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Sociology Congress
discusses dilemmas of
contemporary society
Unicamp hosts national meeting that will have conferences,
round tables, working groups and mini-courses
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Professor Octavio Ianni, who will be honored for his contribution to Social Sciences |
Urban violence, the environment, race and gender discrimination, the new role of the state, and the social impact of new technologies, are among the topics that will be discussed from September 1st to 5th, at Unicamp, during the XI Brazilian Congress of Sociology . The event, which is expected to have an audience of two thousand people, will bring together some of the main names in Social Sciences on the world stage, including the Polish Pior Sztompka, president of the International Sociological Association. The presence of the Minister of Food Security, José Graziano, is also scheduled for Tuesday, the 2nd, in a debate on policies to combat hunger.
“We want to deepen the sociological analysis of the scientific and social issues of contemporary society”, says sociologist and professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp, Tom Dwyer, one of the organizers of the event. According to him, the issues facing sociology today are very different from those that marked the time of its foundation, when themes about social integration and the adaptation of societies to the tensions produced by the processes of industrialization and bureaucratization were at the center. “This tradition left multiple issues open, such as discrimination against women, hunger, the environment, and security, among others”, he adds.
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Sérgio Adorno will coordinate a round table on Public Security Policies |
According to Dwyer, the Marxist matrices, which centralized research for a long time, have lost strength in recent years, due to the fall of the socialist blocs. “This opened space for the development and study of other theories, with different perspectives”, he says. Currently, according to the sociologist, research on social conflicts, rural conflicts, global violence, the environment, work, and new technologies is becoming more evident.
The Congress will consist of eight conferences, 35 round tables, 25 working groups, six mini-courses, and four special sessions. Among the national guests are social scientists Sérgio Adorno, from the Center for Violence Studies (USP), who will coordinate a round table on Citizenship and Public Security Policies; Benício Schmidt (UnB, SBS), who will coordinate a round table on Sociology and Latin America; José Vicente Tavares dos Santos (UFRGS and director of the Latin American Sociology Association); and Ricardo Antunes (Unicamp), who will coordinate a round table on Work: between perpetuity and superfluity. The rector of Unicamp, Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, will participate, on the 3rd, in the Frontiers of Knowledge in Contemporary Sciences round table.
Among the foreign guests, in addition to Sztompka, social scientists Boaventura de Souza Santos (University of Coimbra and University of Wisconsin) will also participate in the event; Göran Therborn (Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences); Michel Wieviorka (École des Hautes Études em Sciences Sociales); and Oskar Negt (Hannover University).
The Congress will open at 19:30 pm this Monday, at the Unicamp convention center, with a conference by the president of the International Sociological Association. A tribute is also planned for intellectuals and researchers who made a great contribution to Social Sciences, such as Octavio Ianni, Heliete Safiotti, Antonio Candido and Maria Izaura de Queiroz. This is the first time that Unicamp hosts the congress. The full program and information about the event are available on the website www.sbsociologia.com.br/xicongresso/.
For Candotti, the government will have to invest more in S&T
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The president of SBPC, Ennio Candotti: biggest obstacles are in the economic sphere
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Ten years after leaving the presidency of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC), physicist Ennio Candotti resumes his position convinced of the need for Brazil to better understand the role of science and technology (S&T). Starting with the federal government, which in his opinion has given little weight to the Ministry that takes care of the area. “There are many priorities, without a doubt. But too much is being thought about infrastructure and not enough about S&T and education. I see a lot of newspaper headlines discussing the first issue, but I never saw space for the other two,” he said. Candotti visited Unicamp on August 21st, when he met with the rector Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz and spoke to directors of Teaching and Research Units and coordinators of Research Centers and Nuclei.
The president of SPBC considered that some important changes had occurred in the last ten years in the S&T segment. At the beginning of the 90s, for example, industry's participation in the effort to promote the country's scientific development was considered impossible and unnecessary. “Today, this cooperation is considered possible and indispensable”, he highlighted. Candotti said that he has identified a certain resumption of interest in investing in Brazilian scientific research. But this optimism, as he himself suggests, is contained. In his opinion, there are still obstacles to be overcome, especially in the economic sphere.
The main one is related to the high interest rate practiced by the country, currently at 22%. “Investments in S&T are expensive, pose risk and only provide returns in the long term. There is no possibility of leveraging resources for the area with this interest rate”, he maintained. Furthermore, continues the president of the SBPC, Brazil needs to do its homework better, notably in the sphere of education. In hegemonic countries, he pointed out, the level of education of workers is much higher than that of Brazilians. To top it all off, these nations are better aware of their potential, whether in terms of labor or natural resources. “We still need to map this all out. We are a country of extreme diversity. We only lose to India and China in this regard”, he analyzed.
In general, according to Candotti, the scientific community has received little attention from the government, including on topics related to S&T. An example of this, he stated, was the lack of definition regarding the conduct of research promotion programs, such as the Sector Funds, managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT). For six months, said the president of the SBPC, those responsible for the Department were unsure whether the initiative was an invention of the previous government, which needed to be reformulated, or whether it had deeper roots. “When they discovered that they were the result of a longer and broader reflection, the programs’ unity and consistency were almost threatened.”
Candotti assessed that there are good reasons to believe that this crisis has been overcome, at least in part. Its effects, however, should be felt next year. “We lost six months, time that could have been spent creating new instruments to promote research. We arrived at the negotiation of the 2004 budget late, which could represent a loss of R$300 million to R$400 million in the Funds' resources. The MCT budget was also reduced from R$2,5 billion to R$2 billion”.
The president of SBPC also highlighted that the participation of the scientific community in discussions around public policies aimed at the development of S&T is fundamental. He recalled that Brazil is currently reaping the fruits of programs implemented 20 years ago in this area. This is the case of the successful postgraduate system, which today is responsible for the training of highly qualified human resources and for studies whose application has had a wide social and economic reach.
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