Banca de DEFESA: LARISSA APARECIDA DA SILVA CABRAL

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : LARISSA APARECIDA DA SILVA CABRAL
DATE: 13/12/2023
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: CPDA/UFRRJ - sede - banca presencial com participação online
TITLE:

 

 

Agroecological researchers: professional trajectories and forms of engagement in shaping an epistemic community

KEY WORDS:

 

Keywords: Sociology of Science; agroecology; trajectory; epistemic communities; researchers; engagement; co-production

 

PAGES: 215
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Sociologia
SUBÁREA: Sociologia do Conhecimento
SUMMARY:

                                                                      ABSTRACT

 

 

The aim of this thesis is to reconstruct, from a sociological perspective, the trajectories of researchers from different generational contexts, institutional dynamics and disciplinary fields who, in their work spaces, identify themselves as social agents engaged in the construction of agroecology as a specific field of knowledge production and circulation. Based on these professional trajectories, this paper seeks to reflect on the shared beliefs, practices and relationships that make up an epistemic community based on agroecology in Brazil. To this end, we draw on the contributions of the Sociology of Science and the Social Studies of Science and Technology, with a view to understanding the paradigms and worldviews that guide the teaching, research and extension practices conducted by these researchers, the relationships and power games present in the scientific field, as well as the dynamics of co-production established between science and politics in the daily practices of these subjects. As a methodological cross-section, we began the investigation with a quantitative analysis of the research groups registered with the Directory of Research Groups (DGP) of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the main research promotion agency in the country, with reference to 2019. We found 423 research groups distributed across diferente universities, federal institutes, foundations, companies, agencies and other institutions across the country that are directly linked to the theme of agroecology. Considering this universe, we conducted 25 interviews with individual interlocutors who were selected with a focus on the diversity of the sample, based on the following criteria: generation, research areas, institution to which the researcher is linked and region of operation. With regard to participant observation, we followed two editions of the Brazilian Congress of Agroecology (CBA), namely the edition that took place in Brasília-DF in September 2017 and the one that was held in Aracaju-SE in November 2019. The results of the research show that agroecology forms an inter-transdisciplinary epistemic community. There is no single profile for agroecological researchers. The people who make up this epistemic community come from different scientific disciplines and experience the production of knowledge in agroecology through a diversified set practices and forms of engagement. There are some common principles and concepts that identify this community, such as the critique of the ways in which agriculture and the agri-food system are organized in contemporary societies, the dialogue of knowledge, the reference to the concept of the agro-ecosystem and the connections established between environment and society in the study of the relationships that bind agriculture and food in urban and rural spaces and in the development of social and technological alternatives aimed at transforming agriculture and the agri-food system.  However, it is important to consider that even these concepts are used in very different ways, enhancing various ways of doing science and building relationships beyond academia. The paths taken by agroecological researchers also involve different forms of mediation between individual and institutional projects. These projects do not take place in a social vacuum, but are informed by socio-economic and political circumstances. The constitution of an epistemic community based on agroecology is thus influenced by the conditions that each institutional space and historical period incite, enable and make possible, which implies power games in which interests, resources and forms of organizing agriculture and the agri-food system are in dispute.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa ao Programa - 1767739 - ANNELISE CAETANO FRAGA FERNANDEZ - UFRRJInterna - 1432841 - CLAUDIA JOB SCHMITT
Externo à Instituição - CRISTHIANE OLIVEIRA DA GRAÇA AMÂNCIO - EMBRAPA
Externa à Instituição - FLÁVIA CHARÃO MARQUES - UFRGS
Interna - ***.464.397-** - MARIA JOSE TEIXEIRA CARNEIRO - UFRRJ
Externa à Instituição - ROMIER DA PAIXÃO SOUSA - IFPA