Emancipatory Way Research Articles

Community protagonism based on the participatory inventory of Galópolis (Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil): management of an industrial heritage

The article analyzes the participation of the community of the Galópolis neighborhood, located in the southern part of the city of Caxias do Sul (Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil), through the processes of musealization of the territory, stimulating their commitment to the management of the heritage listed through strategies that enhance their protagonism. Part of the master's research defended in the Graduate Program in Museology and Heritage at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (PPGMusPa/UFRGS), it is based on industrial archaeology and action research methodologies to understand the dynamics of museums, combining oral history, documentary, iconological and content analysis with a participatory inventory to achieve an integrative museum perspective that fosters the self-management of a community framed by a paternalistic industrial dynamic. Based on the principles of Social Museology, the aim of this research is to provide a continuous process of reflection on local history, museological discourses and the need to stimulate community protagonism in relation to local demands in an empirical and emancipatory way.

Re-imagining the image of the educator in post-secondary early childhood education: calling for epistemic justice

ABSTRACT Early childhood education (ECE) spaces within settler-colonial societies operate as sites of violence and oppression whereby non-conformity to white, rational, ableist, cisgender norms is weaponised as developmental deficits. In this paper, we refer to the refusals of non-dominant ways of knowing as forms of epistemic injustice (Fricker 2007). We describe the foundational underpinnings of ECE throughout the twentieth century in Ontario, Canada and trace how normative ideas of children, educators, education, and childhood developed through a largely positivist, developmental orientation. Ultimately, we call for epistemic justice (Fricker 2007) as an emancipatory way forward in post-secondary ECE programmes.

Politics and Aesthetics: Jacques Rancière and Louis-Gabriel Gauny

This paper argues that much of Jacques Rancière’s redefinition of emancipation owes a lot to one key character from his archival research on nineteenth-century worker-poets, Louis-Gabriel Gauny, the self-proclaimed plebeian philosopher. This is especially the case in regard to Rancière’s understanding of subjectivation forming a double of the self and a double of social reality as worlds within worlds. The paper puts forward that Gauny’s form of emancipation is valid today as an aesthetic revolution that reveals Rancière’s practices of equality to be an emancipatory way of life. In doing so, it will engage with Gauny’s connection with the contemporary precariat.

Repensar los límites: ecología y ética intergeneracional

Abstract The focus of this work is to explore the idea of limits within certain scopes where they arguably matter most: those of intergenerational justice and a prospective ethics of the future. When limits are conceived in a nuanced and emancipatory way - as the autonomy and capability to place limits in the current context of environmental crisis, while taking into account our finite nature - the possibility arises to build a concept of responsibility that cares for the well-being of present and future generations.

Contextual Bible reading and intercultural Bible reading: Four Colombian experiences

Contextual Bible Reading (CBR) and Intercultural Bible Reading (IBR) have enabled the cooperation between socially engaged scholars and marginalised groups to find new resources in biblical texts to interpret their contexts and fight against the surrounding violence. As the use of these two methods has not been the object of a comparative study based on concrete experiences, this article presents them through four cases of Christian communities in Colombia. This comparative study not only illustrates the differences between these two methods of Bible reading, but also shows how they open new hermeneutic and liberation perspectives in the struggle for social justice and the search for reconciliation. The article depicts the CBR of the story of the Levite’s concubine (Jdg 19:1–30) by a group of women living in vulnerable conditions as well as the CBR of the parable of the father and his two sons (Lk 15:11–32) by a group of violence victims’ relatives. It also depicts the IBR of the story of the widow and the judge (Lk 18:1–8) by four groups of Caribbean readers as well as the IBR of the garden story (Gn 2:4b–25) by two Andean indigenous groups. Ordinary readers’ central role as interpreters of biblical texts let them recognise their own capabilities to transform their contexts in an emancipatory way and challenge biblical scholars and theologians. Even though CBR and IBR pursue different hermeneutical goals, they converge in giving a central role to the community as the subject of counter-hegemonic interpretations that open new horizons starting from reality and triggering liberation processes.Contribution: Beyond their differences and tensions, CBR and IBR are inclusive and dialogical methods intended for liberation that should be used to transcend the limits of dominant interpretations of biblical texts as well as the isolation of marginalised ordinary readers.

