Ciberespaço e capital financeiro: O Ensino Superior a Distância e suas estratégias de uso do território no Brasil

Abstract

This work aimed to highlight, through bibliographical review and secondary data survey, the cyberspace as part of the geographic space and also its instrumentalization by large private Higher Education groups in the Brazilian territory, through the implementation of the Distance Modality of Education. The history of computers and the internet, technical objects developed in the 20th century that appear as material “sustainers” of the immaterial space of cyberspace, were addressed. The latter was debated and evidenced as a socio-technical production capable of handling the interests and contradictions of the material space within it. In the analysis of Distance Education, the historical review of processes and legal and institutional frameworks essential to understand the bases and commercialization of private Higher Education in Brazil was carried out. Also, the emergence and evolution of the Digital Education modality in the last two decades was discussed, as well as the role of cyberspace in this new phase of the educational market. Finally, the geographic aspects of Distance Education in Brazil were analyzed through the holding company Cogna, in order to empirically cover the faces of the financialization of education, the uses of cyberspace and its relationship with the Brazilian territory.