At the PUCV Central House, notebook No. 26 of the Valparaíso Higher Social Studies Forum was presented, an entity that celebrated 20 years thinking about the challenges of globalization from the port city and is made up of representatives of the four universities of the Council of Rectors of Valparaíso (CRUV).
The launch was attended by the rector of the PUCV, Nelson Vásquez, an institution that has hosted the Valparaíso Forum since its inception and which has supported the publication of the previous notebooks. The authority specified that the publication reflects strongly on the context that the city faces and how it is projected into the future.
“The Valparaíso Forum has a purpose and a projection over time, which is based on the work carried out by the four traditional universities of the city. For us as PUCV, these types of activities are very significant, with a long-term perspective and not just facing contingencies,” he added.
Vásquez valued that the Valparaíso Forum has the necessary capabilities to think about the future of the region from different perspectives. “In its documents, this prospective view, of debate, of reflective maturity is placed and reinforces the imaginary of Valparaíso in the world. “It is not a localist reflection, but rather a view placed in a global context,” he added.
The president of the Valparaíso Forum and former rector, Alfonso Muga, highlighted the alliance that exists with the CRUV that was signed in June 2010. “The notebooks have reflected themes linked to innovation and we have addressed the areas of information technologies. information and communication (ICTs) to apply it in undergraduate teaching and the field of cultural assets in Valparaíso, which has always been very important.”
In relation to the Forum, it was born as a corporation of high social and political studies whose mission was to be a true antenna where Valparaíso could position certain aspects in the world with cutting-edge knowledge in various disciplines. “One of the main capitals that the city has resides in the universities, the academic world that constitutes it and in its students who are in their training cycle,” he added.
The notebook was presented by the director of the PUCV Art Institute, Enrique Morales, who highlighted that “the text invites us to think about a temporality marked by the condition of ‘possibility’ of Valparaíso.”
The document is titled “Thinking about the future of Valparaíso” and has the contributions of five academics from the CRUV institutions, who address the following topics:
- A meditation or reflection that would allow us to offer some positive opinion about the future of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, its neighboring metropolitan area and the entire region (Virgilio Rodríguez, PUCV).
- A review of some of the major problems that afflict the city and the region today, and the opportunities to think and plan the Valparaíso of the third decade of the 21st century (Pedro Serrano, UTFSM).
- A project that would reverse the visual degradation of the city of Valparaíso caused by graffiti and scratches on walls and facades (Allan Browne, UV).
- The study of the context in which the University Museum of Engraving was born, its meaning as such and as a space in the city of Valparaíso, the city understood as a matrix and the teaching of engraving (María Teresa Devia and Alberto Madrid, UPLA).
By Juan Paulo Roldán
Strategic Communication Department