Power, Freedom and Obedience in Foucault and La Boétie: Voluntary Servitude as the Problem of Government

I investigate the contemporary problem of obedience through an exploration of Michel Foucault and Étienne de La Boétie, showing how the former drew on the latter’s concept of voluntary servitude as a way of thinking through the paradoxical relationship between power, freedom and subjectivity. My argument is that Foucault’s theory of government as the ‘conduct of conduct’ may be understood as a reflection on the question of voluntary servitude. My aim here is twofold. First, it is to show that obedience is an ethical and political problem just as relevant today as it was in La Boétie’s time. Secondly, it is to suggest that voluntary servitude should be interpreted in an emancipatory way, as a problematic that reveals the ontological primacy of freedom and the fragility and instability of power. ‘Voluntary inservitude’ is something that can be expressed in acts of civil disobedience, and alternate modes of ethical conduct and association.

Letter from the Editors

Letter from the Editors

A CONSTRUÇÃO DA AUTONOMIA DO PROFESSOR PRESENTE NAS DIRETRIZES CURRICULARES NACIONAIS DE FORMAÇÃO INICIAL DAS ÚLTIMAS DUAS DÉCADAS

Thispaper aims to analyze the curricula of initial teacher training determined by the legislation originating from the National Education Council (CNE), with the outline of the curriculum proposed for the degrees related to the act of teaching in the final years of Elementary and Secondary Education, and aiming to understand the autonomymodels, through the terminations ofthese documents. Typified as documentary research, it was analyzed in a qualitative way, using as methodology the analysis of the content in the following categories: workload, skills and necessary requirements in the documents with the aid of the qualitative analysis software IRaMuTeQ. With Contreras' ideas for the delimitation of the conditions of autonomy as a theoretical reference, the analyzes indicate that the laws are moving towards a reflexive autonomy, with a narrowing of the relationship between theory and practice. However, after these years, the guidelines include training aimed at the knowledge of basic education in a directive and not emancipatory way.

Questionando o discurso e a prática de internacionalização da educação superior predominantes na América Latina

Este ensaio propõe uma reflexão epistemológica sobre o discurso e a prática de internacionalização da educação superior predominantes na América Latina, com base nos seguintes argumentos: 1. Sob o alicerce de um imaginário global hierárquico, esse fenômeno encontra-se imerso em uma matriz cultural que potencialmente reforça geografias desiguais de poder, de saber e de ser; 2. A educação superior diz respeito a um campo relacional de disputas, com questionamentos, fissuras e contradições em relação a ordem predominante; e 3. Uma forma efetiva e emancipatória de enfrentar a hegemonia e a colonialidade da internacionalização da educação superior é promover uma internacionalização contra-hegemônica e anti-colonial, que suscite outras formas de pensar, fazer e viver a instituição universitária. Para refletir sobre as perspectivas e os limites de “outras internacionalizações da educação superior” na América Latina, faz-se referência à ideia de Modernidade/(De)Colonialidade, bem como a indícios históricos de distanciamento do Sul-Global em relação à ordem predominante.

Doing theology with children: A childist reading of the childhood metaphor in 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels

This article is written from the perspective of Child Theology and a childist reading of scripture. Firstly, the article deals with the links between children, childhood and Childhood Studies, as well as with Theology. Secondly, in terms of a childist reading of scripture, it explains the difference between a low and a high view of childhood. The fact that both views of childhood are present in the Bible is highlighted. Thirdly, the article discusses three texts in 1 Corinthians, where Paul used the childhood metaphor in a way that reflects a low view of childhood. Then, it investigates passages from the Synoptic Gospels as examples of Jesus’ implied high view of childhood. Finally, the article concludes with a challenge addressed to all adult theologians. Contribution: This article contributes to the enhancement of emancipatory methodologies for doing theology and research with children by exploring the different ways in which the childhood metaphor is used in 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels through a childist reading of the relevant texts. Through this hermeneutical approach, which places the article clearly in the scope of this Theological Journal, it is established that doing theology with children in an emancipatory way adult theologians have to operate with a high view of childhood, as expressed in the way the childhood metaphor is used in the Synoptic Gospels.

