The Unified Educational Center as a strategy for an educating and transformative city

Abstract

Recognizing the city as a complex construction and assuming that each urban context requires specific strategies for transformation, this article discusses guiding ideas for the development of new urban spaces from the perspective of the educating and transformative city. The study argues that the city of Santa Maria holds the potential to become an educational territory by articulating its local identity, in its multiple dimensions, with public spaces such as streets, squares, parks, and museums, based on the proposal of a Unified Educational Center (UEC). Adopting a qualitative and bibliographic approach, the research examines concepts related to the city of exclusion and inclusion, understanding high-quality public spaces as elements capable of redefining social interactions and strengthening urban life. In this sense, the UEC is presented as a strategic framework for fostering education and community vitality. Furthermore, the study mobilizes the concept of educational territories as a possibility for the transfiguration of urban space, advocating for the educating city as a protagonist in social transformation processes grounded in democratic and inclusive principles.