A New Social Contract in a Latin American Education Context is committed
to what has become known as "perspective of the South: " understanding
the South not as a geographical reference but as a vindication of the
existence of ways of knowing and of living which struggle for their
survival and for a legitimate place in a world where the respect for
difference is balanced with the right for equality. The metaphor of the
new social contract stands for the desire to envision another world,
which paradoxically cannot but spring out of the entrails of the
existing one. Could the same contract under which the colonial orders
were erected serve as a tool for decolonizing relations, knowledge, and
power? Consequently, what kind of education could effectively help
structure a new social contract? These are some of the questions Streck
addresses.