Abstract:

Europe has been investing considerable amounts of its GNP in the developing countries. However, in these countries the level of corruption, the maintenance of ancient groups in power and the passiveness of its citizens facing this reality has been causing discontentment among European tax payers, difficulties in the implementation of control mechanisms and low returns on “social investments”. Specialists seem to agree about the need to improve educational levels in order to foster citizens’ sense of responsibility towards the monetary resources received. Therefore, cultural change through education should accompany investments. Education can reach these citizens through the use of simple Internet tools that require relatively low investment and with marginal gains such as digital inclusion and employability. This paper presents an ongoing action research project that tries to explore this possibility involving an NGO in Spain and a community in Brazil. Some preliminary conclusions and challenges are discussed.