La educación geográfica ante el enfoque ecosocial: el interés didáctico de los espacios naturales periurbanos

This contribution explores, within the framework of periurban natural spaces understood as multifunctional areas of notorious didactic interest, the transcendence of the theoretical-conceptual relations between geography and environmental education and their advance towards ecosocial approaches. The educational function of these spaces is discussed, considering their complex territorial relations, the diversity of contents they contain and the close connections they facilitate between urban societies and their recreational uses, potentially linked to educational processes of an environmental and ecosocial nature. The work is divided into two parts, one theoretical and the other applied in Castilla-La Mancha, with the La Atalaya Forest Park in Ciudad Real as an example, which are approached using a dominant expository bibliographic method complemented by documentary research in local sources and field work. The results show that geographic education favours a mutual reinforcement with environmental education and a challenge for the introduction of ecosocial approaches, which find in periurban natural spaces a bridge from which to address spatial, environmental and social relations in the local environment, which are still not sufficiently addressed.