Redes socioeducativas locales y desarrollo comunitario. Introducción

The role of the school and different agents operating in the region, in relation to education and satisfying socioeducational needs, has undergone a dynamic and interdependent transformation as a result of the numerous and rapid changes affecting both our society and knowledge itself within the Social Sciences. Educational networks are being developed at a regional level in different Catalan local authorities promoted by the Diputación of Barcelona or County Council as a truly innovative form of effective and efficient attention of citizens' socioeducational needs. This type of experiences, still to be truly consolidated, have a great theoretical and practical interest in that their aim is to overcome the limitations of classical welfare policies -disconcerted in face of the new knowledge and complexity era. The present monograph, founded on research work and the specific experience of consultancy for networks developed by our research group, reflects on the conceptual bases of working in networks, on the need to converge towards integrating and integrated socioeducational action models and forms of assessment that make it possible (paper 1). The ethical and professional implications that are derived from the new community and transdiciplinary approach are also the subject of reflection (paper 2). A review of well consolidated experiences working in networks that are promoted by the Diputación de Barcelona (paper 3), and the case of the Local Educational Network of Sant Vicenç dels Horts (paper 4) complete the current analysis of this new form of understanding educational action from a local perspective that goes beyond school. Its aim is to build processes for improvement, and above all to achieve transforming and qualitative changes for the overall population.