Cultures at work: the case of italian expatriates in Brazil

Esta tese de mestrado tem por intenção entender quais são as mais importantes diferenças culturais para os expatriados Italianos que trabalham no Brasil e aprender as implicações práticas para o ambiente de trabalho. O método utilizado foi qualitativo, com 23 entrevistas em profundidade com expatriados italianos de nível médio ate top management, com experiência de trabalho no Brasil. Os resultados indicam que os expatriados Italianos experimentam dificuldades com as diferenças em termos de comunicação, distinção entre as esfera profissional e privada, distancia do poder e planejamento. Em contrapartida, outros fatores como a discriminação positiva para os estrangeiros, diferenças em geneder equality e masculinidade, assim como com a atitude positiva dos workplaces e uma economia em crescimento, todos influenciam de maneira positiva a experiência do expatriado. Enfim, algumas sugestões práticas sobre os efeitos das diferenças culturais e sobre a estruturação de um possível cross-cultural training são expostas.

Medindo o impacto social da regeneração urbana pela cultura : percepções dos moradores da Mouraria

Este trabalho centra-se na capacidade do investimento em cultura, em contexto de regeneração urbana, em atender a retórica da revitalização social e em que medida oferece soluções socialmente sustentáveis para os moradores. Para o efeito, centra-se sobre os significados e práticas do culture-led urban regeneration (CLUR) na cidade-histórica e é proposta sua medição quanto a impactos sociais subjetivos na comunidade local. Uma das principais preocupações do estudo é o grau em que o CLUR pode realmente cumprir as expectativas que os decisores políticos têm dele como “ferramenta” de abordagem integrada e sustentável na transformação de espaços urbanos degradados. Para dar conta de tais objetivos vai se destacar o caso do bairro lisboeta da Mouraria como estudo de caso e local de teste das hipóteses apresentadas na pesquisa. Medir os impactos sociais subjetivos da intervenção sócio-urbana no bairro, na óptica de seus moradores, formam o eixo central do estudo. E, igualmente relevante, procurou-se avançar na produção de instrumentos de medição capazes de aferir o impacto social subjetivo de intervenções urbanas de base cultural. Com os procedimentos adotados na pesquisa, a dissertação reporta-se à experiência europeia e portuguesa procurando traçar a genealogia destas políticas, discutir as retóricas que as justificam e desvendar como os moradores da zona intervencionada percepcionam tais transformações do seu lugar.

Gestão de integridade de ativos: aspectos culturais e internacionalização

O presente trabalho de pesquisa, apresentado como dissertação para a conclusão do curso de Mestrado Executivo em Administração de Empresas, teve como objetivo estudar o processo de implantação de um sistema de gestão de integridade de ativos tangíveis na filial brasileira de uma empresa estrangeira com larga experiência no setor de produção de óleo e gás. Embora a empresa matriz esteja presente em inúmeros países, a filial local, chamada neste estudo de Íntegra, é a primeira, fora do país de origem que possui a operação de um campo de petróleo. A análise realizada não foi feita diretamente sobre o processo de implantação do sistema de gestão na prática, mas sim sobre as percepções sobre o tema e os assuntos que este envolve, focando em entender como as partes interessadas entendem a gestão de integridade. O método empregado para o desenvolvimento do trabalho foi o de estudo de caso e a problemática estudada foi a influência dos aspectos culturais e o processo de internacionalização da empresa na implantação dos processos necessários à gestão de integridade de ativos. A fim de reunir material para a elaboração do trabalho, foi realizada pesquisa de campo, onde através de entrevistas com funcionários e prestadores de serviço da Íntegra foram colhidos depoimentos que propiciaram o entendimento da forma como estes viam a condução da implantação de processos na empresa. A confrontação da teoria disponível no meio acadêmico com os dados coletados na pesquisa de campo indicou alguns desafios culturais a serem considerados na implantação do processo de gestão, como os ligados às visões de prazo e aos valores e práticas coletivistas. O trabalho propõe uma discussão especial sobre o papel da liderança para fazer frente a esses desafios.