Antes o mundo não existia: imaginário das línguas e livros de autoria indígena

Ainda que permaneça demasiadamente aberta a pergunta sobre o que seja um livro indígena (seja pela presença indígena como tema, autoria, personagem, etc), tais livros ocupam cada vez mais a cena literária brasileira. É sabido que apenas a partir do final da década de 1970, a figura do autor indígena surge no mercado editorial brasileiro. A literatura de autoria indígena, registrada e transmitida por meio de livros, como ato político, tradutório e (inter)cultural por excelência, permite-nos pensar a escrita literária como índice identitário, isto é, como construção de imagem de si e como abertura ao outro, como relação? Por essa via, propomos a leitura dos livros de autorias indígenas, como ato performático que deseja dialogar de modo emancipatório com uma comunidade de leitores, em meio a diferenças culturais irredutíveis e em meio à invenção de regimes discursivos heteróclitos, verbais e visuais. No momento em que a pergunta sobre a autoria indígena parece se colocar, por fim, como uma questão histórica irredutível a ser enfrentada pela crítica literária e/ou cultural, uma outra pergunta também emerge (parece retornar), ainda mais radical: o que nos traz um livro quando se torna um artefato poético e político, dispositivo epistêmico, produzido pelas mãos de comunidades de tradição oral? O livro, talvez assim, possa ser compreendido como poética insurgente, como dispositivo, para afirmação de identidades culturais contra hegemônicas.

Serviço social e formação permanente: possibilidades de superação de cotidianos de alienação

Resumo O presente artigo apresenta a importância da formação permanente para o serviço social como possibilidade de contribuição para o trabalho profissional numa perspectiva crítica e de afirmação de nosso projeto ético-político. Para tanto, realiza uma discussão acerca da educação na sociedade de classes e o sentido da formação permanente em uma direção contra-hegemônica aos interesses do capital, apresentando uma reflexão sobre seu papel numa perspectiva emancipatória. Retoma os princípios da Política de Educação Permanente do Conjunto Conselho Federal de Serviço Social (CFESS), Conselhos Regionais de Serviço Social (CRESS) (2012), apontando os desafios e possibilidades presentes na efetivação desta política e na construção de espaços democráticos de formação após a graduação, ressaltando sua importância, aqui compreendida sob dois aspectos: a necessária suspensão da cotidianidade para o retorno a esta, de maneira a contribuir criticamente com ações alinhadas ao projeto ético político profissional e, sua potência enquanto estratégia na manutenção da hegemonia de nosso projeto profissional e de formação.

Narrativas de professores sobre avaliação

A avaliação em sala de aula é um componente intrínseco ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem, não podendo ser dissociado ou ignorado. É um aspecto controverso, pois depende da concepção que cada docente carrega, relacionado à sua concepção de educação. Objetiva-se neste artigo analisar como professores de diferentes áreas do conhecimento cursando uma segunda licenciatura, em pedagogia, compreendem o processo avaliativo no âmbito da sala de aula. Para isso, adensamos as narrativas de 18 professores em quatro grupos: Avaliação como processo no dia- a dia de sala de aula; Avaliação como possibilidade de reflexão da ação docente; Diferentes estratégias de avaliação; e Avaliação Qualitativa versus Quantitativa. Constatou-se que os professores concebem a avaliação como processo contínuo, considerando que é necessário amparar-se em conhecimentos teóricos incorporados na prática, pois só assim será possível efetuar a difícil tarefa de avaliar de forma inclusiva, participativa e emancipadora.

