Caderno CRH

HETEROIDENTIFICATION COMMITTEES IN A HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION: experiences, dilemmas and challenges

Beatriz Azevedo — 2025-04-25

The article seeks to understand the experiences of evaluators in the hetero-identification committees at the Federal University of ABC for vacancies reserved for black, mixed-race and indigenous people, between 2018 and 2022. The study problematizes the challenges and dilemmas faced in using heteroidentification as a complementary mechanism to the self-declaration made by candidates, reflecting on the circumstances and implications of this process. Furthermore, the article presents the operationalization of hetero-identification boards at UFABC, based on practices observed during the period of analysis. The research was carried out through interviews with five participants who worked on the committees, seeking to understand the issues involved in the application of this evaluation procedure. Finally, the investigation seeks to provide support for understanding the dynamics of hetero identification commissions (CHI) in the debate on affirmative actions, as well as for improving the procedures used in the institution.

SCIENTIFIC AND POLITICAL DISPUTES IN GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT: global and local perspectives

Jéssica Pires Cardoso — 2025-04-25

The article reflects on the role of science in addressing environmental issues and demonstrates how this knowledge has been strategically used to (i) ensure the implementation of global and local regulations and (ii) drive the appropriation of natural resources. As a resource, the text grounds the discourses shaping the governance of the Guarani Aquifer at two levels: global and local – specifically, the Ribeirão Preto region. Through a bibliographic review, document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participation in public hearings, the results highlight the prominence of the technical scientific discourse in the environmental debate, positioned within the hierarchy of rationalized knowledge that operates as a regime of truth. Furthermore, it reveals the strategic mobilization of scientific knowledge by local economic agents to circumvent global regulations and achieve the appropriation of natural resources.

SOCIAL PROTECTION AND PRECARITY IN PORTUGAL: profiles and representations

Rodrigo Vieira Assis — 2025-04-28

This article examines the social representations shared by precarious workers regarding the social security system in Portugal. It explores the hypothesis that the precaritization of work, exacerbated during the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, has reshaped the meanings attributed to social protection in employment, especially for vulnerable workers. Drawing on content analysis of 53 in-depth interviews conducted between September 2019 and December 2020 with workers from various sectors, the study identifies distinct profiles of social unprotection in contexts of labor precarity. These profiles reveal representations marked by ambiguities and contradictions, resulting in divergent evaluations of public support and differing projections about the future of social protection. The findings suggest that precarious workers in Portugal are revaluing the social function of the social security system and advocating for broader coverage to mitigate the insecurity and instability caused by labor precarity.

CHURCH, STATE AND SOCIETY IN BRAZIL: from catholic activism to the rise of NGOs

Fernando Lima Neto — 2025-04-28

This article examines the Catholic roots that shaped the development of social assistance in Brazil since colonial times and which, centuries later, culminated in the formation of the field of non governmental organizations (NGOs). After briefly outlining the macro historical context of the Church’s leading role in social welfare across the West, and particularly in Brazil, the analysis focuses on the second half of the 20th century, when historical patterns of Church-State-society underwent profound shifts. This process is framed through the notion of “religious secularization,” defined as the enduring influence of Christian values in shaping public and private social assistance institutions. During the 1950s–60s, Churchaffiliated actors and institutions increasingly aligned with leftist ideologies, paving the way for what is now termed Brazil’s Catholic left. By the 1970s and 1980s, these institutions gradually disengaged from grassroots social movements, giving rise to the NGO sector. In the 1990s, the professionalization of social assistance introduced a new paradigm, redefining professionalism as a domain ostensibly detached from both politics and religion.

THE BRAZIL-CHINA RELATIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF DEPENDENCY THEORY

Sérgio Braga — 2025-04-28

The aim of this article is to examine the relations between Brazil and China using the analytical framework of “dependency theory” developed by Brazilian and Chilean authors during the 1960s and 1970s. Our main proposition is that although these relations are not symmetrical due to existing technological and economic disparities between the countries, they are far from being characterized by domination and subordination. China does not impose politically and financially non-negotiable conditions on its trade relations with Brazil, nor does it enforce policy impositions on the Brazilian government. In our methodology, we employ a systematic analysis of evidence regarding the trade relations between the two countries in the 21st century, along with a review of secondary literature. The findings indicate that the identification of economic asymmetries alone is insufficient to determine political dependency between the two nations. We conclude the text by providing some recommendations for establishing appropriate relations between Brazil and China.

CHILDREN ARE THE INHERITANCE OF THE LORD. Politics and Religion in ABC Paulista

Maria Gilvania Valdivino Silva — 2025-04-29

The aim of this article is to contribute to the analysis of political behaviour among families of metalworkers living in the ABC Paulista region by including two essential variables: affections and religion. To this end, we present the results obtained in two studies carried out at different times, with slightly different empirical sections and methodologies that used ethnography, a survey and biographical interviews. The first research relates the possible maintenance of union militancy memories to the period of retirement and the distancing from political-militant engagement, while the second addresses the issue of the transmission and generational inheritance of political principles and values in families of metalworkers. In both cases, we are linking families, as a social domain, and politics, as an element of socialisation, to understand the constitution/maintenance of political behaviour. Religion emerged as an imposition in the field and became an intervening variable in the process of managing political behaviour, impacting the negotiation of affective elements between the families, as well as the political memories undertaken and inherited. It is also capable of generating transformations in the ways of understanding and reacting to present and past events linked to political actions and perceptions among the participants in both studies.