The art of being together: a social constructionist perspective on dialogic methods in the organizational context

The purpose of this project is to understand, under a social constructionist approach, what are the meanings that external facilitators and organizational members (sponsors) working with dialogic methods place on themselves and their work. Dialogic methods, with the objective of engaging groups in flows of conversations to envisage and co-create their own future, are growing fast within organizations as a means to achieve collective change. Sharing constructionist ideas about the possibility of multiple realities and language as constitutive of such realities, dialogue has turned into a promising way for transformation, especially in a macro context of constant change and increasing complexity, where traditional structures, relationships and forms of work are questioned. Research on the topic has mostly focused on specific methods or applications, with few attempts to study it in a broader sense. Also, despite the fact that dialogic methods work on the assumption that realities are socially constructed, few studies approach the topic from a social constructionist perspective, as a research methodology per se. Thus, while most existing research aims at explaining whether or how particular methods meet particular results, my intention is to explore the meanings sustaining these new forms of organizational practice. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 people working with dialogic methods: 11 facilitators and 14 sponsors, from 8 different organizations in Brazil. Firstly, the research findings indicate several contextual elements that seem to sustain the choices for dialogic methods. Within this context, there does not seem to be a clear or specific demand for dialogic methods, but a set of different motivations, objectives and focuses, bringing about several contrasts in the way participants name, describe and explain their experiences with such methods, including tensions on power relations, knowledge creation, identity and communication. Secondly, some central ideas or images were identified within such contrasts, pointing at both directions: dialogic methods as opportunities for the creation of new organizational realities (with images of a ‘door’ or a ‘flow’, for instance, which suggest that dialogic methods may open up the access to other perspectives and the creation of new realities); and dialogic methods as new instrumental mechanisms that seem to reproduce the traditional and non-dialogical forms of work and relationship. The individualistic tradition and its tendency for rational schematism - pointed out by social constructionist scholars as strong traditions in our Western Culture - could be observed in some participants’ accounts with the image of dialogic methods as a ‘gym’, for instance, in which dialogical – and idealized –‘abilities’ could be taught and trained, turning dialogue into a tool, rather than a means for transformation. As a conclusion, I discuss what the implications of such taken-for-granted assumptions may be, and offer some insights into dialogue (and dialogic methods) as ‘the art of being together’.

A narratological analysis of D. M. Thoma`s: the white hotel (1981)

“A Narratological Analysis of D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel (1981)” originated within a seminar on British Postmodernist Literature during the first Master’s Degree in “British and North-American Culture and Literature” (2001-04) at the Universidade da Madeira set up by the Department of English and German Studies. This dissertation seeks to present a narratological analysis of Thomas’s novel. The White Hotel stands as a paradigmatic example of the kind of literature that has dominated the British literary scene in the past three decades, commonly referred to as postmodernist fiction, owing to its formal craftsmanship (multiplicity of narrative voices and perspectives, mixing of differing genres and text types, inclusion of embedded narratives) alongside the handling of what are deemed as postmodernist topoi (the distinction between truth and lies, history and fantasy, fact and fiction, the questioning of the nature of aesthetic representation, the role the author and the reader hold in the narrative process, the instability of the linguistic sign, the notion of originality and the moral responsibility the author has towards his/her work), The narratological approach carried out in this research reveals that Thomas’s text constitutes an aesthetic endeavour to challenge the teleological drive that is inherent in any narrative, i. e., the inevitable progression towards a reassuring end. Hence, the subversion of narrative telling, which is a recurrent feature in Thomas’s remaining literary output, mirrors the contemporary distrust in totalising, hierarchised and allencompassing narratives. In its handling of historical events, namely of the Holocaust, The White Hotel invites us to reassess the most profound beliefs we were taught to take for granted: progress, reality and truth. In their place the novel proposes a more flexible conception of both the world and art, especially of literary fiction. In other terms, the world appears as a brutal chaotic place the subject is forced to adjust to. Accordingly, the literary work is deemed hybrid, fragmented and open. So as to put forth the above-mentioned issues, this research work is structured in three main chapters. The initial chapter – “What is Postmodernism?” – advances a scrutiny not only of the seminal but also of more recent studies on postmodernist literary criticism. Following this, in Chapter II – “Postmodernist British Fiction” – a brief overview of postmodernist British fiction is carried out, focusing on the fictional works that, in my opinion, are fundamental for the periodising of British postmodernism. In addition, I felt the need to include a section – “D. M. Thomas as a Postmodernist Novelist” – in which the author’s remaining literary output is briefly examined. Finally, Chapter III – “A Narratological Analysis of The White Hotel” – proposes a narratological analysis of the novel according to the particular Genettian analytical model. To conclude, my dissertation constitutes an approach to D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel as a text whose very existence is substantiated in the foregrounding of the contingency of all discourses, meeting the postmodernist precepts of openness and subversion of any narrative that claims to be true, globalising and all-inclusive.

