The PIRI Rural Interdisciplinary Internship Program

Critical review of an experience of linking the University and the Territory in southern Chile

Abstract

This document gives an account of a university bonding experience, with a situated
character, called the Interdisciplinary Rural Internship Program (PIRI). It refers to the
field of professional training in health, particularly in the field of community public
health and local development. In the first section, the territory in which the PIRI is
implemented and developed is described, giving an account of its socio-historical
characteristics, in a cultural key. Subsequently, the historical journey is shared, from
the origin to the main dimensions that make up the epistemic, methodological
approach and the actors involved.
In a third moment, he realizes the territorial, local and international relations that the
PIRI has established over the years, highlighting the characteristics of the territory as
a learning scenario. In the final part, the reversive role of the program is proposed and
developed, understood as a creative counterproposal, which faces university business
scenarios, to finally reflect on its decolonial and counter-hegemonic contribution, as
a space for the revitalization of collective health, with special emphasis on the Latin
American influence that defines it.