Showing papers in "Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais in 2007"

Por que carreiras políticas na esquerda e na direita não são iguais? Recrutamento legislativo em Brasil, Chile e Uruguai

Abstract: The article identifies models of political careers to explain different patterns of legislative recruitment. The models examines different partisan strategies of candidates selection, according to [1] ideological position, [2] time of existence of each party organization; and [3] mobilization of individual resources or collective social resources of organizations and social associations. In this perspective, left parties would present further social pluralism in benches composition, as well as more durable and previous partisan bonds to the beginning of the political career candidates. In contrast, traditional partisan structures recruiting its candidates with personal electoral capital and political careers constructed previously and out to the party bonds. Futhermore, the time of existence of each party is an important variable to explain political careers patterns. Longevities political parties have the most endogenous partisan recruitment of its candidates.

Corporalidade em confronto: brasileiras na indústria do sexo na Espanha

Abstract: Tomando como referencia a insercao de brasileiras no mercado do sexo espanhol, neste texto analiso como corporalidade e genero se integram na intensa concorrencia que tem lugar na industria transnacional do sexo contemporânea. Traco, primeiro, as trajetorias dessas mulheres, considerando as implicacoes culturais, politicas e economicas dessa modalidade de migracao. Criando uma perspectiva comparativa a partir da consideracao das conceitualizacoes acionadas nos relacionamentos entre estrangeiros e brasileiras no marco da industria do sexo no Brasil, considero, depois, o significado da alteracao de contextos para a articulacao das diferenciacoes permeando as interacoes das brasileiras que se inserem no mercado do sexo espanhol. Essa questao e elucidada explorando como as construcoes de genero, nacionalidade/ etnicidade, "raca", classe e idade sao acionadas nas interacoes comerciais estabelecidas por essas migrantes.

A favela que se vê e que se vende: reflexões e polêmicas em torno de um destino turístico

Abstract: The article discusses the development of the favela into a tourist attraction, examining how promoters in four different favelas have been attempting to actually place them in a tourist market. The development of the favela into a tourist destination is seen as part of the socalled reality tours phenomenon and of the global circulation of the favela as a trademark. The methodology included different strategies: long interviews with qualified informants, field observation, and participant observation in different tours. The article concludes with some thoughts on my own research experience on such a polemic field of investigation.

Temas sobre a organização dos intelectuais no Brasil

Abstract: This article chooses some subjects for the research on exerting the intellectual activity in the Brazil analyzing three distinct historical moments and the three corresponding ways of organization of intellectuals: the Academies and Institutes, the University, and the non-governmental organizations. The main suggestion is the continuity of the figure of the Brazilian public intellectual, differing from the perspectives that point to the decline of this character in strong university institutionalization contexts. The inclusion of NGOs in the reflection, though surpassing the prevailing model to deal with the theme in Brazil, aims at stimulating the debate on the intellectual activity in the country in a moment of outstanding structural transformations in the realm of culture.

O viés majoritário na política comparada: responsabilização, desenho institucional e qualidade democrática

Abstract: The article reviews the main recent contributions to the literature of comparative politics and discusses its majoritarian bias. The latter manifests itself in two ways. First, in the discussion of the quality of democracy exclusively in terms of the issue of accountability - a concept that is deeply rooted in the majoritarian normative ideal. Second, in the assumption increasingly made that the concentration of political authority is a pre-condition for accountability.

Tensões e disputas na sociologia paulista (1940-1970)

Abstract: This paper interprets the formation decades of the Paulista sociology (1940-70) in the light of the main disputes among institutions, groups, and agents occurred in this context, which was unified by the attempt of explaining the recalcitrant Brazilian modernization. Following this direction, the specific sociologies, which had been gradually constituted, were primarily analysis perspectives and not specializations themselves. The exposition takes alternative pairs as references, which involved oppositions such as: essay vs. science; radical thinking vs. conservative thinking; empirical theory vs. empirical research; totalizing interpretation vs. dualist interpretation; Sociology of Development vs. Sociology of Culture. The tensions that make up the period are delimitated from those oppositions, which should not be rigidly understood.