Batidas intensas : corpo e sociabilidade nas festas de música eletrônica em Natal

The significance of the body in electronic music parties as a sign for communicating and socializing among participants is the focus of this work. Qualitative research undertaken in this study seeks to investigate how sociability happens at raves and nightclubs in Natal/RN. Sociability is understood here as a play expression involving the dimensions of music, dance and party; the body, seen from a transdisciplinary approach, is understood as a symbolic instance, with its own meanings, as a result and a producer of social and as a cross between the cultural and the biological. The body has a communicative potential, is primary media. An intersection point between nature and culture, it serves as the seat of emotions and sociability, since it is through it that social relations are made. In electronic music parties, the body is interpreted based on its communication signs: clothing, accessories, body movements, tactile contact, body language, interactions between the public and dj, the dj and the public, gestures, expressive speech of emotions. Through such signs, body communication and a sense of community among participants develop sociability in the festive place and change the mood of the dancers. The Natal s electronic music parties young goer interacts on parties, adopts cheerful and receptive positions towards the other, maintains physical contact, values dance as a form of communication and lists happiness as the main feeling aroused in electronic music festivals. To achieve this result, a plurimetodological approach was used, which consisted of various methodological devices and various techniques of investigation: ethnographic observation, individual and informal interview techniques, photographic record of the scene, in-depth interview and application thirty questionnaires to patrons of electronic music parties

A capoeira e os mestres

The Capoeira considered as a manifestation of the Popular Culture - inheritance of African peoples - is a cultural and social practice present in Brazil since the colonial time. This study is dedicated to the Capoeira and its masters. We work the Capoeira as a social field through the theoretical perspective of the Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. We try to apprehend the social construction of the master, the legitimacy of his knowledge, the disputes and the representations that they ve elaborated over the space which was redefined for material and symbolic changes that occurred with the Capoeira through the last decades. The operating notions of social field, habitus, capital and tradition had been pertinent to think the power games , the social relations and the symbolic plots in the Field of Capoeira. From the methodological standpoint, although the interviews with the masters and the direct observation have had a special place in the research, other strategies had been used: researches in newspapers, thematic magazines and periodic, musical compositions and academic works. The performance of the masters in the process of reinvention of traditions has redefined their social place in relation to the previous generations. These are perceived as social actors responsible for the maintenance, dynamicity, affirmation, spreading and expansion of the capoeirístic practice

Narrativas do Brasil nas memórias de Pedro Nava

This thesis is a translation of work of the Brazilian doctor, Pedro da Silva Nava (1903-1984), in particular, his memoirs and chronicles, articulated with the writings of medicine history, aiming to defend that the autobiographical narratives are sources of research capable of promoting discussions on the expansion of the present at the confluence of complex and unequal society in constant changing process as the Brazilian. The theoretical and methodological support circulates around studies, proposals and thesis by Boaventura Santos about empowering past, destabilizing subjectivity, sociology of absences, cosmopolitan reason and translation work. The empirical support drawn from the literature produced by Nava were analyzed with reference this reasoning and studies that have facilitated the flow of translation among others, the studies of Antonio Candido, Arrigucci Jr., Boris Cyrulnik, Beatriz Sarlo, Ecléa Bosi, Ítalo Calvino, José Willington Germano, José Maria Cançado, Lev Vygotsky, Marilena Chauí, Paul Ricöeur and Walter Benjamim, without neglecting what we consider indispensable to scientific research, the production of relevant knowledge and prudent, in view of a decent life. The initial inflections reflect the subject of the Memoirs and its education/training, to then place the Memoir subject in the literary context, scientific, historical and Brazilian poetic (1972-2010), bringing great interpreters and discussing the rationale used by the Narrator that we defend stand closer to the cosmopolitan, showing the formation of narratives whose presence insert itself beforehand to modernist verve, linked to the discursive array against the literature as domination space, disseminated in Brazil in the early twentieth century. So, it articulate with those in which the concerns adjust the construction of the social formation of Brazil as a national heritage through literary narrative that focuses on a historical principle that becomes the past empowering, allowing his rereading, whose converge to memory, the lifestyles, the plurality of language and Brazilian culture, formed by several people, converging into a design not of culture but multiculturalism in Brazil. The memory issue was addressed in the space-time of experiences of being that narrates, shaped by a destabilizing subjectivity that sought to order the testimony of a time, a history and society, retelling them by creative imagination, almost fictional, to make circulate his knowledge about Brazil attached to his medical knowledge, as well as other subjects in his living group and other groups with whom they maintained contact. Thus, he portrayed both tangible and intangible cultural assets of the country as a form of preservation, giving them meanings and sense. It approaches, therefore, from the perspective of sociology of absences, the expansion of the present and by the logic inherent in his narratives of self and Brazil

