, consumption and practices of students attending elite universities and careers. While some profiles follow the patterns of highbrow and lowbrow culture, others reveal more heterogeneous tastes and practices, questioning both omnivores and traditional Bourdieusians perspectives. Additionally, the results show that, while social class and school of origin are not related with these cultural profiles, gender, university, and career do. This leads to reevaluate the relative importance of familiar factors and the strong socializing role of elite educational contexts for cultural tastes and practices.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Implementing Proximate Welfare Programs in Weak Institutional Contexts: Lessons From the Global South
    (Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2025) Reininger T.; Duboy Luengo M.; Munoz Arce G.; Villalobos C.; Vasquez M.; Irarrazabal F.
    © 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.This article examines the implementation of proximity programmes in the Global South, particularly through Chile's Familias programme, to investigate the challenges faced by frontline professionals in weak institutional contexts. Drawing on interviews with Integral Family Supports implementing the programme, the study reveals that relational and spatial proximity are used to mitigate institutional weaknesses, compensating for the lack of available programmes and services. Whilst these proximate relationships provide families with emotional support, containment and motivation, they also temporarily reconfigure and heal State-citizen relations by humanising and bridging the public-private divide. However, these compensatory practises enable the programme to function despite deep structural deficiencies. In doing so, they risk obscuring institutional shortcomings whilst potentially reinforcing the very inequalities the programme aims to address. The study's findings offer valuable lessons for countries from the Global North undergoing welfare retrenchment and activation transformations, highlighting the potential risks of relying on proximate programme strategies in the absence of strong institutional support.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Institutional Ethos of Less Selective Massive Private Universities in Chile: Organizational Identities in a Competitive and Marketized University System
    (2024) Quaresma M.L.; Villalobos C.; Rojas-Murphy A.; Molina-Salas F.
    © 2024 by the authors.This article aims to reflect on the institutional ethos of three Chilean, less selective massive private universities, analyzing their organizational identities, discourses, and practices and discussing how the dynamics of the competitive and marketized Chilean educational system influence this ethos. Through a qualitative design, which includes semi-structured interviews with key university staff members and direct observations in formal and informal instances, this article concludes that the ethos of these institutions is structured around four main axes: pluralism and student diversity; the pursuit of excellence as a competitive horizon; the construction of merit as a personal, family, and institutional effort; and education for employability, underpinned by professional ethics and social commitment. Furthermore, we find evidence that the logic of the university market shapes these private universities’ ethos transversally.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Lower-class Students in Elite Chilean Universities. Anguish, Sacrifice and RenunciationEstudiantes de clase baja en universidades de élite chilenas. Angustia, sacrificio y renuncia
    (2022) Villalobos C.; Quaresma M.L.; Roa-Infante J.I.
    © 2022 Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. All rights reserved.This article seeks to understand how students from the lower and lower-middle classes subjectively experience their entrance into and stay at eight elite university institutions in Chile. It employs the methodology of sociological portraits. The results show that while these youngsters regard their entrance into an elite university as a meritorious achievement, they face, in turn, strong pressures from their families, a constant anguish about being socially maladapted to the ambit of an elite university and expectations that they will wholly devote themselves to their studies, at the sacrifice of the normal leisure activities and social life of youngsters of their age.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The Role of Ideas in a Counter-Cultural Education Reform. The Case of Chilean Inclusion LawEl Rol de las Ideas en una Reforma Educativa Contracultural. La Ley de Inclusión en Chile
    (Policy Press, 2024) Corral E.; Villalobos C.; Parcerisa L.
    © The Author(s) 2024.The article explores the role of ideas and discourses that allowed the agenda-setting and enactment of the Inclusion Law in Chile in the year 2015, which can be conceived as a countercultural change in one of the most marketized educational systems worldwide. Based on the framework of discursive institutionalism, the investigation analyses sixteen interviews with key actors (ministers, academics, legislators, advisers) involved in the enactment of such policy, and the analysis of parliamentary acts and other official documents. The findings show that the debate of ideas that allowed the approval of the law included the mobilization of ideas such as the right to education and the end of the educational market, the generation of discursive strategies of persuasion about technical elements of the program and the generation of consensus on its implementation times, highlighting the importance of the processes of construction of common meanings in the implementation of complex educational laws.