Keyword: UPU

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 18-25 April 2007 Following the UBA-IAI-UPU agreement of May 2006, the Second Regional Meeting on “Building the Popular Urban University” and the IAI Dominican Republic Workshops were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from 18th to 26th April 2007.

The first regional conference of the UPU, “Building the Popular Urban University”, was brought off successfully. It was directed by leaders of working class communities, small business associations and local business leaders from Argentina, Peru and Brasil. Based on the evaluation carried out by the participants and by the UPU trainers, the conference’s model will be revised with the aim of launching similar conferences in other areas, at an international level.

Buenos Aires, May 2-12 2006 One of the first regional workshops (Buenos Aires, May 2-12 2006) is geared toward leaders of low income neighborhoods and micro-business associations and heads of local economic activity in Argentina and Peru. It is being organized in partnership with the Neighbors Federation (Fedevi), social researchers from the University of Buenos Aires, THE “Instituto Superior Octubre –ISO-“, the NGO “Fundación Octubre”, purpose is to develop trainers and debate political strategy, discussing and coordinating themes key to local activities, supported by the Basque Government. The course will be evaluated by the participants and two UPU trainers in the aim of revising the model in order to launch similar courses in other regions across the world.

The workshop organized at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, Caracas, on the third day of the VI World Social Forum for the International Alliance of Inhabitants, has allowed the work developed over the last two years on the Urban Popular University to be opened up to a large, varied audience. The UPU is an initiative created by the International Alliance of Inhabitants, an international network of organizations and residents that fight for the right to housing, established in the framework of the 2004 Mumbay Social Forum.

In the last decade the networking activities promoted by social movements as well as a collaborative process such as the World, Regional and Thematic Social Forum series of events (since January 2001) have drawn the attention to the need to overcome the rigid division between theory and practice (Santos, 2003) and to enable social activists to include the research, training, and action dimension of their work into a consistent strategy of refl-action.