Risco e contingência

Abstract: References to the society of risk have become common and frequently tend to express more the spirit of uncertainty and insecurity of times than some properly defined sociological theory. The article briefly recalls the contribution of Beck and Luhmann, among others, to the sociology of risk and then moves towards the interpretation of risk as some aspect of the contingency of the modern society. Contingency awareness, though present in the occidental thinking since Aristotle, gained some accelerating impulse with Descartes’ methodical doubting, before dramatically imposing itself with the implosion of the grand metaphysical systems. Making references to Tomas de Aquino and Richard Rorty, the article proposes reintegrating its essence to its accidental meaning. In rescuing the paradoxical structure of contingency it can then come to a better understanding of the standards of possibility for technical modernity.

A agenda institucional

Abstract: A análise do efeito das instituições políticas sobre o comportamento dos atores políticos ou sobre o conteúdo das decisões políticas ganhou grande proeminência nos estudos em ciência política realizados no Brasil. O postulado básico de que “as instituições importam” foi incorporado à agenda de pesquisa da ciência política brasileira, assim como parte expressiva do debate entre os cientistas políticos está voltada a responder à pergunta de quais são as instituições mais adequadas para que tenhamos um sistema democrático, representativo e estável. De fato, o tema das instituições tem grande apelo tanto para os cientistas sociais motivados a produzir orientações normativas e/ou recomendações políticas como para aqueles motivados a produzir conhecimento científico. Como demonstraram Ferejohn e Pasquino, a longa história da teoria política é reveladora das estreitas conexões entre os projetos normativo e positivo, posto que:

O senado e as aprovações de autoridades: um estudo comparativo entre Argentina e Brasil

Abstract: Though an important function of the Latin American senates, the confirmation of presidential nominations has drawn little academic attention. This paper assesses empirically the way in which two Latin American upper chambers – the Argentine and Brazilian senates – made use of their confirmation prerogatives between 1989 and 2003, namely, if one of deference to the executive proposals or a more active role including both consultation and oversight. To do this, the article first analyses all nominations regarding outcome (confirmed, rejected and withdrawn) and length of process. Then, the similarities and differences are used to advance some explanatory hypotheses. Special attention is paid to the impact of political factors, mainly divided government, and institutional features, mainly the senates’ internal rules for the organization of the legislative work.

Ethos emergente: notas etnográficas sobre o "sucesso"

Abstract: In the 1990s, the sociological map in Rio de Janeiro witnessed a new social segment. The "new emerging society," a network of relations formed by social subjects abiding a recent and expressive social ascension, has been in the print media for six years. The term "emerging," borrowed from the economic terminology used to refer to ascending economies, though sometimes used for stigmatization, prizes successful people with a special appreciation, for it has the appeal of metamorphosing historical yearnings of a promising Brazilianism. Based on newspaper articles and ethnography carried out from living amid integrants of such network, the article analyses the complex ideation referring to concepts of productivity, competitiveness, and economic success prevailing in the contemporary Brazilian society.

A formação de um mercado de microfinanças no sertão da Bahia

Abstract: This paper analyses the organizational and cultural basis over which financial markets in poor regions are built. The action of grassroots organizations (as the basis of communities of the Catholic Church) has been especially important in the promotion of a cultural change process and in the formation of a thick network of organizations which enlarged the access of farmers both to financial markets and new channels of commercialization. This paper reconstructs the historical processes of constitution of credit unions, showing especially the influence of natural factors (as the climate, for instance) over the "sertanejo’s" rationality and the social structures of the new economic organizations.

A eficácia simbólica da memória e seus limites

Abstract: This paper evaluates, based on an analysis of family feuds and political dispute occurring in a county in the State of Ceara, different uses of memory as an affirmative tool by factions involved in election campaigns. After the mayor’s assassination, the recollection of the crime served as reference to several election campaigns, including actions of a juridical nature by means of which the split between victims and culprits was recovered. In the last election, speeches with reference to the need of "forgetting" the past and "thinking about what would be better for the county" prevailed and led to the victory of some relatives of the accused of the mayor’s death in 1998. Based on an assessment of the political situation in the county of Acarau, this paper approaches the issue of converting memory to political emblem, asserting the limits of its symbolic effectiveness and the latest (re)signifying of the "past."

