Three new groups integrate the research structure of the IEA
The IEA has two new research groups and a new study group. The proposals for their creation were approved in the last two meetings of the Board. ‘Quality of Democracy’ and ‘Fórum Permanente: Cultural System Between Public and Private’ are the new research groups while ‘Evolution of the Universities: Contemporary Challenges’ is the theme to be discussed by the new study group.
Quality of Democracy
At the moment at which Brazil celebrates 25 years of election cycles following the rules of constitutional alternation of power, the 'Quality of Democracy Research Group' proposes to think the Brazilian democratic regime from a qualitative perspective, noting that problems such as practices of abuse of power, corruption and deficiencies in the oversight of governments are still present.
According to the proposal submitted to the Board, the group's objective is to ‘examine the conditions under which the institutions of representation, the political participation of citizens, and the political culture that prevails in society interact in the process of functioning of the democratic system and, in particular, regarding the promisses on principles of liberty and political equality’.
Coordinated by José Álvaro Moisés, Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) and Scientific Director of the Center for Public Policy Research (NUPPs) at USP, the group will conduct its activities based on the project ‘Brazil: 25 Years of Democracy - Critical Evaluation: Representation Institutions, Civil Society / Culture Politics and Public Policy‘, having as one of its main tools the blog Quality of Democracy, released in 2012.
According to the proponents, it is important to discuss the issue because ‘the perspective of the quality of democracy, imposing requirements for measurement of vertical, societal, and horizontal accountability mechanisms, of the political participation of citizens, and of the responsiveness of governments, requires the analytical rigor that is characteristic of public debate and methods of scientific knowledge.
The members of the group (and also of the blog) are Cícero Araújo, Elizabeth Balbachevsky, Cláudio Couto, Maria Celina D’Araujo, Eunice Durham, Fernando Figueiras, Eduardo Graeff, Marcus André Melo, Carlos Melo, Nuno Coimbra Mesquita, José Álvaro Moisés, Rachel Meneguello, Marco Aurélio Nogueira, Edison Nunes, Eduardo Portella, Nina Ranieri, Lucio Rennó, Leôncio Rodrigues, Brasilio Salum, Helena Sampaio, Lourdes Sola, and Francisco Weffort.
Fórum Permanente
Coordinated by Martin Grossmann, Director of the IEA, the 'Fórum Permanente: Cultural System Between Public and Private Research Group' will continue the work that has been developed by Fórum Permanente in organizing events, critical texts, publications and other forms of production and circulation of knowledge related to the world of contemporary art.
Since it was launched in 2003, Fórum Permanente serves as a platform for exchange of knowledge and discussion of issues related to artistic and cultural system. In its ten years of existence, it has promoted over 150 live events involving national and international organizers of the shaft of art and culture.
The idea is that when inserted in the academic environment of the IEA, the Fórum Permanente will expand its mediator and interdisciplinary potential, allowing the ‘creation and consolidation of a critical observatory of creative and artistic productions in culture as well as of the public policies in this area’, thus contributing to the ‘maturing of the political-cultural context of visual arts in our country’, as highlighted by the Board in its proposal.
By being characterized as a research group at IEA, Fórum Permanente also intends to expand its field of investigation - so far mainly focused on the crisis of Brazilian art institutions - to cover, in-depth, transdisciplinary reflections on artistic production, curation, and market circuits of cultural production.
Among the activities planned for the group there are seminars, workshops and debates about curating and other forms of mediation, museums and art system, as well as events related to the quarterly releases of the Periódico Permanente digital magazine.
The members of the group are Ricardo Basbaum, María Inigo Clavo, Isis Baldini Elias, Marcia Ferran, Raquel Garbelotti, Martin Grossmann, Graziela Kunsch, Afonso Luz, Gilberto Mariotti, Lucia Maciel Barbosa de Oliveira, Teresa Cristina Toledo de Paula, Felipe Prando, Liliana Sousa e Silva, David Sperling, and Ana Maria Tavares.
Evolution of the universities
The ‘Evolution of the Universities: Contemporary Challenges’ Study Group inaugurates a new format of organization of researchers at IEA, which can host embryonic or exploratory projects of new interdisciplinary themes.
Coordinated by Carlos Alberto Barbosa Dantas, Professor at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME) of USP, the new study group will focus on the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education, focusing on recent changes through which universities are undergoing in research, teaching, and extension.
The group will address the paradoxical nature of ICTs in universities: if on the one hand, new possibilities for information access have been opened up, on the other, the commodification of higher education has been reached by favoring the emergence of private universities that lack quality.
An analogy between the Brazilian university system and the system of the USA and Western Europe, Latin America, and Asia will also be discussed, taking into account aspects such as the relationship between university and society and the socio-historical creation of higher education institutions.