“ARE WE ALL BROWN”? SELFCLASSIFICATION, RACIAL HETEROCLASSIFICATION AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES IN CEARÁ

Geísa Mattos — 2025-04-29

The discussion around “pardo” (brown) as a racial category has been considered central to the improvement of affirmative action policies throughout the country (Costa and Schucman, 2022; De Jesus, 2021; Rios, 2018). In Ceará, the issue becomes even more important, as the state has the third largest self-declared “pardo” population in the country (64.7%). This article focuses on the analysis of the specificities of the social construction of “negro/pardo” in Ceará and its recent resignifications in view of the actions of heteroidentification commissions. It begins by analyzing cases made public in the Ceará press, in which the self- and heterodeclarations of racial identities of those entering through quotas were challenged. It continues with a theoretical discussion on how the issue of the “pardo” has been elaborated in Brazil and Ceará. It analyzes testimonies of sixteen undergraduate and graduate students from Ceará who self-identify as Black, who point to new problematizations and local specificities of being “pardo”. It concludes that theories about “pardo” should take seriously the importance of Afro-indigenous miscegenation in Ceará, the meaning of Whiteness in Ceará, and the emergence of vibrant Black Culture in its urban peripheries.

CREDIT IS EVERYWHERE: popular credit policies between the brazilian center-left and the mexican right

Mariana Chaise — 2025-04-30

Popular credit policies have sparked both empirical and theoretical controversies. This article compares policies simultaneously implemented in two Latin American countries by ideologically divergent governments: in Brazil, during Lula’s (PT) first term, representing the center-left, and in Mexico, under Vicente Fox’s presidency (PAN), representing the right. The objective is to analyze the actors involved in the formulation and implementation of these policies, as well as the designs adopted. We argue that the specific actors involved influence the policy’s design and that each actor’s participation is enabled by the incumbent government. The research employs a qualitative methodology, involving in-depth interviews with “elite informants.” In Brazil, the interviews covered (i) bureaucrats, (ii) union leaders, and (iii) bankers. In Mexico, union leaders were excluded, as they did not participate in the debates on popular credit policies. Although Brazil and Mexico implemented similar policies, their designs, actors, and proponents’ motivations varied, leading to distinct outcomes. This disparity can be attributed to the involvement of unions in the Brazilian process and international organizations in the Mexican case.

THE DEBATE BETWEEN WANDERLEY GUILHERME DOS SANTOS AND BOLÍVAR LAMOUNIER IN BRAZILIAN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE 1970S: oppositions, convergences and complementarities

Marco Antonio Perruso — 2025-04-30

Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos and Bolívar Lamounier marked Brazilian political and social thought, investigating it since the late 1960s. In two classic works analized and properly contextualized here, Santos (1978) and Lamounier (1974) proposed different interpretations about Brazil and our thought. Lamounier emphasizes the intellectual consistency around state performance, denouncing the prominence of Nation-State to the detriment of Brazilian liberalism – a process that came to guide him intellectually. Santos designs an intellectuality capable of strategically formulating the overcoming of the country’s historical backwardness based on the understanding of the national particularity. It explains and justifies, thus, our state-national political tradition while reflecting it socially. The known differences in their analytical propositions are revisited considering the hypothesis of complementarity between them.

THE MANDATE IS ON: the social media of councilors from Minas Gerais

Daniela Paiva de Almeida Pacheco — 2025-07-08

The article is part of studies on political communication and local legislatures. The objective is to identify and analyze the role that communication, particularly through social media, plays in councilors’ offices. Data collection was conducted in person in three cities in Minas Gerais — Barbacena, Belo Horizonte, and Juiz de Fora. In total, 70 councilors’ offices were interviewed through a semi-structured questionnaire administered by researchers. In 90% of the cases, there was at least one communication advisor with a background in the field or in related areas, reinforcing the thesis of the relevance of communication in this area. Regarding the use of social media by the advisors responsible for its management, there is an almost total adherence by the offices to this digital tool, using it to publicize mandate actions, receive citizen requests, and expand supporters, signaling a mandate that also exists in the virtual environment. The data also reveal a concern with building and maintaining the public image of the councilor, demonstrated by the use of social media profiles and the monitoring of digital media from other actors, also aiming to minimize the effects of potential fake news and similar initiatives, aligning with studies on permanent campaigning.

MODERN EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF KNOWLEDGE: towards the decolonization of Critical Theory

Enrico Bueno — 2025-07-08

The article proposes an interlocution in support of the project of decolonizing Critical Theory. Specifically, it addresses the role of science within the social division of labor – considering its international dimension and the coloniality of knowledge – which intertwines with the epistemological and theoretical aspects of scientific production. To this end, it starts with Max Horkheimer’s formulation of Critical Theory and engages with discussions by Aníbal Quijano, Fernanda Beigel, Syed Farid Alatas and Raewyn Connell on knowledge production in the global periphery. Additionally, the text examines certain obstacles to this project by comparing key premises in the field with the ideas of Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Walter Mignolo. Finally, it reviews the existing challenges to necessary advancements.

