As a representative of the IEA in this international interdisciplinary research project, Ventura will be at the Institute on June 17, from 2:00 pm, to talk about the topic she has been working on for two years and to share her experience of participating in the ICA. There will be a discussion of the learned lessons, including a reflection on the ways the team of participating research fellows have found to overcome the challenges of interdisciplinary work. The various possibilities for collaboration will also be approached, as well as the definition of some work fronts, the motivation to take part in the project, and the innovative format of the edition's workshops.

There will be a live broadcast on IEA's website.

The project

The ICA is an initiative of the UBIAS network that brings together young and senior researchers to study a single subject from different perspectives during two extensive meetings. The first edition, centered around "Time", was organized by the IEA and the Institute for Advanced Research at Nagoya University in 2015 and 2016. The second edition, on "Human Dignity," was promoted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute for Advanced Studies and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research at Bielefeld University in 2016.

The institutes for advanced study at the Nanyang Technological University and the University of Birmingham have beenthe hosts of the third and so far last edition of the project. 18 researchers with different academic backgrounds and nationalities were selected to study the different perspectives of the theme "Laws: Rigidity and Dynamics" between 2018 and 2019.

Profile

Carla Ventura holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Brasília (UnB) and a Law degree from the São Paulo State University (UNESP), where she has also obtained her Masters in International Law. In addition to these, she holds a PhD in Administration from USP.

She is currently a professor of the Department of Psychiatric Nursing and Human Sciences at USP's School of Nursing at Ribeirão Preto, where she teaches about human rights, health, development, mental health, bioethics and nursing legislation, among others. She also coordinates a global health research group, leading a team of undergraduates, masters, doctors and postdocs.

In addition to perspectives for universities, and urban and environmental concerns, the 95th issue of IEA's journal "Estudos Avançados," launched this month, also discusses the judicialization of health and the precautionary principle. According to editor Alfredo Bosi, "the current primacy of technology is one of the transversal themes that bring together articles about so diverse objects."

The issue also contains reviews of eight books on visual arts, literature, political science, economics, and globalization.

The opening section has "University" as theme and features an article by former president of USP Jacques Marcovitch. The professor, who has also been director of the IEA, analyzes three aspects: the Academic Performance and Evaluations project, coordinated by him; the transformations undergone by academic institutions; and the challenge of proposals that in his view would disqualify public universities, such as the implementation of tuition fees.

The need for universitary adaptation to a new reality dominated by information networks is analyzed by Luiz Bevilacqua, a visiting professor at the IEA from 2017 to 2018, in the article "The Last Train to Alexandria".

The articles that are specifically focused on USP present studies conducted by researchers Ricardo Terra and Carlota Boto. While Terra brings up a self-reflection on the institution, including its financial imbalance, missions and overall evaluation, Boto shows how the concept and the project of USP appeared in the discourse and in the actions of intellectuals in São Paulo and abroad in the early 1930s.

City and Environment

The urban degradation of large cities and the deforestation of vast regions in Brazil are two of the addressed themes in this section. Bosi emphasizes the conflict between defenders of a more humane style of housing and the "violent deterioration of the space where the lower-middle class neighborhoods and the slums on the periphery of large cities are examples and victims," as discussed in the articles "End of Utopias, The City of São Paulo and the Discussion of Contemporary Urbanism," by urban planner Antonio Claudio Pinto da Fonseca and historian Carlos Guilherme Mota, and "The Conflict of Space: The Tense Port-City Relationship in Urban Planning," by João Mendes Rocha, a specialist in public policy and government management.

Regarding the articles on environmentalism, the editor highlights the concern with "economic interests that promote the wild deforestation," remembering that "after a short period of relative control, the anti-ecological threat that reaches entire regions of the Amazon and the Northeast has returned." The theme is present in "Territories and Political Alliances of Post-Environmentalism," by experts from various institutions, and "Characteristics and Provenance of Firewood Used for Cooking in Brazil," by Adriana Gioda.

The other two sections are "Health," with two articles, and "The Precautionary Principle," with three collaborations. The first two texts discuss the guidelines of the National Council of Justice for the action of law professionals in the realization of the right to health, and techniques of welfare coaching in the change of lifestyle in the public health system.

In the article "The Adoption of Precautionary Measures Against Risks in the Use of Technoscientific Innovations," philosopher Hugh Lacey, a former visiting professor at the IEA and current member of the research group Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science and Technology, discusses the responsibilities of scientists and institutions in conducting the research needed to inform precautionary measures. Lacey's text is accompanied by two articles by other researchers: one revises the precautionary principle in the Brazilian legal system to international agreements while the other discusses the main arguments involved in the scientific debate on the principle of substantial equivalence, which states that genetically modified organisms, popularly known as transgenic, are chemically equivalent to organisms selected by traditional breeding techniques and thus would not require additional toxicological studies.

The list below contains the names of the authors who have contributed with each one of the addressed themes:

Leading Article

Alfredo Bosi

University

Jacques Marcovitch
Carlota Boto
Ricardo Terra
Luiz Bevilacqua

City and Environment

Roberto Araújo, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Peter Mann de Toledo, Andréa dos Santos Coelho, Eloi Dalla-Nora and Felipe Milanez
João Mendes Rocha
Thais da Silva Chedid and Edmilson Moutinho dos Santos
Adriana Gioda
Ranulfo Paiva Sobrinho, Junior Ruiz Garcia, Alexandre Gori Maia and Ademar Ribeiro Romero
Candido Malta Campos
Antonio Claudio Pinto da Fonseca and Carlos Guilherme Mota
Marcos Cesar Weiss

Health

Aline Marques, Carlos Rocha, Felipe Asensi and Diego Machado Monnerat
Luciana Oquendo Pereira-Lancha, Danielle Kallas, Paula Helena Dayan and Antonio Herbert Lancha Jr.

The Precautionary Principle

Hugh Lacey
Fernanda Viegas Reichardt and Mayara Regina Araújo dos Santos
Luciana Zaterka

Reviews

Leonardo Octavio Belinelli de Brito
André Roncaglia de Carvalho
Fabio Mascaro Querido
Ricardo Ohtake
Flávia Amparo
Marcos Antonio de Moraes
Ana Luiza Martins
José Augusto Ribas Miranda

"Migrations" has been chosen as Topic of the Year by the international network of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS) for 2019. The definition took place during the last meeting of the network's Steering Committee in Bielefeld, last November. Despite the recent definition, the topic had already been discussed at the 5th Directors' Conference, held at the headquarters of the IEA-USP in March this year.

The purpose of choosing annual themes is to encourage researchers linked to the network's 44 members to turn their attention to important global issues. UBIAS expects that each of the institutes will carry out activities related to the recent global migratory flows in various formats, such as creating study and research groups, holding events and organizing thematic exhibitions.

