Desenvolvimento do sistema do capital e teorias de transição em Trotski e Mészáros

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Religiosidade e mito na obra de José Carlos Mariátegui e a teologia da libertação

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FCLAR

O significado e o sentido do planejamento no trabalho do professor: uma análise crítica a partir da teoria da atividade de A. N. Leontiev

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

A dinâmica das classes sociais no pensamento de Florestan Fernandes

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Heitor Ferreira Lima e a industrialização do Brasil

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FFC

Bakhtin e o grupo: incongruências de uma linguística ortodoxa

For these Russian authors, a sign has to be faithful to reality but what is, in fact, «to be faithful», what is «reality»? They suggest that thought structures itself only by means of signs – as Peirce, who denies the reality of dreams saying that the act to feel hunger is an ideological expression and the shouts of a new-born are already appreciative manifestations of this new human being. The authors had inspired the structuralism, saying that a «semiodiscourse» structures men. Although this instance, word remains neutral, assertion strange to their Hegelian and Marxist roots; their paradigm in contrast, can be Heideggerian, according to which, only the «marked» being exists: looking at one determined thing, I place it, I fit it in its context. To place something is to attribute sense and that is more Stoic than, in fact, Marxist.

Work and Inter-subjectivity: a theoretical reflection on its dialectics in the field of health and nursing

This theoretical reflection intends to show the inter-subjective relationship that takes place in health and nursing practices under the following theoretical perspectives: Institutional Analysis, Psychodynamics of Labor and the Theory of Communicative Action, with an emphasis on the latter. Linking these concepts to the Marxist approach to work in the field of health emerges from recognizing the need for its continuous reconstruction-in this case, with a view to understand the interaction and communication intrinsic to work in action. The theory of Communicative Action seeks to consider these two inextricable dimensions: work as productive action and as interaction. The first corresponds to instrumental action based on technical rules with a production-guided rationale. The second refers to the interaction that takes place as communicative action and seeks understanding among subjects. We assume that adopting this theoretical perspective in the analysis of health and nursing practices opens new possibilities for clarifying its social and historical process and inter-subjective connections.

A critical analysis on "Active Learning" in the light of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT): Implications to Physics Education and to experimental activities as a particular case.

This is a research paper in which we discuss “active learning” in the light of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), a powerful framework to analyze human activity, including teaching and learning process and the relations between education and wider human dimensions as politics, development, emancipation etc. This framework has its origin in Vygotsky's works in the psychology, supported by a Marxist perspective, but nowadays is a interdisciplinary field encompassing History, Anthropology, Psychology, Education for example.

Dalla Francia all'Italia: impegno politico, inchiesta e transfers culturali alle origini della sociologia del lavoro in Italia

Sociology of work in Italy revived at the end of WWII, after thirty years of forced oblivion. This thesis examines the history of discipline by considering three paths that it followed from its revival up to its institutionalization: the influence of the productivity drive, the role of trade unions and the activity of early young researchers. European Productivity Agency's Italian office Comitato Nazionale per la Produttività propagandised studies on management and on the effects of the industrialization on work and society. Academicians, technicians, psychologists who worked for CNP started rethinking sociology of work, but the managerial use of sociology was unacceptable for both trade unions and young researchers. So “free union” CISL created a School in Florence with an eager attention to social sciences as a medium to become a new model union, while Marxist CGIL, despite its ideological aversion to sociology, finally accepted the social sciences lexicon in order to explain the work changes and to resist against the employers' association offensive. On the other hand, political and social engagement led a first generation of sociologists to study social phenomenon in the recently industrialized Italy by using the sociological analysis. Finally, the thesis investigate the cultural transfers from France, whose industrial sociology (sociologie du travail) was considered as a reference in continental Europe. Nearby the wide importance of French sociologie, financially aided by planning institutions in order to employ it in the industrial reconstruction, other minor experiences such as the social surveys accomplished by worker-priests in the suburbs of industrial cities and the heterodox Marxism of the review “Socialisme ou Barbarie” influenced Italian sociology of work.

L'Orientamento politico come fattore di differenziazione delle politiche pubbliche locali: I casi di Modena e Verona