TRANSITIONS TO AUTHORITARIANISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY? LIMINAL DEMOCRACIES

Alejandro Grimson — 2025-07-09

In an American and European context of governments with strong authoritarian elements, this article revisits the question of the classification of political regimes and the shifts between authoritarianism
and democracy, proposing a dialogue between classic conceptualizations of studies on the transition to democracy and anthropological theories about situations of liminality. Liminality in anthropology refers
to the specific moment in which a being is neither A nor B, but is in a process where it has ceased to
be A but has not yet become B. With the expansion of “transitional” or undefined political regimes, the
notion of liminality is a relevant complement to the concept of hybrid regimes. Furthermore, from the
outset, there is a counterpoint between the notions of transition and liminality to consider the nuances of
regime change. This article’s concern is specifically with the phase called “transition,” its similarities and
clarifications with the concept of “liminality.” It will also seek to show that this phase tends to stabilize
and lacks a predetermined direction. It is probably worth not only revising our classifications, but also
clarifying how democratic efforts are oriented in contexts of liminal democracies.
Keywords: Democracy. Transition. Social theory. Authoritarianism. Liminality.

WALTER BENJAMIN’S MESSIANIC MATERIALISM

Alessandro Gomes Enoque — 2025-07-09

This work aimed to establish a look at the concept of historical materialism in the light of the Benjaminian approach present in the “Theses on the concept of history”. Starting from a certain “archaeology” of the concept of historical materialism in Marx’s early writings to its most classic expression in the 1859 preface to the “Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” and through a careful reading of the “Theses”, we can see that Benjamin brings together elements of Jewish messianism, such as the concepts of remembrance and redemption, to establish a conception of theology as the “spark” that lights the revolutionary fire. It would be up to the oppressed, therefore, and not to a Messiah sent by heaven, to interrupt the destructive march of progress, to restore a classless society and, why not say, a messianic kingdom on the earthly plane.

THE CIRCULATION OF AFFECTS AT THE INTERFACE BETWEEN SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND EMOTIONS

Lucas Faial Soneghet — 2025-07-11

This article presents an epistemological and theoretical-methodological framework at the interface between Sociology of Health and Sociology of Emotions. I present an argument for the place of the affective dimension in health and illnesses processes and, concomitantly, a theoretical methodological proposal for the study of affects and emotions in this particular area of social research. I argued that the study of affect is relevant to problems characteristic of health research, namely, the impact of social markers such as class, gender, race on the health and illness, the particularities of interactions between healthcare professionals, patients, and their loved ones, and the relationship between emotion and healthcare work. Finally, I conclude that Sociology of Health can be renewed and enriched in its theoretical-methodological frameworks by a continued dialogue with the social theories of affects and emotions.

ONLINE ENGAGEMENT AND YOUTH VOTER TURNOUT: the case for the 2022 elections

Daniel Rocha — 2025-07-14

In this article, we examine whether online political engagement is related to higher voter turnout among young people. The life-cycle thesis holds that young people show lower engagement in voter turnout compared to adults due to their lower experience and resources. From the analysis of data from the 2022 Brazilian Electoral Study (ESEB), we question this belief, arguing that online engagement, within the youth context, reduces participation costs and contributes to increased offline political activity, including citizen-driven actions. Using regression tests, we analyze two hypotheses: the first is that youth vote more when they are politically engaged online, and the second is that online engagement decreases differences in electoral participation between youth and adults. The results confirm that online engagement plays a compensatory and leveling role in the electoral participation of young people compared to older people.

INDUSTRIAL LEADERS AND THE STATE FROM THE SECOND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IIPND) TO THE “ANTI-STATIZATION CAMPAIGN”

Rafael Moraes — 2025-07-14

The paper deals with the relationship between the state and the industrial business community based on the theoretical framework of Poulantzas. It aims to analyze the social bases of the II PND and its political movement between 1975 and 1979. Speeches, opinion papers, and interviews with business leaders and representative organizations were analyzed. The analysis looked for references to economic policies, decrees, and government actions. It was found that external and internal transformations in capitalism and changes in economic policy repositioned classes and class fractions, making it difficult for the state to manage contradictions and build consensus. Finally, it emerged that the regime’s crisis of legitimacy in that context was neither homogeneous nor continuous for the classes and fractions in dispute.

HISTORY OF POLITICAL-MANAGERIAL TRAINING AT FIOCRUZ (1970-2003)

Tiago Siqueira Reis — 2025-05-28

This paper deals with the political and institutional trajectory of Fiocruz, based on a discussion of its management model, between 1970 and 2003. We discuss the organization and politics of the institution, aiming to identify the conflicts between the public and private ideals related to the foundation, exploring the itineraries that culminated in the construction of a flexible institutional project. The period from 1970 to 2003 was defined as a time frame, which comprises two distinct moments in the history of Fiocruz: a first sub-period from 1970 to 1988, in which it is responsible for Private Law; and from 1988, the year of the promulgation of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, until 2003, when it became part of the Public Law regime, defined its management model and established the official statute in force to this day.

INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVISTS AND PUBLIC POLICY ENTREPRENEURS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF THE TRADITIONAL FOODS COMMISSION OF THE PEOPLES IN AMAZONAS – CATRAPOA

Cristiane Lima — 2025-05-28

Based on the dialogue between the literature of institutional activism and policy entrepreneurs, this paper analyzes the interaction of governmental and non-governmental actors in the construction and performance of CATRAPOA. Different from the interpretation that reinforces the idea of individual actors with heroic characteristics, we emphasize the collective performance of CATRAPOA. Derived from non-participant observation and 14 semi-structured interviews, the results confirm that: i) in the construction/defense of public policies, the actors act in networks formed by institutional activists and policy entrepreneurs sited internal and external to the State; ii) the sum of protagonisms (agency), opportunities and constraints (structure) influence on the configuration of the network; iii) although intrinsic to the configuration, networking is a tactic mobilized for collective action to pursue its causes. In addition, the reflections point out that the literature of institutional activism and of policy entrepreneurs focus on the same object and present several analytical confluences.

CRITICAL THEORIZATION, ESCREVIVÊNCIA AND RESISTANT EPISTEMOLOGY

Adelia Miglievich-Ribeiro — 2025-05-29

This article aims to engage in debates on contemporary social theories, particularly critical theories, emphasizing theoretical decentralization and the inclusion of subaltern voices. It adopts postcolonial critique and intersectionality to propose, following Collins (2022), a dialogical engagement capable of formulating a resistant knowledge project while critically addressing the challenges of different theoretical traditions. In this process, it highlights experience and testimonial authority as legitimate epistemic producers. To support this argument, the article draws on escrevivências (Evaristo, 2005) by Black women authors who, far from abandoning self reflexivity, generate counter-discourses that reshape the world through other epistemic subjects, unveiling and destabilizing the difference/subalternity structure that underpins hegemonic modernity. These discourses combine various heuristic resources that resist epistemicide, provoke new subjectivation processes, expand interpretive communities within academia, and offer new possibilities for critical thought.

CONTENT ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL DISINFORMATION SPREAD BY JAIR BOLSONARO ON TWITTER/X

Bruna Bastos — 2025-05-29

Online disinformation has been a widespread phenomenon that has changed how people interact online and how politics is done in many countries, such as the United States and Brazil. Among the consequences, online disinformation can distort reality and influence how citizens see their political leader, creating identification and cultural meaning. Recently, far-right populist presidents have turned to social media platforms to engage in disinformation campaigns as a strategy to control the political narrative and gain power among their followers. Since Jair Messias Bolsonaro, former President of Brazil, had adopted Twitter/X as his main platform to communicate with the public, this study sought to analyze the content of his tweets to understand whether Bolsonaro promoted disinformation during the 2022 Brazilian general elections. We analyzed 245 tweets posted in August 2022 and 275 tweets posted in October 2022 and found that there was an increase on tweets sharing disinformation, from 50 (20%) to 113 (41.24%), including discrediting professional media and arousing hate. This study helps understand how social media has been used to boost multiple types of disinformation, and the speech strategies employed by Bolsonaro during his reelection campaign, verifying how disinformation was organized and shared on Twitter.

SENSES AND SINGULARITIES OF THE NEW ACTION COLLECTIVES

Luiz Inácio Gaiger — 2025-05-30

The article examines recent forms of activism whose collective designation has been employed by academic studies, giving rise to a new research field. Based on bibliographic reviews, document analysis and fieldwork in several countries, the article summarizes the emergency process of these initiatives and proposes a conceptual delimitation that differentiates them from social movements. Next, it deals with some innovative traits of the collectives, with emphasis on overcoming common cleavages in previous social movements, such as those between material and immaterial demands, individuality and collectivity, private life and public commitment, among others. The article concludes that collectives constitute an innovative response to the current scenario of capitalism, configuring a new pattern of activism and social mobilization.

THE POLITICAL EXPRESSION OF YOUNG FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN BRAZIL

Rosangela Schulz — 2025-07-15

This article aims to contribute to debates on feminism in Brazil by discussing forms of political expression of young feminist activism that have incorporated intersectional theories and practices. After the introduction, the text presents an overview of the paths taken in the construction of feminisms in the country, highlighting internal and external tensions experienced in different political situations. It then addresses the resignification of feminist knowledge and practices, with a special focus on the intersectional debate woven by young black and lesbian feminists. In the last section, it proposes thinking about how previous debates are effective in new practices of resistance that cross multiple cleavages and point to the intersection of struggles. Finally, it concludes with some considerations.

TECH-WORKERS AND THE DIGITAL WORK CULTURE

Jacob Carlos Lima — 2025-07-15

The aim of this article is to discuss the existence of a digital work culture, with the technological transformations of the last few decades and which has computerization and the internet as its reference. Individualization and entrepreneurship have become ways of improving life and the company has emerged as a model for personal life. We argue that the so-called digital work culture derives not only from the characteristics of the tools and utilities used in the work process, but from the work culture of the new capitalism marked by the flexibility present in its relations, which predates digitalization. We present the results of research carried out before and during the pandemic period, with digital workers linked to the software development process, with face-to-face and online interviews and different employment contracts.

