Abstract:

This paper explores the outcomes of a literature review regarding the obstacles in the education field faced by the underclass in different social environments. Exploring categories such as “Underclass”, “University” or “School”, through journals specialized in public education between the 2000’s and 2018; it was established which elements determine the access to educational environments in this population.

The project “Established and marginalised. A history of internal conflicts of the inhabitants of the Jeruslaém-Naciones Unidas neighbourhood in Ciudad Bolivar” completed during 2018 in the locality of Ciudad Bolivar in Bogota; had as its objective to historically reconstruct the process of settlement, identifying the types of relationships, social cohesion and communal organization-mobilization starting with the arrival of inhabitants that may be sociologically characterized as marginalized or underclass according to the theories proposed by Elías & Scotson (1965)1.

The results of the project points out that the underclass, concept that refers to the migrant population from different regions of the country that establishes in peripheral areas of main cities, in this case, the country’s capital; are faced with adverse situations marked by the lack of economic (lack of both resources and possibilities to access formal jobs) and social security (absence of public services and state institutions in charge of social assistance); adding the inherent difficulties of living in alien cultural and sometimes, ethnic contexts. Nevertheless, the analysis points out that this dynamic is not present in the location under study, but it is an observable phenomenon in other main cities around the globe where this internal migration also occurs.

The paper will focus in one of the complex situations faced by the population under study: education and the obstacles to access it as a marginalized or underclass; aiming to address the phenomenon from a literature review to show the different ways in which these obstacles are present and the challenges in solving them.

References:
[1] Elías, N & Scotson, J. (1965). Establecidos y marginados: una investigación sociológica sobre problemas comunitarios. Fondo de Cultura Económica: México.

Keywords:

Underclass, adverse situations, ethnic contexts.