In the document that justifies the choice of topic, the Steering Committee argues that "the migratory issue is not only politically and culturally timely but also challenges established social research methods." Thus, research on the subject may not only illuminate one of the great challenges of the 21st century but also develop new methods for interdisciplinary advanced study in general.

Migration and climate change

In addition to the ongoing migratory and refugee crises in the world, the Steering Committee suggests that researchers look at their relation to climate change. "Would two of the greatest challenges of our time be indelibly interconnected?" There is "mounting evidence" that climate change and natural disasters are a relevant component of the current flow of migration.

The Committee indicates possible lines of research and initial questions: "How did desertification, droughts, floods and sea level rise impact the movement of human populations, and what can we expect in the near future?"

Another aspect to be addressed is the impact that mass migrations and the expected increase in population density in urban areas can cause in the public health of the receiving regions. According to the Committee, the issue becomes more evident when one takes into account that migrant populations generally represent the most vulnerable components of societies. "Strict theoretical and empirical studies of health, demographics, and behavioral ecology of migrants are therefore urgently needed not only for academic purposes but also to guide health policies for these populations," the text argues.

In 2018, the Topic of the Year was "Aging - Life, Culture, Civilizations," and in 2017, "Fear." The first theme chosen by the network was "Media and Data Control," in 2016.

Photo: Archive / EBC

The 93rd issue of the institutional journal "Estudos Avançados" inaugurates a series of publications focused on primary and secondary education. The main dossier of this issue brings a set of articles on the teaching of humanities, area of knowledge chosen to open the sequence. Besides reflections on the current conjuncture of Brazilian education, the texts present reflections on the teaching of philosophy, history, geography, music, literature and religion.

The journal also has three other sections, with different themes. In the first one, Urban Life and Health, four articles seek to understand how environmental and behavioral attributes of large cities affect the lives of their inhabitants. The second set of texts, Arts and Culture, brings comprehensive discussions on higher education in the arts and reflections on important works of the last century. The last section honors economist Paul Singer, who died in April, with a large and expressive interview in 2016.

To editor Alfredo Bosi, the humanities face a paradoxical situation. "At the same time we have a reflection on the new methods proposed by pedagogy and specific didactics that open new directions for teaching, we face a depreciation of the same humanities by the technicist thinking that has been generalized in bureaucratic organs inside and outside the University," he points out. He believes that the intense demand for specialization generated by industrial and technological revolutions has hampered the balance between human and biological sciences.

This context, according to Bosi, fuels the need to think about knowledge in a holistic and problematic way. A starting point, for him, would be to apply philosophy as a methodology of any and all modality of knowledge. "The reader will find articles by professors who experience this project both in public schools and in particular situations, such as teaching reading to inmates or the successful attempt to introduce Greek and Latin to elementary school students," he says.

Bosi dedicates issue #93 to Paul Singer and Paulo Freire, who, according to him, "took their democratic ideals to the heart of the economy and pedagogy of the oppressed ones."

Dossier

Between 2012 and 2013, Ana Vieira Pereira participated in a series of workshops on creative writing and reading mediation at the Romão Gomes Military Prison in São Paulo. Pereira's experiences and apprenticeships in the period are reported in the article Sidelines - Literature Experiences with Imprisoned Persons, which also composes the main dossier. According to her, the work made it possible to perceive literature and the telling of their own history as "powerful mechanisms for the personal reorganization and the discovery of new forms within the field of language".

In the article The reform of secondary education and its questionable conception of quality of education, Celso João Ferretti critically analyzes the reform promoted by the Ministry of Education in 2017. The political and economic interests of the restructuring, the ideological disputes that were presented and the official objectives announced by Michel Temer's government are some of the points dealt with by Ferretti. He further states that he has given "special attention to the curriculum flexibilization and the quality of education conception on which the reform is based."

In the article Latin and Greek in a municipal school of Elementary School, Paula da Cunha Corrêa presents a successful pedagogical experience conducted from 2013 at the Desembargador Amorim Lima Municipal School of Elementary Education (EMEF.) Using the "Minimus" method, created by Barbara Bell, Corrêa has organized the implementation of classic language courses - Latin and Greek - for students in the 4th and 7th grades of the school, which is located in the city of São Paulo. According to her, in addition to language teaching, the project offers "diverse aspects of classical culture," to students, namely mythology, history, politics, theater, poetry, music, art and architecture." The "Minimus Project" is still in force and seeks new schools to expand its operation area.

Other themes

The first two texts of the section Urban Life and Health show the consequences of violence and lack of basic sanitation for the health of the peripheral population. The latter two present comments on the last book authored by physician Paulo Saldiva, current director at the IEA-USP.

In The metropolis and the health of its inhabitants, Helena Ribeiro describes and analyzes the general themes addressed in Saldiva's work. According to her, the book clearly shows "the problems that urbanization has brought to physical and mental health" of the inhabitants of large cities.

Article writer Fabio Angeoletto emphasizes that the problems presented by Saldiva are not limited to São Paulo and other metropolises, but to all Brazilian cities, in Urban life and health. For him, the conclusion of the reading gives rise to a clear but not explicit message by the author: "Cities, in their complexity, demand planning, and multiple academic formations and social actors need to be involved in this work."

Among the seven authors in the Arts and Culture section are former IEA Director Martin Grossmann and two USP professors that participated in the first edition of the Institute's Sabbatical Year Program in 2016: Dária Jaremtchuk and Lúcia Maciel Barbosa de Oliveira. The papers in this edition represent part of the results of their research at the Institute.

In the article Abdias do Nascimento in the United States: a "black art painter," Jaremtchuk discusses the 10-year period that the Brazilian painter has spent in the United States. According to her, the time was fundamental for Nascimento to reaffirm "his commitment to the creation of works aligned with the African cultural heritage."

In Oliveira's On Conquests and Tensions, in turn, there is a discussion on the emergence of new cultural dynamics anchored in information and communication technologies. "The current moment demands a non-simplifying understanding of the innumerable representations, contradictions, voices and silences that vie for visibility in the public arena," she argues.

Paul Singer

The last article of the issue celebrates economist Paul Singer, who died April 16, 2018, at the age of 86. Singer was a full professor at USP's School of Economics, Business and Accounting (FEA,) and a member of the first composition of IEA's Board (1987-1992.) Born in Vienna, he was the creator and greatest advocate of the "Solidarity Economy."

The article Paul Singer: a life of struggle and work for socialism and democratic participation, by Cris Andrada and Egeu Esteves, presents an interview with the economist in the year 2016. Singer talks about his migration to Brazil, the youth in the Post-war São Paulo, his relationship with the union movement - with emphasis on the participation in the 300,000 Strike - and, notoriously, Solidarity Economy.

"Only a few bring together intellectual greatness, genuine humility, and deep coherence between the writer and the practitioner," say the authors. "Paul Singer not only reflected on the violence of the world of work, but also devoted his studies to sharing it with workers, shoulder to shoulder, for years."

