The Sustainability of Education as a Key Factor for Local Development: Reflections from the Case Study of a Municipality in Baixo Alentejo

Abstract

In this paper we reflect on how an inland municipality, socioeconomically fragile, seeks to (re)invent itself by structurally investing in education. Taking into account the relation between education and development, we demonstrate that the sustainability of a territory is far more likely to succeed if there is an effective capacity for action and governance, in which it is assumed that the existing resources, in this case the educational, must be strategically managed. Based on the experience gained in the shared design of the Municipal Strategic Education Plan, and by analysing the current case study, we discuss how the involvement of municipal authorities and local actors can be decisive to mobilize the interests and synergies to promote education as a factor of socioeconomic development.