The analysis and study of educational and social phenomena in relation to urban dynamics is an area of growing interest, especially if we take into account how these dynamics affect routines and living conditions in times of crisis, such as the recent health emergency.
Contemporary cities present multiple, complex and heterogeneous social and educational challenges. The economic and social opportunities that urban territories harbour in a globalised and technological world are diverse. Creative processes of different order, with important professional challenges, a concentration of talents and the interweaving of diverse cultures, mobilities and practicesare are generated there. But these territories also bring with them, in a more or less visible way, processes of violence and disruption, from the elitisation of some areas, gentrification or the creation
of pockets of poverty, the exclusion of people with disabilities, resulting in marginalisation and social and spatial imbalances. They are also scenarios par excellence of resistance, demands and social struggles.
On the other hand, educational phenomena linked to urban dynamics have been dealt with in different ways in recent decades, but for the most part, they have been concentrated in the field of scholar pedagogy, with a consequent reductionism and scarce production of knowledge about the complexities present in the relations between current urban contradictions and local cultural and educational productions (Nájera, 2008).
Under these assumptions, this subject will address the different educational and social challenges, analysing the possible synergies generated between urban dynamics and educational and social phenomena. More specifically, in the educational sphere, we will focus on the notion of urban pedagogy, its pioneering steps and founding experiences, extending its trajectory in recent decades and addressing the research dimension of the problems of educational action in urban spaces.
and the best practices that have been developed in this field, while the urban social challenges that we will address will focus on three fundamental areas, social exclusion and disability in urban spaces (Tucker et al., 2020), urban violence and resistance and social claim movements (Graham, 2010; Pavoni & Tulumello, 2020) and urban regeneration and patrimonialisation (Bandarin and Van Oers, 2014).
These issues will be addressed, on one hand, in an analytical and conceptual way, with a global approach, reviewing the international literature, and on the other hand,
with an empirical approach, addressing the concrete situations of urban territories in the cities of the Atlantic region.
