Chilean education is not for sale? Student mobilization and the configuration of the university public problem

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to describe and understand the process of shaping the public problem of Chilean higher education, from student mobilization in defense of public education, to the formation of an institutional policy response limited to the idea of free education (2011-2017). Through a qualitative research that combines different procedures of information production, and applying the perspective of the sociology of public problems, we propose as the most significant finding the conformation of two moments in the process, which define two differentiated arenas and problems. The moment of public manifestation (2011-2013) associated with the demand for the right to free public education, and the moment of the technical-institutional arena of free education (2014-2017). We conclude by recognizing some socio-political scopes of the process, especially for student mobilization and its public cause, based on the comparison between both moments.