O jeito nordestino de ser globalizado

This work discusses the impacts of the globalization in the Brazilian northeast culture, specifically in the popular field. The background of theses reflections is the carnival festivities in Recife-PE. In this context, attempts to changes as well as resistance to them maintaining the cultural values and the popular manifestations take a new dimension, presenting different ways of being nordestino. The option for the context of the carnival festivities is due to its significance to the people of this place, particularly as it is a space in which people represent themselves. The work presents a version of the history of carnival in Recife, identifies some manifestations that comprise it, analyzes its changes and shows the process of valuing the local culture in the latest years of the 20th century. The research also reveals how the popular culture assumes a functional and dynamic character where the themes of the popular traditions are being reworked. This process allows not only the survival of the local culture, but also the resistance against the capitalist project to construct a global culture and its uniform character. Even though the carnival festivity has become a mega show, composing a market design, it is still a space to construct differences and see the other. Lastly, for the people of that region, it is a space of fighting for a place in the international panorama

Distribuição espacial de Phytophthora nicotianae e reação de cultivares de cebola ao fungo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Democracia Possível: espaços institucionais, participação social e cultura política

The present study aims at making a theoretically reflection about the reconstruction process of democracy that can be observed in the country since the opening political process, which took place with the Geisel´s government in 1974, passing through the first civil president, in 1985, the Constitution process, in 1986, and finally the Constitution promulgation in 1988. It interests to this study analyses the premise that the 1988 Constitution inaugurates the moment in which democracy starts to be reconstructed in the country, and that this reconstruction is made in such a brand new way, once it included the possibility of participation of the civil society in the deliberation of the public politics, what became possible with the creation of new spaces of a gestion shared by the three executive powers: federal; states; municipalities, and with the civil society, in the councils created in those spheres. In this way, this work wishes to focus the opening process to the civil society participation, wich became possible with the creation of the city councils of public politics. It´s about investigating the form in wich the relations set up in these hibrid spaces could be considered democratic, inclusive and promoters of effective participation, checking up tendencies, giving emphasis to regularities and some specifities encountered in the forms of participation, which have been observed in those councils. In order to comprehend the democratic process in construction in the country, the analysis of the relations established by the civil society and the local executive power in the obligatory municipal councils is taken as object of study, passing by the tensions wich evolves institutions and political practices, permeated by the local political culture. It starts from a briefly review of works already made on the subject

O Jeito nordestino de ser globalizado

This work discusses the impacts of the globalization in the Brazilian northeast culture, specifically in the popular field. The background of theses reflections is the carnival festivities in Recife-PE. In this context, attempts to changes as well as resistance to them maintaining the cultural values and the popular manifestations take a new dimension, presenting different ways of being nordestino. The option for the context of the carnival festivities is due to its significance to the people of this place, particularly as it is a space in which people represent themselves. The work presents a version of the history of carnival in Recife, identifies some manifestations that comprise it, analyzes its changes and shows the process of valuing the local culture in the latest years of the 20th century. The research also reveals how the popular culture assumes a functional and dynamic character where the themes of the popular traditions are being reworked. This process allows not only the survival of the local culture, but also the resistance against the capitalist project to construct a global culture and its uniform character. Even though the carnival festivity has become a mega show, composing a market design, it is still a space to construct differences and see the other. Lastly, for the people of that region, it is a space of fighting for a place in the international panorama

Formação moral das crianças: construção de regras fundamentais aos valores do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)

The acquiring process of morals on a person is one of the most important aspects of his Social Identity. The basis for his ethics and moral choices are built when he interacts with the world. A child that interacts with participants of Movimento Sem Terra (MST) movement that fights for the Land Reform and the transformation of the society may have the opportunities to acquire the culture, morals and ethics of this movement. Based on this understanding, this work intends to comprehend how children think and incorporate the rules that are the base of the values and principles of MST, considering the diversity of the situations, the limits and the possibilities to experience these values in their everyday life in the Movement. To understand how the process of cognitive construction of the rules takes place in a child, it is important to consider the theories of Jean Piaget. According to him, morals development follows a sequence: the anomie (0 to 2 years old), marked by the absence of rules; the heteronomy (2 to 6/7 years old), where takes place the adoption of rules due to exterior obedience, such as a relative, an institution or a movement; and the autonomy (from 6/7 years old on), in which rules are considered legitimate. All the children in this research have relatives working at MST. The research has two parts. We have first observed the behavior of three groups of children (beyond six years old) while they were involved on their normal activities (kindergarten) activities. On the second moment, we have interviewed 20 children (between 3 and 10 years old). We used flashcards containing scenes; we also told stories and asked moral questions involving the character s behavior. We have noticed the unilateral respect and extern coercion are between the definers of the moral decisions of a child. The empathy and the reduction of the egocentrism help seeing the situation of the point of view of other, although it doesn t mean that one is going to accept others point of view. In the taking decision of the child other factors are also considered such as the space of socialization (family, school). Though the children don t work or take part at MST activities, they have already opinions about involved people behaviors. The interaction with relatives and teachers is one of the most important aspects to encourage them elaborate moral understandings according to the ethics of this movement

