Social Studies of Science in a Brazilian Post-Graduate Program: The Many Dimensions of Subalternity

• In Event: Decolonizing Science: Where Have We Gotten To? - II

Abstract

NECSO - Nucleus of Science, Technology and Society Studies - is a research group of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and it activities is related to HCTE - the PostGraduate Program on History of Sciences and Technics and Epistemology. The evaluation system for postgraduate programs and research groups in Brazil is organized in such a way as to favor an internationalized scientific practice, either through publications in international journals, or through partnerships and other types of exchange. This forces Brazilian research groups to conform to parameters developed and established by institutions located in countries of the Global North. These parameters are reflected in the funding of research in Brazil. Thus, postgraduate programs and research groups considered less adequate does not have financial incentives and most students have to deal with problems related to working and studying simultaneously. Also there is an increasing preponderance of quantitative over qualitative methods of evaluation and on researchers’ decisions and practices.
How to innovate in a course syllabus, in a research program or in an event if researchers and students should meet antagonistic demands, especially when we look at the dynamics of knowledge production and dissemination? How to do this without falling into the trap of becoming a laboratory which strengthens the dominant logic of current scientific practice?
This study seeks to discuss the difficulties of a Brazilian research group in attempting to maintain its activities and its official recognition and, at the same time, in trying to use alternative and local ways of producing knowledge.

Authors

• Maria Cristina de Oliveira Cardoso, UFRJ - HCTE

• Claudia Santos Turco, HCTE-UFRJ / FIOCRUZ

• Juliana Coutinho Oliveira, HCTE-UFRJ

• Denise Cristina Alvares Oliveira, Federal University oh Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ

• Eduardo Nazareth Paiva, EDUARDO NAZARETH PAIVA

• Marcos Fialho Carvalho, UFRJ - HCTE

• Flavia Ernesto de Oliveira da Silva Alves, Scholars

• Ana Lúcia Faria da Costa Rodrigues, UFRJ/NCE