Emerging powers, humanitarian assistance and foreign policy: the case of Brazil during the earthquake crisis in Haiti

During the management of the crisis after the earthquake occurred in Haiti in 12 January 2010, Brazil played an important role on the efforts of humanitarian assistance. Based on bibliography and documents the paper presents the role played by Brazil with the focus on the humanitarian assistance as part of country’ foreign policy as an emerging power to increase the presence into the international system. To achieve this goal the article presents some considerations about emerging powers, foreign policy and theoretical concepts about humanitarian assistance and international relations, the extension of the earthquake in Haiti and the actions performed by Brazil during the response phase of the crisis management.

Egocentric speech in the works of Vygotsky and Piaget: educational implications and representations by teachers

This paper presents an applied qualitative and quantitative study and seeks to understand egocentric speech according to Vygotsky and Piaget and, through a literature review, the educational implications of Vygotsky and Piaget’s ideas. Additionally, the representations of these ideas by fifteen teachers of basic education are investigated. It is important to understand egocentric speech in Vygotsky and Piaget. Despite the differences in how they conceive its nature, functions and implications, for both, egocentric speech is intrinsically linked to and facilitates our understanding of child development. Regarding the representation of teachers who criticized children who used egocentric language, when teachers established any negative consequences of such language, they attributed it to the affective and moral aspects as well as to cognition. However, their approach was more practically oriented than those found in the psychological theories addressed. Therefore, this study aids in understanding the limits and scope of teacher-training courses.

Cultural consonance and arterial blood pressure in urban Brazil

In previous research in Brazil, we tested the hypothesis that cultural consonance is associated with arterial blood pressure. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals are able to approximate in their own behaviors the prototypes for behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Individuals who had higher cultural consonance in the domains of lifestyle and social support had lower blood pressures. The aim of the current research was to replicate and extend these findings. First, a more extensive cultural domain analysis was carried out, improving the description of cultural models. Second, more sensitive measures of cultural consonance were developed. Third, data were collected in the same community studied previously. The following findings emerged: (a) cultural domain analysis (using a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques) indicated that cultural models for these domains are widely shared within the community; (b) the associations of cultural consonance in these domains with arterial blood pressure were replicated; and, (c) the pattern of the associations differed slightly from that observed in earlier research. This pattern of associations can be understood in terms of macrosocial influences over the past ten years. The results support the importance of long-term fieldwork in anthropology. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A luta em defesa da Sociologia no Ensino Médio: 1996-2007 : um estudo sobre a invenção das tradições

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

Identidade e estudos organizacionais: em direção a um novo paradigma?

This paper aimes to contribute to the analyzes of Caldas and Wood Jr (1997) concerning to the concept of identity. That concept has been developed in Organization Studies under the propositions of Albert and Whetten (1985). In that way, identity concept has been defined by the following characteristics: centrality, distinctiveness and continuity. Nevertheless, a new paradigm has been emerging within social science. In this paper, we present a synthesis on how the concept of identity has been discussed in Social Psychology and Cultural Studies. For both theoretical perspectives, the ideas of centrality and durability are put into doubt, as identity is seen as dynamic and fragmentary. Besides that, we intend to show how the new paradigm is getting formed within Organizational Studies, especially considering international context. Considering that the emerging organizational ideas concerning identity show proximity with those proposed by Social Psychology and Cultural Studies, we raise possible questions that the new paradigm will have to face.

Corporalidade brasileira na fabricação da identidade nacional

This paper discusses how, through the creation of Embratur (Brazilian Tourism Company) in 1966, an idealized Brazilian female body was constructed and used to help manufacture a national identity, reinforcing the stereotype of the sexualized Brazilian woman. As it was often associated with sex tourism, this stereotype received much criticism and led to a negative image of Brazil abroad. However, in the 1990s the official tourism lobby softened the “sexy tone” of its discourse, and in 1999 Embratur received an award from the World Tourism Organization for its campaign to help fight the exploitation of children and youth by sexual tourism. In order to better understand how this change in the idealized Brazilian female body unfolded, it is important to deconstruct beauty standards – focusing on those that apply to Brazilian women as seen from abroad – and their relationship to modern consumer culture. Assuming that the cultural analysis of the female body emerges as an important issue in the field of Social Science, the focus on body image can be viewed as a key element in discussions about the construction of national identity.

Formação inicial de professores e educação de jovens e adultos: possibilidades da extensão universitária

The present work aimed at investigating the possibilities and limits of academic extension programs as an environment for initial teacher learning and training. It also focused on investigating the main difficulties identified by Pedagogy and Social Science students about this initial training regarding its use in actual teaching activities. It focused on undergraduate students’ perceptions concerning their involvement in an academic extension project which enabled them to interact with students as teachers in a Youth and Adult Education program, during a whole academic year. Semi-structured interviews were done with nine participants. The content of these interviews was analyzed and divided into four thematic categories. The results show that, for these students, what makes this kind of project unique is the possibility of acting in real situations, under supervision, which provided a moment for reflection. Focusing on supervision, the students point out that this resource is not usually there in traditional internship situations – and that they consider it an important and necessary aspect. It was also indicated the relevance of practice, self-awareness and teaching activity experiences. In conclusion, it was perceived that academic extension programs must be more intensively appreciated, given the coordinating role it can play between investigative and didactic activities, both key to initial training.

Walter Benjamins dwellings

The present article presents what might be called “benjaminian geography” and relates it to Walter Benjamin’s urban philosophy. Besides introducing the philosopher’s addresses in Paris, the article speculates on such choices as well. It proposes to present elements of the complexity of benjaminian spatiality.

História ambiental: um olhar prospectivo

Examination of methodological approaches and work possibilities for historians in the research and teaching of history of environment, its themes and potential objects of studies. The attention to books and articles helps on this balance and on the identification of future routes for the Environmental History in Brazil. This historiographical practice has been keeping, among us, a salutary opening for the dialogue with the foreign historiography, with an increasing valorization of the research in Latin America and with social science and natural subjects. The incipient Foreign Exchange Program suggests the tasks and the success found by this approach will be result of the interaction between researchers, projects in group, circulation of publications and institution strengthening of the historical knowledge in the beginning of the century.

Teoria e metodologia na escrita da História do Brasil: Afonso de Taunay e a Academia Brasileira de Letras

The history of historiography in recent decades has the breathing space needed in the concerns of historians and has been transformed into a research field with its own issues. Uploaded this in perspective, this paper aims to understand how aspects of the theory of history and methodology have been addressed by Afonso de Escragnolle Taunay (1876-1958). We selected the letters exchanged by the author, the speeches of acceptance at the ABL, some articles and books produced by Taunay in the 1930s. In the first decades of the twentieth century, when it sought to define the historiography and its limits in both the literature and social science sources, the subjectivity is presented as the final decision making of the author, especially those related to the new site production Taunay, the Brazilian Academy of Letters.