Ibirapuera Park

The planning of public policies, legislation and city master plans suffer from a well-known cultural malaise in Brazilian society: the deviation from their original functions aiming at attending minor or particular interests at the time of their implementation. Likewise, administration suffers from deviations when the management of the public issue is distributed among political parties. "Many problems are not solved by a political issue and the obstacles of the cities end up becoming a political platform, so there is no interest in solving them. We are impregnated with political behaviour. We bring political-partisan issues to the context of public policy discussion in a very exaggerated way," says Professor Arlindo Philippi Jr., who is participating in the 2017 Sabbatical Year Program at the IEA and develops the project 'Urban Experiences in the Perspective of New Ideas and Sustainable Solutions for the City.'

The ongoing work at the IEA will lead to proposals for public managers and urban researchers in the form of a book. The volume 'Urban Management and Sustainability' is due to be launched in early 2018 as part of the Manole Publishing House Environmental Collection, which Philippi Jr. has been developing for more than 10 years. The collection includes dozens of titles focusing on environmental issues, social issues, sustainable development, natural resources and public management. The present volume will count on the contribution of dozens of specialists in urban issues, including housing, sanitation, mobility, violence and management, among other topics.

Arlindo Philippi Jr: "Many problems are not solved by a political issue and the obstacles of the cities end up becoming a political platform"

According to Philippi Jr., the kind of management practiced in Brazilian cities has been exhausted for a long time. "The city does not deliver what the citizen needs in terms of service provision, land ownership and other issues. In general, planning includes good things and good ideas, but it is subverted in its implementation by contemplating minor issues to the detriment of what would be best for the citizen," says the professor.

The governability of the cities is also flawed, according to the researcher. "The huge Brazilian political spectrum appears and the mayor ends up distributing the functions of city administration between the parties. Thus, he uses only a little of the knowledge sedimented in the very structure of the public service, which are the effective employees, who should be ahead of the administration," he says.

For him, when some innovation is presented in public management, it is generally received with much criticism, but it is up to the administrator to demonstrate that the measures will provide well-being to the citizens. "When I was the mayor of USP's campus in the Butantã neighbourhood, we received a lot of criticism due to the implementation of the exclusive bus and bicycle lanes. But through the website of our administration we were showing the reasons for the change. Today, the vast majority of people respect these lanes," he exemplifies.

Citizen participation is another important issue for good public administration, recalls the professor. "There is no solution for anything including democracy if there is no participation of people. Citizen participation presupposes that citizens have access to management information. The term 'transparency' has been used as a word of effect and so we need to remember that transparency in public management means providing data and technical knowledge through a reliable system," he emphasizes.

Information systems are fundamental management tools. Many of them have been created and deployed, but fail because it is often not in the interest of the government to inform citizens, according to the professor. Likewise, indicators of sustainability and effective communication of public facts are ways of promoting citizenship, he recalls.

According to Philippi Jr., the book to be published will be sent to city managers with the intention of presenting innovations and successful experiments in public management. It may also serve as a basis for the training of professionals who want to work with the urban issue, as well as contribute to the submission of new research on the discussed topics.

Activities

Three seminars, a technical meeting, partnerships with new research groups and the publication of academic articles are activities included in the goals of the sabbatical project. Through the set of proposed experiments, discussions and reflections, the study will seek to contribute with ideas and solutions that respond to the daily needs of people in changing urban environment in view of the principles of sustainability and interdisciplinary articulation.

The meeting 'Urban Experiments, New Ideas and Sustainable Solutions for Cities', held in April, focused on the visions of various segments and brought the successful experiences of cities in fields such as energy, urban mobility, housing, urban agriculture and inclusive culture. "São Paulo, for example, has an information system, called PRODAM, which makes it possible to follow the most diverse demands of citizens. And managers can benefit from this database to improve management," exemplifies Philippi Jr.

In May, the 'Academic Meeting on Interdisciplinarity and Innovation in Universities of Excellence' brought researchers from the most prestigious universities and research institutions in Brazil to deal with knowledge frontier topics that require the interface between disciplines to solve complex problems.

"The practice of interdisciplinarity in teaching, research and extension requires innovative approaches. It is a form of knowledge production that implies theoretical and methodological exchanges that make the professional and the researcher leave their comfort zone. This type of approach is increasingly widespread in the world, and in Brazil there are excellent groups working on this issue. There are universities that have been entirely created from the presuppositions of interdisciplinarity, such as USP' School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH), the Federal University of Southern Bahia, the Federal University of the Southern Border and others," says the professor, who has already served as director of evaluation of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and has been the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary and Environmental Sciences areas of the institution.

The business management dealt with during the 'National Business & Sustainability Colloquium', held in June, concerns entrepreneurship and innovation, not necessarily private companies. The venture may refer to companies or public management, explains Philippi Jr. The event brought together public, private and civil society organizations that showed management models focused on good practices based on sustainability.

According to the professor, the next step will be to seek interaction between the various research groups of the IEA that work on issues related to the urban issue. "The idea is to bring together the coordinators of these research groups to an initial meeting in order to identify common objectives and areas of action, as well as new research fields and new partnerships," he says. The prospect is to hold the technical meeting in August.

The professor will also participate in the 14th International Conference on Urban Health, which will take place from September 24 to 28 in Coimbra, Portugal, as an activity planned for his sabbatical year at the IEA. Philippi Jr. will participate on September 25, attending the pre-conference 'Shaping policies to promote urban health equity: a socio-technical approach. Evidence from the EURO-HEALTHY case studies', having been invited by the EURO-HEALTHY project coordinator.

Organized by the International Society for Urban Health Secretariat, a part of The New York Academy of Medicine, the international meeting will address 'Equity in Health: The New Urban Agenda and the Goals of Sustainable Development.' The International Society of Urban Health (ISUH) is a global organization created in 2002 that brings together academics, governments, NGOs and companies to improve the health of cities.

Photos: Allan White and Leonor Calasans

Frederico Azevedo da Costa Pinto, one of IEA's sabbatical researchers in 2017

As natural as demonstrating joy and sadness is the expression of being sick. Among the vast repertoire of animal manifestations, "sick behavior" - as it is called among specialists - is the demonstration of discouragement, prostration, lack of appetite and the will to do nothing. These are clear signs that animals emit when they do not want social contact because they are sick. "It is the way to give the body time to recover and even preserve the social group from getting sick. But this behavior is being increasingly repressed in modern societies by the way workers' productivity is viewed," says Professor Frederico Azevedo da Costa Pinto, a specialist in experimental pathology and animal behavior, and participant in the IEA Sabbatical Year Program in 2017.

With the research project "Modern Man: An Animal Socially Deprived of the Right to Become Sick," the pathologist will go through the historical evolution of how the behaviors of sick individuals used to be viewed and how this behavior has been perceived in modern societies. In parallel, he will search for data in the related literature on the expression of this behavior among humans, relating them to the behavior of experimental animals.

