Global trends in local elites. Forms of institutionalization and social distinction in Brasilia and Córdoba

Abstract

This article shows the results of two investigations, one carried out at the National University of Córdoba and the other at the University of Brasilia, on the student´s schooling process from upper classes in two great importance cities of Argentina and Brazil. Analyzing and rebuilding the institutionalization of education for upper-class families in these cities, we focus on how this education constitutes an instrument of reproduction available for families belonging to social sectors that hold a large volume of capital.

Recognizing that they are cities with histories and singularities that differentiate them, we observe the existence of processes and/or trends that approximate them. The first part of the article discusses, in a comparative way, the formation process of elites in both countries and refers to the incidence of bilingual training and the internationalization of basic education in them. Subsequently, focusing on the current state of the offer for these sectors, which allows identifying both the common trends and the singularities of each city, we offer a brief historical contextualization of education in Brasilia and Córdoba. Finally, we approach using statistical data, a critical survey of the web pages and contributions from the field work of our investigations, to describe the educational offer in both cities. The field work was carried out between 2012 and 2019.

Keywords elite’s education; educative offer; bilingual schools; internationalization of education; Brazil; Argentina