The network of Argentine universities for sustainability and social inclusion (UAGAIS): exploring individual experiences, shared discourses, cultural roots, and transformative processes.

This contribution illustrates the functions served by the network of Argentine universities for sustainability and social inclusion (UAGAIS, Red de Universidades Argentinas para la Gestión Ambiental y la Inclusión Social). UAGAIS was created in 2017 with the aim of sharing experiences and promoting innovative practices related to the environmental management through social inclusion. We add to these actions that networks play a prominent role in promoting locally and culturally meaningful representations of sustainability, and as rhetorical devices for positioning universities within the different contexts. Drawing upon a constructionist and cultural approach, we took UAGAIS as a case study and focused on five university members from different regions of Argentina. First, we conducted an analysis of the institutional webpages of selected UAGAIS universities. Then, a discursive analysis of five in-depth interviews was conducted with UAGAIS representatives. Both analyses looked at local and cultural specificities of sustainability in Argentine higher education institutions and networks, perceptions of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the role of UAGAIS for individuals, universities and other social actors involved. Results show how sustainability is used in institutional communication and in the interviews to frame the role of the university in the community. The network serves information and empowering functions, as the same time acting as an amplifier of the activities performed under the 'Extensión' framework. Such a culturally situated approach to sustainability is used to stress commitment of universities with the environmental and social needs of local communities by engaging with different social actors. Anchored to the culturally rooted 'Extensión' concept, the examined network serves as a place to advance the social commitment and the local understanding of sustainability, showing its role in transformative processes.