The historical evaluation will allow to confront changes in the working day with the productivity expectations of the modern worker, he believes.

If in modern societies becoming ill becomes prohibitive, the counterpoint to "camouflage" disease is the increasingly common use of medicines. "Expressing unhealthy behavior would incur absences at work and therefore we are encouraged to take medication, often self-medication, in order to maintain the expected work day. Associated with this is the fact that the most prescribed and consumed classes of drugs in modern societies are precisely the palliative medicines for pains, colds and allergies, for example," he says.

The project will evaluate investments in research and dissemination of drugs aimed at the temporary relief of the malaise of certain diseases. "They are medicines that do not necessarily shorten the course of the disease; nor do they actually improve health conditions," says Costa Pinto.

"Let's not be purists. Taking medicine helps you getting through illness without suffering. But this does not prevent the individual from also staying in comfort at home. In reality, what we are trying to discuss is the fact that the individual takes medication to force themselves to continue working," he says.

In addition, there is the problem of excess and self-medication. In some countries, legislation allows drugs to be offered on gondolas, making access easier. But there are health systems, as in Canada, for example, where there is no excess or self-medication because there is no such facility of access, he compares.

Culture and legislation

Cultural differences also influence how the patient behaves. Even legislation can vary as a reflection of the cultural aspect, says the scientist. "Countries with more consistent social protection allow people to get sick, because the legislation provides for a longer sick leave. Even the longer maternity and paternity leave denote this kind of respect for the worker," he recalls.

On the contrary, countries that tend to work longer and with outsourced work place workers at increasingly absurd pressures, suppressing the individual's right to become ill, he says. "The right to get sick tends to become unacceptable in these societies, because they serve a logic that makes individuals expendable," he says.

But what is the problem in not allowing yourself to express the disease? "One of them, the most obvious one, is to take the disease to the social group, in the case of an individual who camouflages an infectious disease, for example," he says. Another problem in not manifesting the disease is the individual becoming increasingly subject to uncured diseases and that may have recurrences or become chronic. "We are talking about everyday diseases, not serious diseases. I have no doubt that not allowing yourself to fall ill will lead to a worse or incomplete recovery, since palliative medicines offer a momentary response to the symptoms of the disease," he says.

In addition, there are long-term emotional changes that seem to be associated with the fact that the person does not stop when they need to. "Not giving yourself this time can generate disorders, including psychological ones," says the pathologist.

All these cultural and legal aspects denote how much each society cares about the health of their citizens, he believes.

Similarities

We are more like animals than we imagine. Bizarre things that we assumed to be exclusive to humans have been observed among bugs. "For example, unplanned copulation, performed simply for the demonstration of power and hierarchical superiority. Hierarchy is key to understanding the behavior of getting sick. A senior executive and a doorman demonstrate different ways to get sick," he says.

The immune system has a lot to do with hierarchy, says the pathologist. "Some people do not demonstrate unhealthy behavior simply because they are more resilient, or because the hierarchical position in a company prevents it. They may not want to show vulnerability. Others do not express unhealthy behavior because they can not lose their jobs," he says.

Prurigo nodularis, an autoimmune disease of unknown cause

More and more research projects show that things that happen in the nervous system have physical connections. This includes the immune response, which is a protective response to infections. The same response that prepares the body for an immediate response, such as running away from a thug, is also the kind of response that modulates immunity, he compares. "Stress, for example, is an adaptive protective response described 80 years ago that works with this same mechanism," he says.

Subordination and immune response in animals have been studied to also evaluate how a "submissive" animal behaves in face of the disease. A research model, which injects bacteria to simulate disease in a rat pair, showed that the subordinate animal's pressures were different from the dominant's pressures, he says. "In this case, the dominant is allowed to demonstrate disease. The subordinate lends attention to the dominant and demonstrates to be socially submissive all the time, without being concerned with manifesting the unhealthy behavior", compares the scientist.

The most positive effects expected of his research is that it can subsidize public policies, says the researcher. "In a country with social, economic and political problems, it is utopian to think that these aspects of health are even considered. But in practice, I hope at the very least to raise a discussion about where industrial society is pushing the individual. It does not make sense to have an economy growing at the expense of the loss of individual freedom and the health of the individual. In fact, we need to rethink the culture of growth, industrialization, the consumer market, and profit. Growing up is a charge in all social groups and at all levels. But what grows without stopping is a tumor; is cancer," he says.

Images: Leonor Calasans; Michael Katotomichelakis, Dimitrios G Balatsouras, Konstantinos Bassioukas,
Nikolaos Kontogiannis, Konstantinos Simopoulos, Vassilios Danielides.

A new concept for the analysis of the sustainability conditions of urban and rural areas has been used by researchers in recent years. It is the "food-water-energy nexus" test, which seeks to examine the interrelationships of these three essential components of environmental and human quality. The subject was addressed in a public event on March 29, at the seminar Use of geographic methods to characterize social inequalities.

The seminar was organized by the IEA in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of Birmingham (UoB). Both Institutes are members the network University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS) and have been carrying out several activities together in recent years.

Researchers from the UoB, and the universities of Leicester and Northampton participated as exhibitors. The commentator was Thais Mauad, a professor at USP's School of Medicine and coordinator of IEA's Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU). The meeting was coordinated by Ligia Vizeu Barrozo, a professor at USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), and coordinator of IEA's Study Group on Urban Space and Health.

The first panel of the meeting addressed the research (Re)Connect the Nexus: Young Brazilians' Experiences of and Learning about Food, Water and Energy, developed by researchers from the three British universities and the São Paulo State University (UNESP).

The research is underway and aims to analyze the experiences of young people (10 to 24 years) in the Paraíba River Valley and the North Coast of the State of São Paulo with questions related to food, water resources and energy sources, as well as to verify what they know about the relationship between these three factors.

Peter Kraftl

Project coordinator Peter Kraftl, from the UoB, talked about the objectives and methodology of the research, the concept of food-water-energy nexus and the questioning of this approach. According to him, the notion of nexus has been advocated primarily by researchers and policy makers in the US and the UK. "One of the questions we want to evaluate is whether this idea is relevant to Brazil."

While nexus-based thinking may be useful for policy-making groups, "it involves creating connections and examining trade-offs that end up in an imposed holism, reducing complex social and material processes to mere components of the nexus, such as food and water," commented Kraftl. In his view, many researches ignore the reality of life of individuals and communities, and how they engage in the nexus.

Kraftl said that one of the main problems for formulating public policies from the nexus analysis is to minimize the trade-off as much as possible, such as in the dilemma between planting to produce food or biofuels. He asked: "Who makes these decisions? How are they made? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?"

However, he considers that examining how young people and policy makers see the interweaving of the components of the nexus influences people's lives and work, and can favor sustainability education.

Besides Kraftl, the research was commented by Catherine Walker, from the University of Leicester, who dealt with interviews with leaders and professionals, and Cristiana Zara, from the UoB, who talked about the interviews with young people from the Paraíba River Valley.

