From January 9th to 14th, researchers from universities in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Argentina participate in the Multidisciplinary Workshop "Multifunctional Poverty in Latin America", held at the Faculty of Education (FE). The meeting is an activity that is part of the cooperation agreement between Unicamp and Cardiff University, in Wales, signed in December 2018, and is an opportunity for studies to be presented, carried out in different countries, with a focus on identifying the different causes of poverty and social inequalities around the world and which public policies can be applied to reduce these problems.
The event is organized by professors Ana Elisa Assis, from FE, and Luis Renato Vedovato, from the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FCA) from the Limeira campus. At the reception of the researchers, Unicamp's Dean of Research, Munir Skaf, highlighted the importance of partnerships like this. "The university is happy with these interactions and these strategic partnerships. With Cardiff University, we had two calls for exchanges and short visits, in 2020 we will have two more calls from us and another two from Cardiff University, so it's a different form of partnership, not just signing a cooperation agreement. We want to do something more, invest resources to organize workshops, carry out visits, engage students and researchers and perhaps originate new, even bigger projects", commented the dean.
During the workshop, the results of a broad study carried out in Brazil will also be presented, in which the ideas that different social groups in Brazil have about the basic rights necessary for the country's children to have a dignified life were evaluated. The research was carried out in the first half of 2019 and should help in the formation of new research agendas for the country and in the formulation of public policies.
Different perspectives on poverty
In addition to carrying out studies related to the topic of poverty, the researchers who participate in the workshop contribute views from different areas of knowledge, such as Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Law, and also with the experience of experiencing the reality of different countries. "We have problems today in the UK, with rising inequality and potential Brexit, in Mexico City deep inequality, because Latin America continues to be one of the most unequal areas in the world, so the areas where we focus our efforts studies, such as economists, anthropologists, historians, are focused on causes of social justice and how we attack these problems, in addition to thinking about what policies can be adopted to improve people's lives in these different countries", he explains Shailen Nandy, professor at Cardiff University.
Shailen also comments on the importance of researchers knowing the social reality of other countries and what has been done in them in an attempt to reduce inequality. For him, this prevents the creation of the false idea that poverty has the same causes throughout the world. "It's common to think that a type of policy that works in one country will work in all, but we know that's not the case. There are poor people everywhere, but the causes can be very different. Social structures, racism, differences between rural and urban areas, between north and south, the distance from the capitals. Many countries are going into debt and borrowing money from the IMF, from global banks, but the policies adopted do not benefit the poorest, they tend to benefit the lower classes averages. So based on the experiences of Mexico, countries in Africa, South Asia, we can learn what to do, but also what not to do", analyzes the professor.
In search of consensus
The study carried out in Brazil and which is part of the cooperation between the two countries had the support of UK Global Challenges Research Fund, a research funding institution in the United Kingdom. Several discussion groups were held bringing together people from different social categories, such as women, people with higher incomes, children, among others. In them, the researchers asked participants to point out what they believe are the basic rights for children to develop with dignity in the country. The objective was to verify what ideas different groups may have about human rights.
According to Ana Elisa Assis, the result was that there are more consensuses than differences between people. "We realize that the idea of the items that would be needed for children, regardless of whether it is a group of only women, only children, only people with a starting salary greater than seven thousand reais, is very similar. That for us is something very interesting, it seems like it's a subjective question, when in fact it has a much more objective weight than those surveys that we think are objective, because they talk about financial value, immediate minimum wage, when in fact you can identify by people what they understand and what everyone must have to be at an adequate standard of living today in the 21st century".
She explains that the next stage of the research will be to identify how these groups differ. "After we realized this common situation between them, we want to better understand what each group brings that is very particular, very specific issues, to add to these understandings that are common to these very different groups", argues the professor. Ana Elisa believes that knowing these differences can contribute to improving public policies that already exist and creating new, more inclusive actions.
The research results will be published throughout this year in scientific journals and also in university actions. They will also be forwarded to members of public authorities and institutions that work to reduce poverty.
