SOÑANDO CON LOS PIES EN LATIERRA: LA K3 Y EL CONCERTACIONISMO ESTUDIANTIL DURANTE LA “TRANSICIÓN PROFUNDA” EN CHILE (1998-2003)

This article addresses the process of development and action of the K3, a center-left student political platform linked to the Concertación, the governing coalition at the national level, at the Catholic University of Chile. A chronological account of the internal dynamics of the organization is presented, reconstructed from primary and secondary sources, most of them hitherto unpublished, describing its conflicts, discourses and organizational forms in detail, focusing specifically on the years between 1998 and 2003, and the five Student Federation elections in which it participates.The trajectory of the K3, in all its virtues, tensions, achievements and contradictions, reflects the forms that youth political participation takes in years of loss of social legitimacy of political parties, constituting a relevant case study for the relationship between the Concertación and civil society, as well as the generational transformations of the concerns and sensitivities of Chilean youth expressed in the university student movement.