Detailed reference interviews with 5,000 young people in the region began in March. In the same period, qualitative interviews began with 50 young people. A mobile application has been provided to respondents to record their daily experiences regarding food, water, and energy. By June, 50 policy makers, including educators and representatives of the private sector and government agencies, will also be interviewed.

The project is also holding a video contest. Ten videos will be online on YouTube for young people around the world to vote for their favorites.

Walker said that the interviews with leaders and professionals is helpful in understanding the context in which young people are growing, their access to resources, restrictions on access, and what they know about natural resources. One of the highlights of these interviews, she says, is the issue of rural exodus. "The young do not find opportunities for development and education in the countryside, and are attracted to cities by a variety of factors. This is worrying, since there are already large concentrations of people in the Paraíba River Valley. And as small food producers move to the city, the land ends up being occupied by intensive agriculture, which demands more water."

Safety in regard to water has also appeared prominently in the interviews, with many references to the water crisis of 2014/2015. "Several respondents pointed out that people are aware of the importance of resources when they become scarce, but they end up reverting to pre-crisis consumption habits when the supply normalizes."

Zara, in turn, pointed out that in the interviews that are being held with 5,000 youngsters they reveal their strong cultural involvement with food, with great appreciation for the role of food in favor of sociability. In the case of water, she said that there is an expansion of concepts about the various uses of the resource (food, sanitation, agriculture, energy production and industrial use), with the incorporation of the theme in education for sustainability," although this does not happen uniformly in the education system."

According to Zara, young people show a strong sense of individual responsibility for the proper use of natural resources. "For many of them, if everyone does their small part, this will encourage sustainable practices in the community. At the same time there is a strong sense of the political dimension of the issue, with the demand that the state should also play its part."

The project led by Kraftl is funded by the National Council of the State Research Support Foundations (via FAPESP) and two UK institutions: the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Newton Fund.

Sophie Hadfield-Hill

Urbanism in India

The second part of the event dealt indirectly with aspects related to the nexus, but in the specific context of the Indian urban growth. The theme was the project New Urbanisms in India: Urban Life, Sustainability and Everyday Life, also supported by the ESRC. The speaker was coordinator Sophie Hadfield-Hill, from the UoB.

According to her, 590 million Indians will be living in cities by 2030, with 91 million middle-class families and 61 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants." The demands for this urban growth will require an investment of US$ 1.2 trillion.

Hadfield-Hill spoke about new housing developments under construction on the outskirts of Indian cities and threats to urban areas. "There is the pressure of population growth and migration on urban services, access to sanitation, water and energy, as well as impacts on land and other consequences of social inequality."

The main challenges are the provision of quality water, sewage collection and electricity supply. "According to the World Bank, only 16% of households have sewage collection. No Indian city has 24-hour water supply and only 1/4 of the population has access to electricity."

Despite all these difficulties for urban life in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, upon taking office in May 2014, proposed the creation of 100 smart cities, with the adaptation of existing cities and construction of entirely new cities, commented Hadfield-Hill. The proposal received several criticisms, she said, but 20 cities have already been selected through a national competition.

The Indian government defines smart cities as those that "care first about their most pressing needs and the best opportunities for improving the quality of life." They should use a range of approaches that include "digital and information technologies, best practices in urban planning, public-private partnerships, political change and thinking of people first," Hadfield-Hill said.

Among other initiatives, proposals for Indian smart cities include paving that captures the energy of moving cars, online water connections systems and smart bus stops.

As a case study she spoke about the construction of the city of Lavasa by a private enterprise. It will have five hubs (the first one is ready), house 300,000 inhabitants and receive 2 million tourists a year.

According to her, Lavasa is being built following the principles of new urbanism. Some of them are: sustainability; planned growth of density (population decreases as households move away from the center); mix of housing types, including income groups; ease of access to general services (10 minute-walk from home or work to most of them); architectural quality and urban design.

Photos: Marcos Santos/Jornal da USP

Ricardo Ohtake, new holder of the Olavo Setubal Chair of Arts, Culture and Science.

To address the trajectory of art and culture in Brazil from the post-Second War period until the crisis of 2016, and to analyze the current situation of institutions and activities in the field with prospects for the future, are some of the goals of the new holder of the Olavo Setubal Chair of Arts, Culture and Science, created in 2015 and officially launched in February 2016 by the IEA in partnership with Itaú Cultural. Architect, graphic designer and cultural manager Ricardo Ohtake took office on March 17, in a ceremony in the University Council Room that was attended by authorities, sponsors of the Chair, artists and scientists.

"The discussion of the future is what matters most, mainly because of the new political, social, economic, administrative and institutional situation in Brazil, which we know has created a legal anomaly in the country, provoking insecurity for the population and certain insecurity in the cultural environment", said Ohtake.

While opening the ceremony, Martin Grossmann, academic coordinator of the Chair, professor at USP's School of Communications and Arts (ECA), and former director of the IEA, welcomed the new holder and thanked the work done by diplomat and essayist Sérgio Paulo Rouanet, former national secretary of Culture and author of the bill to encourage culture that bears his name. During the inaugural year of the Chair, Rouanet developed the approximation between the borders of knowledge in the personal, institutional and scientific scopes, as he recalled in his speech.

The new activities will include the debate on the actions and the thinking of cultural leaders, and the participation of institutions in the development of the artistic and cultural field, in a reflection that will go back to the cultural history of Brazil, Grossmann showed.

Ohtake recalled the evolution of Brazilian society and mentality - including its typical contradictions and complexities with which "a modern and medieval country" was built - and related this trajectory to the steps taken by the country in the cultural and artistic fields.

He mentioned the beginnings of the cosmopolitanization of Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, with the emergence of icons such as the Vera Cruz Cinematographic Company, the TBC Brazilian Theater of Comedy, art institutions, the Biennale and museums, among them the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), created by the coffee bourgeoisie.

To expose and develop his own trajectory as a cultural leader in the context of the city, the country and internationally will be one of Ohtake's pursued goals. He will also invite critics, cultural leaders, artists and historians to participate in debates and testimonials; approach the relationship between art and politics and the role of exhibitions in the art debate; and analyze the role of cultural leaders in the development of institutions and thinking.

The new holder intends to bring his experience of more than 50 years in this field. He has been Secretary of Culture of the State of São Paulo, Secretary of the Green and Environment of São Paulo, director of the São Paulo Cultural Center, and director of the Museum of Image and Sound and the Brazilian Cinematheque. He has lectured in several architecture, communications and plastic arts faculties and was curator of the Brazilian participation at the Architecture Biennale of Venice in 2010.

The Ohtake family is one of the most influential for the arts and architecture in Brazil. Ricardo Ohtake is son of artist Tomie Ohtake (1913-2015) and brother of architect Ruy Ohtake, who signs the project of the famous building that houses the Tomie Ohtake Institute. He has graduated from USP's Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU), and currently directs the Tomie Ohtake Institute.