TRADE UNION FUNDING UNDER DEBATE IN LIGHT OF SOME INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES

Ariella Silva Araujo — 2025-07-16

Since the 2017 labor reform, Brazilian trade unions have been facing increasing funding difficulties. To cope with this scenario, union leaders, politicians and intellectuals have been discussing and drawing up alternative funding proposals to the union tax. This article aims to present some international funding experiences in order to provide qualified information for the debate on forms of funding trade unions. Its object of analysis is the experience of the following countries: Japan, United States, Germany, Spain, and Argentina. The article is divided into three sections. In the first, we briefly discuss the form of organization in force in the countries analyzed. In the second, we present the cases of countries that depend only on the funding of their members and on the funds they receive for provision of services (which are provided even to non-members), as occurs in Japan, the United States, and Germany. In the third, we discuss the case of Spain and Argentina, countries that, besides union dues, can count on public subsidies or that receive compensations for the management of public funds. It’s not a question of assuming that any of these models can be automatically adopted by Brazil, but of learning about other experiences and reflecting on the different possibilities that exist.

THE PORT EXPANSION OF SÃO LUÍS ISLAND - MARANHÃO

Jadeylson Ferreira Moreira — 2025-07-17

The article polemizes the port expansion and the transformations resulting from this enterprise in the capital of Maranhão. The analysis highlights the external character of the commodity business in the export dynamics and the conflicting interdependence with the city. To this end, we carried out a literature review with authors who dealt with the issue on screen. We have obtained documents of technical origin about the Port Complex and we have local observations and contacts with leaders of neighborhoods affected by the expansion process of the Port Complex, in order to describe the contradictions of the port complex.

BRAZILIAN-STYLE WALMARTIZATION: The “Everyday Low Cost” Regime in Supermarkets

Patrícia Rocha Lemos — 2025-07-17

At the beginning of the century, the retail giant Walmart was regarded by scholars as a symbol of new power relations in capitalism, which were driving a “race to the bottom” in the deterioration of labor conditions on a global scale. This article discusses the policies implemented in Walmart’s Brazilian supermarket stores in light of the company’s corporate ideology, the technologies employed, and the management practices developed in the United States, the company’s country of origin. Based on field research, the study shows that, despite local resistance and adaptations, the combination of new and old mechanisms of labor control has significantly contributed to the reinforcement of labor flexibilization and precarization processes in Brazilian supermarkets.

NEOLIBERALISM AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN BRAZIL’S NEW REPUBLIC

Daniel Andrade — 2025-07-18

The article examines the historical relationship between neoliberalism and social democracy in Brazil’s New Republic through the theoretical lens of hybrid governmentalities. It first explores the emergence of the social-democratic logic during redemocratization, highlighting its legal and institutional framework, dispositifs of representative and participatory democracy, and social policies. It then analyzes how this political rationality clashed with and mixed with three waves of neoliberalization. The first wave involved integration into global financial and trade markets and a managerial reform of the state, reversing constitutional priorities and subjecting democracy to market discipline. The second wave saw neoliberalism targeting the “new middle class” as an object of knowledge and power, disseminating the economization of politics and social with a progressive bias. The third wave introduced new marketinsulating reforms, with attacks on democracy and the dismantling of social policies. Over this trajectory, as neoliberal strategies shifted, the process evolved from de-democratization to an anti-democratic offensive, culminating in the crisis of the New Republic.

AGRARIAN POLICY OF BRAZILIAN DEMOCRATIC RECONSTRUCTION

Marcos Paulo Campos — 2025-07-18

This paper assays the recent reconfigurations of public policy for the countryside during the Lula III administration, considering the current political situation and its immediate antecedents, that is the dismantling of government action for agrarian development under the administration of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro. The methodology uses collecting information from party and government documents, as well as a hemerographic method. The article shows that public policy for the countryside faces the difficulties inherent to democratic defenses and participates in the debates that the institutional and political remake itself has experienced. The suggestions point out that state capacities for agrarian development are being rebuilt, public investment for family farming is back on the public agenda and the dialogue with rural social movements is now the place of hostile rhetoric. From the point of view of agrarian policy, democratic defense is underway and is carried out with the replace of the meaning already contracted to public policy for the countryside under Workers’ Party governments.

TRANSFORMATIONS OF WORK: a political perspective to understand the new forms of labor subjectivation

Patricia Alejandra Collado — 2025-09-03

In this essay, our interest is to demonstrate the political efficacy of the ways of using and consuming the labor force today, promoting a ‘docilized’ political subjectivation. To do this, we place ourselves within the framework of ‘biocognitive capitalism’ in order to understand the transformations underway. With this objective, we reflect on three forms of use, management, and consumption of the labor force that, for us, function as disciplining devices of ‘politics’: the ‘entrepreneur of oneself’, the resignification of language in immaterial work, and the loss of social places of refuge. Among the consequences of the evacuation or obstruction of politics in work, the increase in health-mental health problems and the extension of discomfort stand out1.

