Purpose – This text aims to shed light on the background of neoliberalism and the basic characteristics that underlie its approach to the “Entrepreneurial Self.” The neoliberal economy, and the concept of entrepreneurship which is driven by it, is defined by a range of perspectives which build its epistemology and explain its current development. It is important to make a critical deconstruction in order to offer an alternative to the neoliberal entrepreneurial self. This alternative involves a new identity. It is reconstructed as a revolutionary, empathic, and global communication technology from the “Internet of Things”, and is consistent with a worldview that makes sense of it. As a result of this review, we propose to reconceive the “Entrepreneurial Self” as a new critical reconstruction of our identity, which empathetically reconnects us with nature, as well as with the whole community of life. This stems from an ethics of care, the value of sharing, and the development of those interdependent networks which constitute our global “biophilic consciousness.” Each of these elements is far removed from the predatory culture of the neoliberal model.

This qualitative research has been undertaken with the purpose of developing an integrated system of categories based on ecopedagogy. Founded on the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, this movement moves towards complex thinking and holism. Its theoretical bases are set on principles of sustainability, biosensibility, ethics of care and global citizenship to offer an alternative project for society and the neoliberal economy. The methodological design of this research is supported by the content analysis technique. The qualitative sample includes the Ecopedagogy Charter, the narrations of eight experiences of the Earth Charter International and four from the Centre for Ecoliteracy, and documents that offer a great scope for the categorical system. Among the most important findings is that ecopedagogy's principles comprehend ecoliteracy, solidarity and a culture of sustainability; aspects arising from the ecological paradigm in education.

What kind of responsibility do universities have with regard to the current emergency created by ecological and socio-economic collapse? This work begins by considering the colonization of universities by neoliberal globalization. Education is one of the areas that appears as a fundamental source of business in the globalized economy, thus reorienting the role of the State in accordance with the New Public Managements (NPM's) educational policy. The NPM is the main instrument responsible for modifying the structure and culture of state services by means of introducing privatization and market-specific mechanisms. But, in so doing, something very important is created: a process of “re-culturing,” the establishment of the “one-track thinking.” It is “endogenous neoliberalism” that promotes the construction of a new identity: the neoliberal view of education from the “entrepreneurial self.” Next, and based on the criticism of the Frankfurt School, we question whether the use of reason—as instrumental reason—exists in neoliberal logic, and how it use is related to morals and ethics. We need alternative ideas that configure a new worldview for a new scenario, one which facilitates a deep civilizational reconstruction. The Community of Life is the fundamental certainty on which we can base a new worldview. We are one human family and, even more, one Earth Community with a common destiny. This perspective exists at an even more inclusive level, in order to integrate all living beings. We need care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love. It implies a synthesis, which places us at the doors of wisdom. The ethics of care and its educational translation as Pedagogy of Care, should have, as its main objective, the experiential learning of our reconnection with the Community of Life. Therefore, it would be necessary a truly transformative learning that we, as humanity, will need to carry out. This is where universities are called on to play a strategic role. The changes that must take place in universities have to be based on a new worldview: the Ethics of Care of the Community of Life. Finally, some practical consequences are proposed in this sense.

En este trabajo exponemos las líneas generales de un programa socioeducativo centrado en el desarrollo de la cultura emprendedora. El eje central del mismo es la promoción del comportamiento emprendedor entre los jóvenes usuarios de las Escuelas Taller y Casas de Oficios en Andalucía, con el objeto de que se desarrollen como sujetos críticos, reflexivos, informados, capaces de generar redes de apoyo, innovadores, en definitiva, con competencia suficiente para generar desarrollo local-regional en el plano económico y social; presentándose como una interesante vía de profesionalización para los educadores sociales.

The global economic crash of 2007, the “structural reforms” and “austerity” policies, together with neoliberal processes have led, in recent years, to the emergence in Spain of a number of social movements, which are demanding greater democracy. One such movement is the “Green Tides” for the State Education in Spain, which has developed a series of proposals, from critical discourses in education, in the form of practices of resistance against neoliberal logic. In this article, we analyze this initiative, in particular in connection with some of the basic dimensions of critical pedagogy. Based on a critical analysis of discourse approach, we link the Green Tides’ manifesto and beliefs to dimensions of critical pedagogy. In addition, we show how these groups have developed what Flesher Fominaya calls practices of “prefigurative politics,” which aim to find social alternatives to the mantra of cuts in social rights, austerity policies, and other neoliberalization processes.