CENTER X PERIPHERY RELATIONS: THE UNIVERSITY IN DEBATE

ABSTRACT: This paper aims to approach the complexity of the center-periphery relationship within the context of the Latin American university, of the internationalization of Higher Education and of scientific knowledge. Approaching the issue is grounded on the concepts of science capital by Bourdieu; of center-periphery relationship, by Kreimer and of hegemonic rationality in Sousa Santos. The university is discussed as a space of reproduction and/or tensioning of rationality, facing new contexts, such as the internationalization / mercantilization of Higher Education and the international rankings dominated by institutions of mainstream countries. In this scenario, the knowledge/science produced in the periphery needs to restore the university as a counter-hegemonic space. Education, understood as a public good - in universities in Latin America - can be potent and strengthen counter-hegemonic policies and actions, seeking for a propositive insertion in the global reality.