Os outros alemães de Sérgio: etnografia e povos indígenas em Caminhos e fronteiras

Abstract: This article analyses the presence of ethnography, especially the German ethnographic tradition, in part of the oeuvre by the historian Sergio Buarque de Holanda. In order to achieve this, we will focus on the book Caminhos e fronteiras (1957), a collection of essays written during the decade in which Sergio Buarque was the director of the Museu Paulista (1946-1956). This article is divided in two interconnected parts, namely, one about the author’s experience when directing the Museu Paulista and how he got in contact with ethnology in that period; and one on how themes and concepts that were important in the German ethnological tradition also play a significant role in the book Caminhos e fronteiras. We intend to prove that ethnography was a central part of Sergio Buarque’s analysis of the colonization of the outskirts of Portuguese America.

Entre a plutocracia e a legitimação da dominação financeira

Abstract: At a first sight the financial universe seems opaque for a sociological analysis. One of the ways of entering this important space in the current Brazilian reality is by registering the performance of some public figures and the internal and outside shocks that such appearances cause. This article shows some characteristics of this "field," especially those that internally dynamize it, as well as its relation with the inclusive society.

Integração e diferença em encontros disciplinares

Abstract: Scientific approaches build their objects based on proposals that can be related to social and political projects. Although interdisciplinary researches respond to an increasing social demand, they face obstacles because they both defy the knowledge that has been institutionalized and need new scientific paradigms. The limits of each new area of knowledge need to be defined and accepted by the scientific community. The aim of this article is the establishment of concepts that allow the scientific community to recognize different limits and, consequently, the possibilities of integration and respect to difference, which will be essential to the construction of different objects, methods, paradigms, and language within each new scientific field of the social sciences.

A arte da catira: negócios e reprodução familiar de sitiantes mineiros

Abstract: Este artigo analisa os negocios costumeiros de sitiantes de Minas Gerais, as catiras, investigando porque se empenham nessas transacoes, quais destinos dao aos ganhos que obtem, e como constroem solidas redes de trocas baseadas em relacoes de confianca. Assim formam, aos poucos, importantes patrimonios materiais e simbolicos. Esse movimento economico local, regido por regras proprias e articulado perifericamente aos mercados nacionais, e vital para as suas estrategias de reproducao, para gerar, conservar e ampliar os patrimonios. A logica peculiar dessas trocas explica varios procedimentos, que geralmente sao considerados pouco racionais por tecnicos e pesquisadores, mas que fazem parte de muitos calculos, levados a cabo por anos, para ampliar o peculio da familia.

Mobilizações homossexuais e estado no Brasil: São Paulo (1978-2004)

Abstract: This paper analyses the mobilizations of the homosexual movement in the city of Sao Paulo in the period between 1978 and 2004. The objective is to understand how the relation of this movement with the State has eased or hardened the mobilization around homosexuality, especially in the current context of the AIDS epidemic.

Les Maîtres Fous, de Jean Rouch: questões epistemológicas da relação entre cinema documental e produção de conhecimento

Abstract: This paper analyses the icon of the documental cinema Les maitres fous, by Jean Rouch, from the theoretical questioning discussed by Foucault in What is an author, having as reference the typology of analysis of documentaries proposed by Bill Nichols. We aim at understanding the film primarily as a discourse on the world and not as a film of Jean Rouch. This forces the scholar to take some epistemological deviation, which consists in not performing the analysis based on its evident information, the "description" of a ritual, but by the search of the fundamental concepts of the filmic narrative, dialectical unity of form and content. The paper proposes an analysis in which the film emerges as the least one of a conservative tradition, whose repercussions were decisive for the essential filmic and epistemological rupture towards the rich and meaningful unfoldings the works of Rouch unveiled afterwards.