"If, on the one hand, cultural activity is always provided by very limited resources, on the other hand it always requires a lot of imagination and daring for propositions to be solved. The leader does not have to be an intellectual, but he must know where the concepts, the variations of approaches, the artists, the history of art, and also the engineering of the activities take place. As the resource is never enough, knowing how to give priorities and alternatives is fundamental to make sense of everything that is done," he said.

While reviewing his own career, Ohtake recalled his childhood, when he invented things and plays on the street in the 'Mooca' neighborhood, in São Paulo. "I realized with surprise that I internalized what critic Mário Pedrosa said in the 1950s to my mother: 'The key is to be original.' I understood that I always had to be original, not only in artistic creation."

From the left: Eduardo Saron, Ricardo Ohtake, José Roberto Sadek, Vahan Agopyan, Sérgio Paulo Rouanet, Roberto Setúbal and Paulo Saldiva.

Tributes

The Olavo Setubal Chair of Arts, Culture and Science, created to foster interdisciplinary reflections on academic, artistic-cultural and social issues in the regional and global contexts, has been taking the form of an "experimental platform for freedom", according to Grossmann.

"If Rouanet practiced the permanent exercise of criticism by producers, and academic and cultural institutions during this period, Ricardo Ohtake intends to explore the experimental exercise of freedom, be it as a public figure, as a cultural manager, or through his wisdom and his constant thinking that produces an exemplary practice in the field of the arts and culture," said Grossmann.

In almost 12 months of activity as holder of the Chair, Rouanet has sought broad approximations and interactions in the epistemic, institutional or even personal fields, he showed. "The participation of so many colleagues in the effort to give prestige to other areas of knowledge, culture, arts, psychoanalysis, science and philosophy was an attempt to minimize the gap between the human sciences and other sciences," he said.

For Rouanet, the Chair has been a unique opportunity to deepen the effort to unify science a little more; an effort that was extended to the institutional field, with USP interacting with other institutions.

In the words of IEA's director Paulo Saldiva, the ceremony brings the symbolic sign of generosity and passion expressed in the "action of sponsors such as Itaú Cultural, or in the work of people like Ricardo Ohtake, who come to share their experience, teach and illuminate the spirit."

The Chair also celebrates the union between academia, artists, intellectuals and young people who could see the example of rare values such as leadership and enchantment, Saldiva said. "Values such as generosity, passion and enchantment for study are sorely lacking for our youth today. These are feelings that make things happen despite all the difficulties," he emphasized.

USP's Vice-President Vahan Agopyan has stressed the importance of interlocution between academia and external sectors provided by chairs and interdisciplinary instances as the IEA. "I often say that the IEA is the think tank of USP: a place for debates on cross-cutting themes and, as well as the chairs, capable of promoting interaction with society. Dialogue with society is a challenge of the 21st century for all universities, and with the support of Itaú Cultural we are managing to increase this interaction," said Agopyan.

Roberto Setúbal, executive president of Itaú bank, when speaking about the support for the Chair, preferred to recall his father's personality and his tradition of appreciation for culture, his career as an entrepreneur and an engineer graduated from USP's Polytechnic School (POLI). "Severe, firm and demanding, but always very open to dialogue and new ideas. A man of science and research - he has worked at the Institute of Technological Research (IPT). A mayor who created the São Paulo Secretariat of Culture, a gesture that made me very proud in my student days and that shows how he valued culture and was open to the new," he said.

Eduardo Saron, director of Itaú Cultural, recalled the important role of Ohtake in the democratization of culture and arts in Brazil. "The democratization of access to culture, so much discussed by managers in the country, is a theme that will remain for a long time. Art and culture are beyond the needs and rights of the citizen. If the artist thinks of art as a field of desires, managers and actors of cultural politics need to think about culture in this aspect. It is not a matter of democratizing access only. It is about autonomy and freedom of expression. Cultural democracy thinks and understands the individual as an actor of self; an autonomous citizen who has the right to freedom of expression; to see and experience all cultures," said Saron.

Professor Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, from USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), was invited to give the reception address to the honoree. She recalled the work done with Ohtake and the projects undertaken at the Tomie Ohtake Institute.

Lilia Schwarcz, from USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH): "Ricardo Ohtake has distributed gifts in the fields of art and culture".

"A visionary of the arts, an intellectual of culture, an academic of the world of museums, of the arts in the broad sense, he knows that culture is what it does. In Ricardo Ohtake's words, among the various ways of assessing the success of different art forms, there is a unifying question, which is the transformation that the viewer of art undergoes before a work, and the emotion that provides a new knowledge, a new sensitivity, and / or a new experience," said Schwarcz.

For Schwarcz, Ohtake has "distributed gifts": he has toured the fields of architecture, graphic arts, decoration, urbanism, drawing, theater, education, cinema, publishing, dance, photography and the plastic arts; he has made exhibitions, documentaries, film festivals; sponsored concerts; created drawings for many books. "He has inspired generations, having passed through numerous institutions until landing at the Tomie Ohtake Institute, which opened for all kinds of experimentation."

"It is impossible to meet Ricardo without being deeply affected by his history, his smile, his generosity, his very noisy silence, and his transforming affection. I congratulate USP for realizing that Ricardo is a born scholar in the sublime function of being a cultural multiplier, and thus an immense distributor of gifts, an intellectual open to diversity, plurality and equality in this unfortunately unequal country," said the professor.

The State Secretary for Culture of São Paulo, José Roberto Sadek, highlighted the important link between the university and society promoted by the Chair, and the promotion of non-polarized dialogue, treated with the complexity and nuances that the theme requires.

Researchers of the University of Birmingham will present two studies of their research on sustainable cities at the IEA. On March 29, at 10.00 am, Peter Kraftl and Sophie Hadfield-Hill will give the conference Use of Geographic Methods to Characterize Social Inequalities in the Institute's Events Room. The debate will be broadcast live.

Kraftl and members of his research team will discuss the Sustainable Cities research theme at the University of Birmingham and two ongoing research projects. This ESRC and FAPESP funded research project aims to examine young people's (aged 10-24) understandings, experiences and participation in the food-water-energy nexus in Brazil. Each presentation will be 20-minutes long before opening for a Q&A session.

The paper (Re)Connect the Nexus: Young Brazilians' Experiences of and Learning about Food, Water and Energy, by Kraftl, examines early findings from a large-scale project that examines young Brazilians’ (aged 10-25) experiences of and learning about the food-water-energy nexus. The starting point will be to discuss the concept of the 'nexus', questioning the usefulness of this frame in the contemporary Brazilian context – both conceptually and politically. Whilst it may have its uses in policy circles, nexus thinking implies the fashioning of connections and the scrutiny of trade-offs that leads towards an imposed holism, reducing complex socio-material processes to blank nexus components like ‘food’ or ‘water’. The rest of the paper presents findings from early research with young people and policy-makers about how food, water and energy are entwined in their lives and work. In particular, the focus is upon the implications for sustainability education and sustainable urbanism. Finally, the paper reflects on how these findings might prompt academics to critically and constructively re-think ‘nexus thinking’ in contexts such as Brazil.