WHEN HOUSING POLICY MEETS DRUG TRAFFICKING: a case study on the expansion of illegal markets and forms of resistance in life under siege

David Maciel de Mello Neto — 2025-09-05

Through direct observation, interviews, and documents, a case study is presented on the complex intersection between housing policy, urban development, territorial control by armed groups, and how residents navigate these challenges. The first part addresses urbanization and the development of municipal housing policy in Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ. The second part discusses the formation of the local drug market, the rivalries between gangs, how they territorialized, and their effects on the city. The third part exemplifies, through the trajectory of a resident, the strategies developed to cope with the intersection of housing policy and territorial control by armed groups. The final part reflects comparatively on the case of Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s 70s to show how housing policy, drug trafficking, and residents’ resistance strategies intertwine to structure a mode of “life under siege” and stimulate the expansion of illegal markets.

THE UNCERTAIN PATHS OF THE BOND

Gabriel Gatti — 2025-09-03

This text aims to propose some ways to respond to a demand, that of rethinking the notion of social bond. The demand is the result of a widespread debate in the field of social sciences, especially those dedicated to the study of kinship, which questions the validity of the theoretical tools inherited to think about social bonds. This demand is specially meaningful when we encounter empirical situations of what we call “social disappearance”, that is, the systematic production of fractured lives, of existences in which what gave consistency and meaning to life, including bonds, is broken. Moving away from apocalyptic arguments, which predict the hopeless collapse of life, and also from other more naive ones, confident in its recovery, we propose to understand social bonds in situations in which they seem to be denied, thinking it in the field of an action that is articulated through three verbs: to relate, to seek, to substantiate. We close the text by wagering that this movement must be accompanied by a rethinking of our ways of doing social sciences.

FEMINISM AND GENDER IN THE BRAZILIAN POLITICAL CRISIS: an analysis of AMB and MMM

Santiane Arias — 2025-09-04

This article seeks to shed light on the actions of the Brazilian feminist movement between 2015 and 2022, a period of rearticulation of political forces and the rise of bolsonarism. The objectives are: i) to identify how the notion of gender was mobilised in the political crisis; ii) to understand the current challenges facing feminism. It starts with the political notes launched by two feminist networks, the World March of Women and the Articulation of Brazilian Women. The thematic analysis of these documents was combined with studies on the political process of the period. It is argued that despite the opportunism surrounding the gender issue in the electoral arena, its importance cannot be reduced to party rhetoric. The feminist movement is denouncing a neoliberal offensive, and studying its position helps to uncover an essential link between neoliberalism and neoconservatism. The analytical section proposed here has made it possible to observe: i. the withdrawal of feminist organisations from participatory arrangements – a rupture in the relationship between the movement and the state, which had been maintained in the configuration of women’s rights since re-democratisation; ii) a more defensive feminist agenda.

ESSAY ON DISABILITY, MIGRATION, AND SOCIAL PROTECTION IN BRAZIL

Francine Souza Dias — 2025-07-21

The essay discusses the relationship between migration regulation and social assistance, with regard to international migrants with disabilities. We rely on national and international normative documents that mention immigration and disability, investigating the meanings of social protection that emerge from them. We emphasize the eugenic and ableist character of Brazilian long-term regulations, an aspect that combines with current challenges, such as: little repercussion of humanitarian guidelines on Brazilian migration management; informational and political invisibility of this population; and structural limitations of the social assistance policy, whose work with immigrants with disabilities still demands greater reflections and mobilization of justice mechanisms for effectiveness, expansion and universalization.

CHANTAL MOUFFE BETWEEN THEORY AND STRATEGY: from democratic normativity to left-wing populism as a political intervention

André da Silva — 2025-09-04

This article proposes an unconventional reading of Chantal Mouffe’s work, jointly addressing two dimensions that are often treated in isolation by commentators: her normative diagnoses and her strategic responses to the so-called “crisis of liberal democracies.” The first, theoretical in nature, problematizes deliberative theories and exposes what we call “normative centrism.” The second, focused on political intervention, critiques “political centrism,” characterized by the hegemony of the “third way” and the absence of alternative projects capable of radicalizing the ethical-political principles of democracy. Unlike the predominant trend in the secondary literature, which emphasizes one or the other aspect of Mouffe’s work, this study demonstrates how, in her conjunctural analyses, the author mobilizes the fundamental concepts of her theory—antagonism, power, and social pluralism—to present concrete alternatives for political mobilization. By articulating these two dimensions, we highlight the theoretical coherence underlying her thought and explore possible ways to update her diagnosis in light of the contemporary context.

LUTAS POR RECONHECIMENTO, GOVERNANÇA E DISPUTAS PELA ORGANIZAÇÃO DOS TERRITÓRIOS NA AMÉRICA LATINA

Juanita Cuellar Benavides — 2025-08-29

THE PROCEDE IN THE SOCIOTERRITORIAL REORGANIZATION OF TIXMADEJE, MEXICO

Juana Lara Mondragón — 2025-09-01

The article analyzes the role of the Program of Certification of Rights to Ejido Lands and Titling of Urban Lots (PROCEDE) in the social and territorial reorganization in Tixmadejé, Mexico, between 2005 and 2018. With PROCEDE, a new stage began for the Mexican agricultural sector, since It gave property rights to farmers and encouraged private investment to encourage the agriculture of crops for export. The research was carried out from agrarian history, through oral sources, the experience of local actors was obtained to know the way in which they appropriated and negotiated the inclusion of this program in the locality depending on the type of land ownership (ejido and agrarian community). The role of PROCEDE in Tixmadejé was relevant, since it included agrarian subjects such as avecindados and possessors who changed the use of the land. However, the decisions within the agrarian centers also influenced the social and territorial reconfiguration of the locality.