La tesi ha per oggetto lo studio delle politiche pubbliche locali ed in particolare delle politiche sociali che dal 2011 sono diventate politiche esclusivamente territoriali. L’obiettivo è quello di verificare se il differente orientamento politico delle amministrazioni genera politiche differenti. Per verificare le ipotesi si sono scelti 2 Comuni simili sul piano delle variabili socio-economiche, ma guidati da giunte con orientamento politico differente: il Comune di Modena a guida Partito Democratico e il Comune di Verona con un sindaco leghista a capo di una giunta di centro-destra. Nella prima parte vengono esposti ed analizzati i principali paradigmi di studio delle politiche (rational choice, paradigma marxista, economia del benessere, corporativismo e pluralismo, neo-istituzionalismo e paradigma relazionale) e viene presentato il paradigma che verrà utilizzato per l’analisi delle politiche (paradigma relazionale). Per la parte empirica si è proceduto attraverso interviste in profondità effettuate ai due Assessori alle Politiche sociali e ai due Dirigenti comunali dei Comuni e a 18 organizzazioni di Terzo settore impegnate nella costruzione delle politiche e selezionate attraverso la metodologia “a palla di neve”. Sono analizzate le disposizioni normative in materia di politica sociale, sia per la legislazione regionale che per quella comunale. L’analisi dei dati ha verificato l’ipotesi di ricerca nel senso che l’orientamento politico produce politiche differenti per quanto riguarda il rapporto tra Pubblica Amministrazione e Terzo settore. Per Modena si può parlare di una scelta di esternalizzazione dei servizi che si accompagna ad un processo di internalizzazione dei servizi tramite le ASP; a Verona almeno per alcuni settori delle politiche (disabilità e anziani) sono stati realizzati processi di sussidiarietà e di governance. Per la fase di programmazione l’orientamento politico ha meno influenza e la programmazione mostra caratteristiche di tipo “top-down”.

Marx and the Bible: José Miranda’s Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression

This paper critically examines the liberation theology of José Porfirio Miranda, as expressed in his Marx and the Bible (1971), with a focus on the central idea (and subtitle) of this work: the “Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.” Miranda’s critique is examined via certain key tropes such as “power,” “justice,” and “freedom,” both in the context of late twentieth-century Latin American society, and in the state of the “post-Christian” and “post-Marxist” world more generally, vis-à-vis contemporary liberal justice theory. Close examination of the potentialities, paradoxes and subtle evasions in Miranda’s critique leads not to the conclusion that Miranda does not go far enough in his application of Christian principles to justice theory.

Liberation as Revolutionary Praxis: Rethinking Buddhism Materialism

While it is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reconsider and problematize Buddhist conceptions of “freedom” and “agency,” the thought traditions of Asian Buddhism have for many centuries struggled with questions related to the issue of “liberation”—along with its fundamental ontological, epistemological and ethical implications. With the development of Marxist thought in the mid to late nineteenth century, a new paradigm for thinking about freedom in relation to history, identity and social change found its way to Asia, and confronted traditional religious interpretations of freedom as well as competing Western ones. In the past century, several attempts have been made—in India, southeast Asia, China and Japan—to bring together Marxist and Buddhist worldviews, with only moderate success (both at the level of theory and practice). This paper analyzes both the possibilities and problems of a “Buddhist materialism” constructed along Marxian lines, by focusing in particular on Buddhist and Marxist conceptions of “liberation.” By utilizing the theoretical work of Japanese “radical Buddhist” Seno’o Girō, I argue that the root of the tension lies with conceptions of selfhood and agency—but that, contrary to expectations, a strong case can be made for convergence between Buddhist and Marxian perspectives on these issues, as both traditions ultimately seek a resolution of existential determination in response to alienation. Along the way, I discuss the work of Marx, Engels, Gramsci, Lukàcs, Sartre, and Richard Rorty in relation to aspects of traditional (particularly East Asian Mahāyāna) Buddhist thought.

Beyond Kantianism - Response to Critiques

I am flattered and privileged to have received four such astute critiques of my work from an international cast. I will reflect at length about many of their points in future work but to respond fully would require a very long article and so I will highlight some of the more salient issues. The authors share misgivings about my commitment to a realist version of governmentality theory so I will try to articulate a bit more clearly how it is different from two major alternative perspectives highlighted by the authors: what I term a `discursive` governmentality perspective (Stenson 2005), and the neo-Marxist regulationist school of political economy. However, deeper normative questions are raised, for example by Wendy Larner, about what it means to be progressive or critical within the broad terrain of liberalism (which can include neo-liberals and neo-conservatives) in the wake of the collapse of communism and much of the power of western labour movements, the rise of the new emancipatory and environmental social movements and varieties of religious fundamentalism. As social scientists and university intellectuals we usually argue that our work differs from journalistic reportage or ideological polemics that gather supportive evidence through selective fact gathering. This is because we dig beneath the flux of events and surface appearances and debates to uncover the deeper structures of thought and social relations that shape our experiences and the flow of events. And we also engage with contrary evidence that troubles our truth claims. This is the work of theory. I accept that theory plays a vital role but argue for a more grounded approach rooted in empirical research using a variety of methods and data sources. Hence I adopt a more cautious approach to conceptions of the `deeper structures` we uncover. At best we can only know them through provisional heuristic modelling and it is best not to reify them.