Del Asociacionismo Estudiantil Universitario y los Emprendimientos Estudiantiles a la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana-comuna

The article describes the meaning and importance of the Salesian University Associations (ASU) and the student enterprises of the Salesian Polytechnic University (UPS) from the following axes of analysis: horizontal and collaborative learning, and the cultivation of spaces of co-responsible and self-regulated student management, aspects that favor the development of student citizenship and the construction of the university-commune. The ASU groups and student entrepreneurship institute enabling environments and entail possibilities yet to be discovered and developed in the line of fostering communal logics of production, deliberation and creation of productive initiatives beyond the logic of the market. The research begins with a minimal exploration of the concept of youth associativity both from the Salesian pedagogical model and from the youth condition. The field research consists of two moments that articulate heterogeneous resources: the first explores the students' perceptions about their experience of ASU groups from a survey applied to members of different ASU groups of the UPS-Sede Quito, between April and May 2016. The second moment gathers two narratives that reflect the axes of analysis through the reflective account of the students' passage through experiences of associationism diverse in objectives and degrees of formal articulation. The first narrative refers to the ASU Utopia, which consists of the group of student journalists that produces the Utopia Magazine; and the second narrative refers to the coworkings, a self-managed student space that encourages the cultivation of ideas and student entrepreneurship.