COLONIZATION AND STRUGGLE FOR AGRARIAN REFORM IN BRAZIL (1950-1970)

Ricardo Braga Brito — 2025-09-01

This paper presents a comparative study of the forms of collective action and demand for agrarian reform in Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco and the state responses that implemented colonization policies between 1950 and the early 1970s. Based on a documentary analysis in archives of public agencies, unions, and ecclesiastical entities, it will be presented the mosaic of actors and their forms of articulation and organization, comprehending different strategies of action and expectations of peasant groups and the conceptions and forms of intervention articulated in the colonization policy by the techno businessmilitary complex. The investigation focuses on the official colonization policy as a mechanism for controlling territories and populations through displacement and the formation of subjectivities within capitalist rationality. It also focuses on the forms of collective action and identity of peasants who fought for the land they had already taken root in.

THE EJIDO AS A FORM OF COMMUNITY RESISTANCE (ZACATECAS, MEXICO)

José Eduardo Jacobo Bernal — 2025-09-01

This text seeks to reflect on the social practices that occur around the ejido in Mexico, which present community characteristics that serve as a form of resistance to neoliberal public policies. The hypothesis is that throughout the country the ejido functions in a similar way, but we will focus the study in Zacatecas, one of the states with the highest percentage of rural and migrant population. After the Constitution of 1917, an Agrarian Reform was implemented in Mexico that made the ejido the socio-political nucleus of the country. Based on the study of the allocations, restitutions and expansions of land during the 20th century, we observe that the ejido Assemblies not only resolve issues related to land, but also to the organization of the people.

STATE, TERRITORY AND INTERETHNIC RELATIONS IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS

Oscar Larrahondo — 2025-09-01

This article attempts to elucidate the importance of the relations of solidarity exercised in the interethnic field between black communities and indigenous peoples in Colombia as a trigger for key territorial agencies in the processes of social change and modernization of both the State and society. It is a way of understanding the emergence of new social relations and a world of life produced in the midst of the different graphs that mark the territory and that represent discourses that range from the places of enunciation of ethnic and racial groups, to the many political designs of the multicultural State. It is concluded that the relations of ethnic groups in Colombia, in situations of neighborhood, mark borders in which an interethnic world survives. A world of life and a system of kinship in zones of porous, fluid coexistence, and not always in harmony, but that define collective agencies.

STRUCTURAL CRACKING AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE COLOMBIAN AMAZONIAN PIEDMONT IN DISPUTES OVER ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT (2000-2013)

Astrid Flórez Quesada — 2025-08-29

The paper analyzes the tensions, dysfunctionalities and inversion of social roles in Putumayo and their consequences on territorial reorganization. As a hypothesis, it is argued that the central characteristic of development in Putumayo during the period 1999 2012 is the deepening of a structural cracking through the governmental intention of turning it into a successful focus of peace and development. However, as derivative purposes, a development oriented to competitiveness, the expansion of the energy policy and a hierarchical ascent of economic actors were positioned. The constructivist and hermeneutic methodology is based on documentary review, interviews and focus groups to understand the most relevant territorial transformations. It shows the characterization of the structural cracking from the oil and mining economy. It identifies the disruptive forces of power relations in spatial dynamics, dysfunctional for the purposes assigned to sustainable development policies.

PEASANTS, CONFLICTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES IN THE XINGU BASIN (PA)

Natalia Ribas Guerrero — 2025-09-01

The aim of this article is to discuss processes of territorialization in the Xingu River basin in the Brazilian Amazon, involving different peasant groups. More specifically, we focus on processes of occupation that have unfolded in the center-southwest of the state of Pará since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 21st century, which have led to the emergence of a forest peasantry linked to the rubber economy, whose families self-identify as beiradeiras, but have also involved the displacement of groups of migrant peasants who call themselves colonos. We analyzed how this process relates to the creation of a restrictive conservation unit, creating a conflict that continues to this day. Based on ethnographic research carried out over the last 15 years, we propose to reflect on regional dynamics, the economic actors in question and the role of the state in the processes of peasant territorialization and conflicts in question. We believe that the lack of coordination between administrative bodies perpetuates violations of rights, as does the difficulty in incorporating mechanisms such as ILO Convention 169. Finally, the lack of access to territorial rights by peasant groups contributes to the strengthening of actors linked to illegal activities, favoring land grabbing, deforestation and the looting of indigenous lands and conservation units.

AS UNIVERSIDADES PÚBLICAS EM TEMPOS NEOLIBERAIS

Graça Druck — 2025-07-01

UNIVERSITY AND EROS: Education and the sky that protect us

Olgária Matos — 2025-08-22

The contemporary University is part of the disappearance of the philosophical and existential role of culture. The humanist University – founded on the ideal of intellectual formation through scientific, philosophical, historical, geographical, and literary knowledge – has given in to the entertainment industry, the most expressive symptom of which was the Sports industry’s replacement of the School dimension. As a result, Philosophy and Science have lost their autonomy in research and the plurality of investigations in the University under the imperatives of productivity, control by numbers, and the fetish of permanent innovation. Today, it is a task of thought to return to universalist and generous values, constituted by the differences between temporalities, spaces, and experiences.

