Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: REBECA HENNEMANN VERGARA DE SOUZA

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : REBECA HENNEMANN VERGARA DE SOUZA
DATE: 06/08/2026
TIME: 10:00
LOCAL: CPDA
TITLE:

THE LABORATORY AND THE APIARY: AFRICANIZATION, SOCIOTECHNICAL IMAGINATIONS AND TRANSLATION PRACTICES IN BRAZILIAN BEEKEEPING

KEY WORDS:

Keywords: tropical science, co-production, controversies, agricultural modernization.

PAGES: 161
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Sociologia
SUMMARY:

This dissertation examines how the “Africanization” of Apis mellifera bees constitutes a phenomenon of co-production between humans and non-humans embedded in a sociotechnical imaginary of tropical science and rural modernization, and how this imaginary was translated, reworked, and contested in socio-natural realities and practices that were not mapped out in its original formulation. The overall objective is to analyze Africanization as a process of co-production, tracing the controversies and sociotechnical imaginaries within which it is embedded, and how this process unfolds and is reworked in beekeeping practices in the Piauí semi-arid region. The research adopts a qualitative and flexible design, combining documentary research and narrative interviews. The methodological approach follows the principle of symmetry and the imperative to “follow the actors” (Latour), combined with Ginzburg’s indicial paradigm. The thesis is structured into four chapters. The first presents the conceptual framework, linking the language of co-production and sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff) with the sociology of translation (Latour/Callon), as well as secondary contributions from the multispecies perspective and environmental history.  The second chapter reconstructs “Africanization” as an event in tropical science and proposes an alternative periodization of Brazilian beekeeping. The next two chapters are planned but not yet written in the current version of the dissertation. The third chapter aims to analyze disputes over authority and the consolidation of the “productive tropical bee” narrative between 1970 and 1990, tracing scientific controversies, technical prescriptive measures, and the normative stabilization of the field. The final chapter focuses on practices in the state of Piauí, investigating how the dominant imaginary is reinterpreted, negotiated, and contested under the specific conditions of the semi-arid region and the Caatinga. The thesis aims to: (1) show how the Africanized bee was co-produced as a scientific and technical-political object by networks linking geneticists, institutions, and beekeepers, thereby revealing the political and epistemic work concealed by its apparent naturalness; (2) to identify, within beekeeping practices in Piauí, situated forms of translation, adaptation, and contestation of prescriptions formulated in another context; and (3) to contribute to the understanding of phenomena that operate simultaneously across different registers, challenging the society-nature dichotomy, and which, at the same time, can offer an alternative perspective on modes of agricultural modernization.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1545263 - GEORGES GERARD FLEXOR
Interna - 1432841 - CLAUDIA JOB SCHMITT
Interno - 387237 - JOHN WILKINSON
Externa ao Programa - 2274155 - ANA PAULA PERROTA FRANCO - UFRRJExterno à Instituição - CLAITON MARCIO DA SILVA