Entre cristo e o diabo:o ideário do Colégio Americano Batista do Recife (1902-1942)

Due to lack of work on the history of Baptist schools in the Northeast region of Brazil, it is important to understand through a historical reconstruction of the Baptist Protestant education. We embarked on this venture as a chance to understand the presence of Protestant schools, and his ideas on Brazilian soil. Our goal is to promote a reflection which has the axial dimension of the Baptists Protestant education, in time, we will place the debate between 1902-1942. The temporal boundaries of 1902-1942 was because 1902 was when he started the American Baptist College of Recife in 1942 and that ends the cycle of managing directors of Americans. Understand the functionality of time a school is justified when we realize that the history of education is the story of a work of self and formation within a framework that has the school as the main support that can enable a reading of reality. We also intend to examine the school culture brought to Brazil by American missionaries and their applicability in the Brazilian cultural-historical context. And just to demonstrate the hypothesis that the educational contribution of Baptists added to the participation of other Protestants promoted advances in Brazilian society. Possibly taking for granted that the Baptists were in possession of the democratic ideals of religious freedom, taken by many representatives and religious version of the republican regime. In addition to promoting a model in Brazil to make different methodological schools, based on the ideals of new school and ethics of the Bible. Our proposed research aims at understanding how North American missionaries settled in Brazil and what were the purposes of adding to the efforts of evangelization to formal education, binomial that justified the establishment of schools. A vision of saving men for evangelization and education of the Devil attack victims over the ethics of Christ

Representações sociais sobre a prática do cuidado para enfermeiros da saúde indígena: um estudo transcultural

The desire to research on this subject arisen from the experience as nursing in the indigenous health, where I observed that many professionals from all regions of Brazil chose to work within this zone. It was notorious the nurse s difficult to settle in only one place for a long length of time. Probably due to health care in indigenous zones happens from a cultural confront. This confront materialize because both sides are imbued with their own culture: in one hand the nurse professional with its scientific knownledgment on the other the indigenous with their rituals and peculiars habits. In this context nurses should delineate and negotiate the reality through symbolic representations of life, and then make questions on the new reality. In this way, this study set out with the aim of apprehends the nurse s social representations of transcultural care in indigenous health. This knownledgment is important to avoid possible conflicts, shocks, difficulties and health care incongruence within this context. The data collect was carried out on a range of non structured interview guided by a pre-elaborated questionnaire with four questions and a hand drawing related to nurse s health care in the indigenous health. This research had a sample of 17 nurses from the Indigenous Sanitary District of Manaus in the Amazon State. To interpret data we used the Discourse of the Collective Subject, which findings were presented in three chapters: characterization of participants, discussion on themes prevalent in discourse; social representation of nursing care through infographics. The analysis revealed that the care in the indigenous health is challenging because the native people imbued in its world are perceived and processed according to the nurse s cultural lens, leading to materialize of some strangeness and adaptation difficulties, especially in the first contacts. The Social Representation on nursing practice, in many cases, is projected and contrived on the basis of scattered believes and on perception derived from common sense. The findings shows that representions are essential to mitigating the initial strangeness and help nurses to better situate themselves in the new universe. The nurse s practice in the indigenous health care should merge into each other. From the Social Representations is possible to perceive that assimilation, also comprehension on indigenous health system and its traditional knowledge are important to developing strategies to improve access and quality of care for indigenous peoples. After analysis the nurse s discourses and drawings, it is possible to represent the nurse s practice in the indigenous health as anthropophagism, since nurses should literally consuming its patients culture, digesting it and seize it as means to provide culturally congruent care. We highlight the urgent need for preparation and training of professionals to work more effectively with indigenous peoples