Planning for sustainable urban transformation – research, impact and evidence from India is the title of the paper to be presented by Hadfield-Hill. Urban transformation is on the Indian agenda. From visions, to plans and sites of construction, Indian cities are undergoing change. As the Indian government puts plans in motion for a suite of Smart City initiatives – including retrofitting, redevelopment, greenfield development and pan-city approaches – it is the experiences and impact on people and place that need significant consideration. This presentation will draw on two research projects in India funded by the ESRC to showcase key findings based on children, young people and their families experiences of urban  change. The first project, New Urbanisms in India, draws on data from 350 people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds living in a site of urban transformation, a new private, urban development. Twelve core themes emerged from the analysis ranging from the importance of education provision, issues of (dis)connection, living in shifting landscapes as well as a series of social, cultural and economic impacts related to urban change. The second project, Map my Community, focuses on participatory planning processes in informal settlements in Delhi. Using innovative methodological tools, the voices and experiences of diverse publics are collated and are used to campaign for change. These diverse urban spaces, from the private to the informal, show the complexities of issues associated with planning for sustainable urban transformation.

The conference will be moderated by geographer Ligia Vizeu Barrozo, from USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), and coordinator of IEA's study group on Urban Space and Health, and Marcos Buckeridge, a professor at USP's Institute of Biosciences and coordinator of the USP Global Cities Program. The comments will be from Ana Lydia Sawaya, a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) and coordinator of IEA's Nutrition and Poverty Research Group, and Helena Ribeiro, from USP's School of Public Health (FSP) and a member of IEA's Environment and Society Research Group.

Photo: YGLvoices/Flickr

Saldiva remembers that "air pollution can not be solved with medication or health campaigns." It involves urban planning, issues related to mobility, studies on land use and occupation.

According to the researcher, while cigarette smoking is seen as a public health issue, air pollution is still not, even though about 14,000 people die early because of it only the city of São Paulo every year.

Saldiva's research integrates the USP Global Cities Program, which aims to draw scientifically sound proposals that can improve the quality of life in cities.

The USP Global Cities Program has the support from the rectory of the University and will seek support for public policies for the quality of life of São Paulo

Global cities influence the world. Regardless of their population size, they centralize global decisions. They are places where the best business deals are made and where the best art is located. One can also find the best orchestras, the best universities and the best food there. Their importance even transcends the countries where they are located. They not only attract more investment but also hold the top positions in quality of life. The criteria for a city to become a global city, which have been created by A.T. Kearney management consulting, give São Paulo the 34^th place in the overall ranking. But the USP Global Cities Program, launched on July 13 at the Oscar Freire Institute of USP's School of Medicine (FM-USP), intends to make São Paulo enter the group of the so-called elite cities, according to Marcos Buckeridge, a professor at USP's Institute of Biosciences (IB) and coordinator of the program.

2016 Ranking of the elite cities by A.T. Kerney management consulting

The event has brought together representatives of the civil society and non-governmental organizations, as well as researchers, politicians, and public and academic managers. Fernando Haddad, the mayor of São Paulo, has also attended the meeting in the company of his wife, Ana Estela Haddad, a professor at USP's School of Dentistry.

"The initiative is essential to the future of São Paulo. We will offer our databases, our intelligence and our public servants to contribute to the success of the program," said Haddad.

The project has been conceived by the director of the IEA, Paulo Saldiva, and meets a request from the rectory of USP, which plans to support the program "for years", said the vice-president of the University, Professor Vahan Agopyan.

According to Buckeridge, activities and research should be a base to public policies on quality of life in large cities, especially São Paulo. The idea is to systematize and deepen studies that are already carried out at the University, with a view to planning in areas such as mobility, pollution, waste, health, education, leisure, and land use and occupation. In short, the numerous aspects that involve life in large cities, he said.

"The IEA is already a crucial interlocutor, a sort of 'think tank' able to interact more freely with society with regard to academic rules. The program heads one of the priority themes of USP and I am sure that we will have benefits for the population in a few years," said Agopyan.

Vahan, Haddad and Saldiva: constructive partnerships with society and dialogue between various fields of knowledge for the success of the program

"We will seek to promote a dialogue between various fields of knowledge from constructive partnerships and common agendas. The University must learn to listen to society and the IEA will be a platform to make this happen. The idea is to link research networks and interested civil society groups to work in the light of scientific knowledge," said Saldiva.

Lawyer and environmentalist Fabio Feldmann has attended the opening session and gave a concrete example of how research at the University can become a base to public policy and bring effective results for the quality of life in cities. He recalled the traffic restriction program in São Paulo, which was introduced in 1995, when he was Secretary of State for the Environment. "We created the program based on the studies of Professor Saldiva. I often say that Saldiva designed the project and I carried the can," he joked.

He explained that the comment was made to remember the importance of involving politics and knowledge. "What we have seen in Brazil recently is a radical loss of contents in politics. As we associate politics to content we will have chance to rescue the country. The presence of Saldiva at the IEA is an incredible possibility of a realignment of various social actors. Anyone who has worked in public administration knows that the biggest challenge is how to make this joint," he said.

Professor Wilson Jacob Filho, from the FM-USP's Department of Pathology, has represented the unit's director and recalled the importance of the program to, among other goals, work in health and prevention of diseases of different population groups, particularly the elderly.

Buckeridge: "We have failed to produce databases and information that may support the diagnosis"

Population ageing, as well as physical and social inclusion of people with functional limitations, are issues that are increasingly becoming priorities in the context of large cities. "The USP Global Cities Program inteds to improve the quality of life of this population profile," said Professor Jacob Filho.

Urban planet

Urbanization is present on the worldwide agenda. If today 54% of the population live in urban areas, by 2050 this share will reach two-thirds. In Latin America the proportion will reach 89%, according to the UN report.

In the May issue of Science Magazine, 12 papers present diagnostics and revisions to the cities of the future. One of the studies shows that building knowledge-based societies is now a key strategy for the best use of innovative technologies. Knowledge societies will be better prepared to maximize the advances of science, technology and innovation (ST&I), according to the text.

"There is nothing more complex than a city. It is the only environment where man is wolf to man. We have been raised in a city concept where car ownership was an alienable right, such as the cigarette was a symbol of success or virility. Tinkering with values is not easy and so the cities are already being studied within the concept of complexity," said Saldiva.

"Unfortunately, none of the 12 articles of Science Magazine mentions the city of São Paulo, showing that we have failed to produce databases and information that may support the diagnosis," said Buckeridge.

Another paper, published in U.S.News, shows how the perception or image that people have of a given city can help or hinder their growth. This is because the way cities are seen can or not attract investment and skilled labor, which will influence the prosperity of the place.