GLOBALIZATION OF CAPITAL AND PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM: a new form of dependence and the reconfiguration of the State

Luiz Filgueiras — 2025-07-01

This article aims to discuss the relationships between the main phenomena that have shaped and characterize contemporary capitalism worldwide, namely: neoliberalism, productive restructuring and the financialization of capital accumulation - phenomena that have been taking shape and mutually retroacting over a process that has lasted almost 50 years. Although present in all countries, products of a new phase of the globalization of capital, they are expressed differently (in degree, quality and consequences) in central and peripheral countries. Therefore, more specifically, the article highlights its particularities in dependent capitalist countries, with the constitution, from the crisis of “Developmentalism” in these countries (1980s), of a new mode of dependence, in which the reconfiguration of the State and the transfer of surpluses from the periphery to the center stand out, in the form of new types of financial income and knowledge income.

FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES: autonomy undermined by funding?

Nelson Cardoso Amaral — 2025-07-01

This study investigates the financing mechanisms of Brazilian Federal Universities (UFs) and aims to demonstrate how budgetary mechanisms have been used to undermine the autonomy of these institutions. The study identifies, using official data sources, the amount of financial resources associated with Federal Universities and, considering the various financing mechanisms, identifies which ones are effectively available to exercise university autonomy. Universities enjoy financial management autonomy established by the 1988 Constitution. However, a series of mechanisms prevent the implementation of this legal framework. The mechanisms are the most diverse, from the specification of insufficient resources for the maintenance and development of their activities to the direction of the search for alternative sources to pay basic operating expenses.

THE UNIVERSITY AS A GLOBAL TARGET

Vladimir Safatle — 2025-07-03

In recent years, public universities have become a space for violent interventions of all kinds. From accusations of Islamo-Guachism in countries like France to campus interventions against students in solidarity with the Palestinian cause in the US and Germany, what we see is public universities as spaces of social tension. These police and state actions aim to reshape universities, cutting them from their critical dimension and aligning them with the hegemonic horizon of social crisis management. In this article, I would like to analyze the conditions for universities to preserve their critical capacity amid the horizon of neoliberal dismantling.

THE PRECARIOUSNESS OF TEACHING WORK IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES

Graça Druck — 2025-07-03

The article’s main objective is to reflect on the precariousness of teaching work in Brazilian federal universities, based on the assumption that it is one of the expressions of a more general process of restructuring the public service, resulting from the emergence and strengthening of the neoliberal State. In the case of the educational system, this restructuring instituted and promoted the principle of competition and the company model through the adoption of management practices based on criteria of “efficiency”, productivity and measurable results, profoundly changing the organization of work in educational institutions, particularly in Brazilian public universities. The text is divided into three main parts. The first presents some transformations that constitute the neoliberal State; the second part discusses the main changes in the Brazilian public service and, finally, examines how the adoption of the principle of competition and the business model has changed the organization of work in universities in a context of public underfunding, and has led to the precariousness of teaching work.

UNIVERSITY, UNION AND TEACHING WORK: discontinuities 1960-2024

Roberto Leher — 2025-07-03

The article argues that Brazilian federal universities underwent three contexts of marked changes, characterized as discontinuities, between 1960 and 2024. The military-corporate coup, through the preventive counter-revolution, prevented the university reform movement that was gaining momentum between 1960 and 1964 and established the so-called conservative modernization model that altered the university profoundly. In the context of the structural crisis, in the second half of the 1970s, the creation of the Teachers’ Associations and, later, the National Association of Higher Education Teachers, succeeded in hindering the intended fragmentation of universities as centers of excellence and educational institutions, by winning national careers, university autonomy and free tuition at official establishments. Finally, the policies of austerity and budget restraint that have deepened since 2015 are contributing to the direct presence of capital in universities. The article concludes that the struggles cannot be restricted to the education sector, because without preventing the deepening of austerity and the shrinking of the nonmarket public, the scenario for the Federal Universities does not match the relevance of these institutions for overcoming the great problems of the peoples.

THE NEOLIBERAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE CAPITALIST EPISTEM

Christian Laval — 2025-07-03

We are increasingly aware of the logicofcom modificationof public universities and education in general. This neoliberal transformation of higher education is essentially based on competition between public and private institutions, but also between public institutions. It operates at all levels, regionally, nationally and internationally. It has multiple effects, notably on the “governance” of universities and even on the conduct of students and teachers. This transformation is global, and concerns structures, modes of regulation and practices at the same time. For a long time, little understood the or etically, because it wascarried out through partial reforms and mutations, it responds to a coherent paradigm, which can only be understood by reconstructing its genesis and coherence. This article aims to define and expose the major articulations of the capitalist episteme, that is, the original conception of knowledge and truth that accompanies the development of capitalism, from utilitarianism to the ideology of the brain-machine, including theories of knowledge-information and human capital. Without understanding this paradigm, it will be difficult to oppose it with na alternative paradigma that is more egalitarian and more respectful of truth values.