Construction of subjectivities through a non-formal educative experience in Contexts of Confinement: the Case of the National University of Villa María in the Penitentiary Establishment Nº 5, Province of Córdoba

Abstract

Being imprisoned generates a situation where people get isolated from the events happening in the outside world. After being released from prison, those people come back to the community with experiences that have modified their auto-perception and perception of reality itself. 

In this sense, education and communication spaces in contexts of confinement have as aim to nurture the period living in prison with socially validated knowledge, making a contribution that re-signifies the return of the subject to their particular context.

Since 2009, The Project “Communication for Inclusion” has been carried out in the Penitentiary Establishment N°5 of Villa Maria, supported by the National University of Villa María, through its University Extension. Its aim is to generate spaces of reflection and expression for the prisoners by having the freedom of speech guaranteed, and therefore turning these spaces into inclusive educative spaces.

After this experience, the critical analysis of the relationship between communication, education and prison, allowed us to adapt this project to an investigation project. Its aim is to understand the complexity of the processes of construction of prisoners’ subjectivities, through the common spaces of communication and education in the Penitentiary Establishment Nº 5 of Villa Maria.