Rafael de Brito Dias

O que é a política científica e tecnológica

Este artigo pretende explorar uma politica publica – a politica cientifica etecnologica (PCT) – debatendo algumas de suas principais caracteristicas constitutivas (que a diferenciam significativamente das demais) e procurando evidenciar um de seus aspectos que raramente e explicitado: como politica publica elaborada no âmbito do Estado capitalista, a PCT e uma politica que favorece as classes dominantes. O artigo procura entender o porque desse aspecto nem sempre ser reconhecido. E discorre tambem sobre algumas das principais causas e implicacoes disso. Para tanto, sao abordados conceitos e definicoes gerais sobre as politicas publicas. Em seguida, sao discutidas as principais caracteristicas e processos associados a politica cientifica e tecnologica. Tambem sao abordadas as particularidades da PCT brasileira, que denunciam, em grande medida, seu carater de classe. Por fim, sao apresentados argumentos que se propoem a explicar o porque desse carater ser raramente reconhecido.

EDUCAÇÃO CTS: UMA PROPOSTA PARA A FORMAÇÃO DE CIENTISTAS E ENGENHEIROS

The idea of the innovating scientist/engineer has been gaining strength in the last few years. In a context where the line that separated industries and universities is becoming increasingly elusive, voices from both sides profess the advantages related to possible and desirable changes in the education of these professionals. The common discourse emphasizes the need to produce scientists and engineers capable of combining profound technical knowledge and managerial skills, which would demand a series of curricular changes. Obviously, the diagnosis that the current education model for these professionals has become inadequate to respond to Brazilian reality is implicit in this discourse. In this paper, we express our agreement concerning this diagnosis: the profile of scientists and engineers currently graduating in Brazil is not coherent with Brazilian social reality. However, we completely disagree on the alternative model of education which is frequently proposed, since in our evaluation this model would also prove to be dysfunctional. We conclude this paper by presenting another alternative model, which we consider more adequate to Brazil.

Tecendo conexões entre feminismo e alternativas sociotécnicas

In this article we read, with feminist lens, two historical infl uences of Latin American thinking on Social Technology. At fi rst, we look at the independence movement of India in the fi rst half of the twentieth century, which fostered a policy of dissemination of the Charkha, a kind of spinning wheel. Widespread in the period in which Gandhi led the movement, the wheel has become a symbol of the nationalist struggle, and is seen as an emblematic example of a socio-technical alternative. In a second step, we analyze the Appropriate Technology Movement, as a set of ideas and initiatives that popularize in the 1970s the dissemination of technologies supposedly appropriate to the reality of the impoverished regions of the “south”. In order to fi ll in the analytical gender gaps, we highlight the contributions of authors who unvail the androcentric character of such policies, and explain how inadequate technologies were produced because women’s work and community care needs in rural Africa and Asia were hidden. Finally, we weave connections between gender and the construction of socio-technical alternatives, and argue that it is in virtue of the invisibility of the feminized character of care, and of an uncritical incorporation of productivist logic that Social Technology embodies androcentrism

Universidade e pertinência social: alguns apontamentos para reflexão

O presente artigo parte da ideia de que as universidades publicas brasileiras vem passando por transformacoes significativas ao longo das ultimas decadas. Alguns autores apontam que as universidades estao deixando de ser um modelo de instituicao social e se transformando em uma organizacao operacional. Buscando contribuir com o debate sobre as transformacoes da universidade publica brasileira e sobre a mercantilizacao do ensino superior, o artigo – a partir de uma revisao historico-bibliografica – busca apresentar alguns apontamentos importantes sobre as mudancas recentes nas universidades. E discute, por fim, algumas das acoes que poderiam ser tomadas no sentido de permitir que a universidade assuma efetivamente seu papel de instituicao capaz de transformar a sociedade.

Educação CTS: uma proposta para a formação de cientistas e engenheiros

The idea of the innovating scientist/engineer has been gaining strength in the last few years. In a context where the line that separated industries and universities is becoming increasingly elusive, voices from both sides profess the advantages related to possible and desirable changes in the education of these professionals. The common discourse emphasizes the need to produce scientists and engineers capable of combining profound technical knowledge and managerial skills, which would demand a series of curricular changes. Obviously, the diagnosis that the current education model for these professionals has become inadequate to respond to Brazilian reality is implicit in this discourse. In this paper, we express our agreement concerning this diagnosis: the profile of scientists and engineers currently graduating in Brazil is not coherent with Brazilian social reality. However, we completely disagree on the alternative model of education which is frequently proposed, since in our evaluation this model would also prove to be dysfunctional. We conclude this paper by presenting another alternative model, which we consider more adequate to Brazil.

Cts education: a proposal for the education of scientists and engineers

The idea of the innovating scientist/engineer has been gaining strength in the last few years. In a context where the line that separated industries and universities is becoming increasingly elusive, voices from both sides profess the advantages related to possible and desirable changes in the education of these professionals. The common discourse emphasizes the need to produce scientists and engineers capable of combining profound technical knowledge and managerial skills, which would demand a series of curricular changes. Obviously, the diagnosis that the current education model for these professionals has become inadequate to respond to Brazilian reality is implicit in this discourse. In this paper, we express our agreement concerning this diagnosis: the profile of scientists and engineers currently graduating in Brazil is not coherent with Brazilian social reality. However, we completely disagree on the alternative model of education which is frequently proposed, since in our evaluation this model would also prove to be dysfunctional. We conclude this paper by presenting another alternative model, which we consider more adequate to Brazil.