A geografia no contexto das ciências sociais em Pernambuco

Abstract: In this unpublished paper Manuel Correia de Andrade presents a historical tracing on the transforming process in the field of geography in Brazil, dealing especially with the state of Pernambuco. The author tries to delimitate both in space and time what geography would be, as well as its relations with the various natural and social sciences that are close to or interpenetrated within. He analyzes, then, the commencements of such process in the beginning of the twentieth century with studies, not always considered geographical, passing through crucial moments such as the foundation of the Brazilian Association of Geographers in the 1930s, the flourishing of the field in the 1950s, and the impact of the military coup d’etat of 1964 in the area of geographic studies.

Vidas de artistas: Portugal e Brasil

Abstract: This article deals with writings about art, particularly the sort of "artists’ lives" and their role in the formation of the artistic environment in Lisbon and in Rio de Janeiro. As in their origin, in the Italian sixteenth century, the "artists’ lives" have been articulated to the establishment of Academies, and they had an important role in the artists elevation as a social group, which was possible with the concomitant elevation of the drawing arts to the condition of liberal arts. This change of state always depended on a double discursive articulation. For one side, that one which in the biographic perspective individualizes the artist and, by the praise, confers him the nobility of the merit; for the other side, that one which inscribes him in the tradition of the city or, later, in national traditions, giving to his art a historical perspective that mixes his achievements with the achievements of the city in arms, letters, sciences, and other virtues.

Coalizões eleitorais e ajuste fiscal nos estados brasileiros

Abstract: In federal countries that have reinstated the popular vote for state governors and in which fiscal adjustment is a priority, the states have become important players in fiscal control. The article analyzes the impact of policies of hard budget constraints on the electoral results for state governors and challenges the hypothesis that state politics in Brazil are moved by clientelism, by policies not affecting the status quo (traditional politics) and by the use of public resources to sustain them. I argue that state politics in Brazil is driven by several rationales. Different rationales give room for state politicians to adopt fiscal policies and still be reelected or elect their candidates for governorship. Three states have been selected to test these hypotheses: Bahia, Ceara, and Parana.

A sociologia da religião como recapitulação da teologia cristã: Weber e as raízes proféticas do racionalismo ocidental

Abstract: Since the seminal writings of Max Weber, the sociology of religion has pictured the Hebraic prophecy as the very matrix of the occidental rationalism, while attributing to it the promise of a future in which Israel would prevail over all other nations. After the experience of the Babylonic exile, such promise has transformed the Jews in a "pariah-peoples," self-segregated, ritualistic, legalist, oriented by some dual ethics and, as a result, unable to confer a universalistic dynamics to the ethical monotheism peculiar to its own sacred Book. The Hebraic prophecy would have, in this perspective, begun the evolutive process that only the New Covenant, with its universal salvation doctrine via the sacrifice of The Redeemer, would have been able to carry out. It is argued that such reasoning, found in the basis of all the effort of Weber to explain the evolution of the occidental ethics, has developed within some theological framing. It can be seen more precisely in the markings of the "Christian theology of overcoming," which postulates that the New Covenant has superseded Judaism by making universal the access to the divine grace the latter had restricted to a pretense "chosen peoples."

Political representation and civil organisations: new forms of mediation and the challenges for legitimacy

Abstract: SUMMARY This article examines the new forms of political re presentation civil organisations are constructing in their relation with the State, and some of the possible consequences for the quality of democracy. There are no historical or th eoretical established models of representation which enable one to explore how civil organisations , in the absence of the elections or formal membership, can construct their political represent ativeness. For this reason, political representation by civil organisations has received little attention despite its growing importance. Extensive fieldwork in Sao Paulo, Brazil, reveals t hat political representation by civil organisations is closely connected to the dynamics of institutions of representative democracy. Furthermore, it reveals that alongside notions of r epresentation that are clearly irreconcilable with democratic standards, a new notion of represen tation is emerging among civil organisations which is specifically political and compatible with democracy.

Ambivalências: O Nordeste nas obras de Gilberto Freyre e Celso Furtado

Abstract: The Northeastern region occupies a privileged space in the Brazilian social thought; sometimes as the place of originality, sometimes as the place of decay, sometimes both. And this coexistence among apparently opposite features confers an ambivalent character to the region. This article reflects on the Northeastern conceptions in the works of Gilberto Freyre and Celso Furtado.