Buckeridge showed some details of the ranking of global cities produced by A.T. Kearney. São Paulo ranks #34 in 2016. In 2008, the city held the 31^st position.

"To create the ranking, the consulting firm has used existing data produced by cities, what we are still unable to do. This shows that have we also failed to gather data. We need to also produce information and new knowledge to give subsidy to public policy. "

However, the improvement of the indicators in São Paulo is not only to meet the first world's criteria, but mainly to improve the life quality of its inhabitants, pointed out the professor.

"We will seek those international standards, but always with Carmen Miranda's hat on our head. We will not stop being Brazilian. We should not abandon Modern Art Week or Mário de Andrade. We must remember that we can always be innovative. We are able to get those rates while creating new things," said  Buckeridge.

An analysis produced in 2014 by A.T. Kearney created the indicator of global cities of the future, that is, those who would have a chance to approach the position held by the currently called elite cities. In this ranking, São Paulo holds the 4^th position and the biggest challenges for the city to actually reach this place in the future are related to education and innovation, showed Buckeridge. "Education and innovation are precisely the contribution that the University can give. Therefore I believe that the outlook is positive," said the professor.

Images: Andre Deak/Flicker and Leonor Calasans

Community garden: the project has managed to involve students, staff and professors of the FM.

The Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU) will hold debates and conduct studies on the theme "Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in São Paulo: Possibilities, Connections and Contemporaneity". Approved by the IEA's Board on May 9, it will be coordinated by Professor Thais Mauad, from the USP's School of Medicine (FM), an expert in urban health and founder of the community garden at the FM.

The GEAU will be hosted at the IEA for two years, producing scientific studies on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) with emphasis on the city of São Paulo and its metropolitan region (RMSP).

Among the activities that have already been planned is a seminar with the participation of professors and researchers from the University of Melbourne to be held in August. The debate will address the research topic of Professor Mauad: "Achieving sustainable food production and irrigation in São Paulo and Melbourne," which seeks to understand, improve and promote the resilience of urban food production systems in these two cities.

The schedule for 2017 includes the presentation of the studies' results, as well as the publication of articles and the participation of group members in conferences and seminars.

The garden of the IEE is the result of the project Criando Terra no IEE ("Creating Earth at the IEE"), an example of urban gardening in an academic environment.

The GEAU has six members and two collaborating researchers from different areas. Given its interdisciplinary approach, the group brings together experts from the FM, the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), the Graduation Program in Environmental Sciences (PROCAM) of the USP's Institute for Energy and Environment (IEE), the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the Université Rennes 2.

The research team was the winner in the academic category of the 5th Fecomércio Sustainability Award in 2015, with the project "Urban Agriculture: Production, Retail and Food Consumption." For the members of the GEAU, the award is "a great step forward in spreading the importance of urban agriculture in Brazil and São Paulo."

The studies should contribute to the debate about the nature of actors, social relations, socio-spatial dynamics and impacts generated by the UPA. The understanding of the new socio-spatial configurations generated by this branch are important to foster the academic debate on the contemporary urban world, according to the project's proponents.

In addition to establishing partnerships and disseminating the concept of urban agriculture, the studies aim at contributing with theoretical and methodological frameworks to explain urban phenomena, especially regarding the situation of the city of São Paulo and Latin America.

The Berlin-Tempelhof airport was disabled in 2008 and turned into an horticulture and leisure space after the claiming of civil movements.

Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU)

Coordination: Thais Mauad (FM-USP)

Vice-coordination: Valéria de Marcos (FFLCH-USP)

Permanent members:

Angélica Campos Nakamura, Giulia Giacchè, Guilherme Reis Ranieri, Gustavo Nagib, Luís Fernando Amato Lourenço and Lya Cynthia Porto de Oliveira.

Collaborating researchers:

Mário Aquino Alves and Amalia Inés Geraiges de Lemos.

Photos: HortaFSPUSP.blogspot.com.br / Cecília Bastos and Marcos Santos (JornalUSP)/ Sylvia Miguel (personal archive)

In order to explore this topic and to encourage changes, issue #86 of the Institute's journal 'Estudos Avançados' brings a dossier of seven articles on metropolises and health. "This dossier takes up one of the journal's goals: the combination of the objective study of Brazilian social problems with consistent and responsible public policy proposals," explains Alfredo Bosi, editor of the publication. The full content is already available at SciELO. To purchase a printed version (Portuguese only), please write to estavan@usp.br.

Paulo Saldiva, director of the IEA and a professor at the USP's School of Medicine, has closely worked with this issue, both with the publication of an article and with editorial advice. For years he has led research seeking to trace potential ways to improve the quality of life in cities. In the new issue's opening article, Saldiva, together with Laís Fajerstajn and Mariana Veras, gives concrete examples to answer how cities can improve or hinder the health of their residents.

"The anti-smoking law, which banned smoking in collective indoor spaces in the State of São Paulo in 2009, has reduced the exposure of nonsmokers to tobacco smoke. This law has also resulted in the decrease of the cigarettes / day rate among smokers," say the authors, completing with an opposite example: "The mobility crisis [in São Paulo] affects health not only because of the time lost in traffic and the adverse impacts of exposure to air pollution but also for its contribution to obesity, emotional stress, among others. In a congested city, children do not play in the street and adults do not return home for lunch", they argue.

In addition to this first article, six others make up the dossier "Metropolises and health". The authors are Aluisio Cotrim Segurado, Alex Jones Cassenote, Expedito de Albuquerque Luna, Suzana Pasternak, Helena Ribeiro, Célia Regina Pesquero, Micheline de Sousa Zanotti S. Coelho, Steffani Nikoli Dapper, Caroline Spohr, Roselaine Ruviaro Zanini, Emílio Telesi Júnior, Luís Fernando Amato-Lourenço, Tiana Carla Lopes Moreira, Bruna Lara de Arantes, Demóstenes Ferreira da Silva Filho and Thais Mauad.

The new issue of the journal also features a set of articles on literature, with readings of poetry and fictional works, and social sciences. Bernardo Sorj, a former visiting professor at the IEA, contributes with a text on democratic coexistence as polytheism of values. There are also essays on the Brazilian truth commission (by journalist Eugênio Bucci), on the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, on the political construction of Brazil, and on the public university in neoliberal times. The list below contains the names of the authors who have contributed with each one of the addressed themes:

Social sciences and the search for a meaning

Bernardo Sorj
Danilo Martuccelli
Ricardo Abramovay

Literature

Alfredo Bosi
José Feres Sabino
André Luis Rodrigues
Diego A. Molina
Alessandra Matias Querido

Current affairs

Eduardo Tomasevicius Filho
Jacques Marcovitch

Comments

Eugênio Bucci
Rubens R. Sawaya
Samuel Araújo
Bernardo Parodi Svartman
Matheus Cardoso da Silva

Photo: Marcos Santos/USP Imagens