ESCRITOS E OLHARES PLURAIS, VALORES ÉTICOS, POLÍTICOS E ESTÉTICOS NA EDUCAÇÃO DA INFÂNCIA

O artigo tem como objetivo refletir acerca dos escritos jornalísticos, poéticos e educacionais de Cecília Meireles, particularmente, as Crônicas de Educação. A poeta educadora guiada por uma sensibilidade ímpar olhou para a infância, a criança, a família e a escola e teceu considerações e críticas sobre estas várias dimensões da vida, posicionou-se sobre o cenário da educação de maneira arrojada em prol de uma educação ético-política e estética, almejando sensibilizar os órgãos responsáveis pela educação brasileira, defendendo assim, uma educação para as classes populares como saída emancipatória e de transformação das condições sociais, econômicas e políticas do Brasil, na primeira metade do século XX. Investigou-se nesse artigo como as crônicas jornalísticas e os textos poéticos contribuíram para fomentar as relações da criança com a escola e os educadores; sendo a sensibilidade um elemento fundamental nas/das práticas educativas na infância e no processo de sensibilização do imaginário. Optou-se por uma abordagem crítico-educativa sobre a educação da criança e a infância nos textos da escritora Cecília Meireles.

Identifying and resisting the technological drift: green space, blue space and ecotherapy

There has been a growing interest in recent years into the health and well-being benefits of natural ‘green’ and ‘blue’ spaces. This theoretical paper presents a critical review of the proposed ways to operationalise these benefits for mental health. Following the social theories of Ellul and Bohme—in which technology is defined as a system of rules and rationality rather than devices and hardware—we propose that a process of ‘technological drift’ occurs when a body of evidence is put into practice in human activities (operationalised). We identify a technological colonisation of nature, in which nature itself is assimilated into a technological niche to act as a ‘technical solution to a technical problem’. Examples of this are the use of medical language like ‘dose’ and ‘prescription’, the attempt to separate effect mechanisms and pathways and the professionalisation and division of labour. Technological drift in nature exposure and health is congruent with a wider efficiency culture that reduces nature to a resource for human use. In conclusion, we propose that nature exposure could be not just an adjunct to healthcare systems but also disruptive to them in a positive and emancipatory way.

Sustainability on campus: knowledge creation through social and environmental reporting

ABSTRACTThis study contributes to the debate on sustainability in higher education through a project conducted in a single Scottish university that incorporated sustainability into undergraduate accounting education through the application of a real-world problem in the form of a social and environmental report. Data from study participants were collected through questionnaires, which were analysed and interpreted through the lens of knowledge creation. The results demonstrate an increase in awareness and positive response to sustainability issues from all parties. It further indicates that opportunities to shape and develop further sustainability initiatives are possible through a dialogical approach. Such an approach is shown to provide an opportunity for knowledge creation and the transfer of sustainability issues in a democratic and emancipatory way. It highlights the importance of developing spaces/opportunities for sustainability dialogue that not only transcend the boundaries of a specific graduate discipline but also the borders of higher education institutions.

Die Selbstreflexion des Marxismus.

The article argues that Adorno’s book Negative Dialectics is a major contribution to the Marxist debate. Adorno’s starting point is a critique of Marx’ eleventh Feuerbach-thesis that the world should not be longer interpreted but changed. After all the defeats that the left and Marxist theory had to experience since the middle of the 19th century Adorno argues for a renewal of theory by a self-reflexive turn of Marxism. As an important moment of this self-reflection a critical assessment of dialectics itself is necessary. Adorno criticized the traditional idea of the negation of negation and the expectation of a positive result as well as the notion of totality. Critically approaching Hegel, he sees him as the affirmative theorist of the tendency of the bourgeois society to totalize itself. In opposition to this – and in difference to any Hegel-Marxism – Adorno conceive of dialectics as negative i.e. it has itself a temporal index and is a form of intellectual appropriation of the world only under conditions of domination. To think in an emancipatory way then has as a consequence to develop a non-systematic theory and to be sensitive for the movements and contradictions of concepts that attract themselves and form constellations.

"Endless Possibilities" — Embodied Experiences and Connection in Social Salsa Dancing

This article offers an analysis of embodied experiences and connections in social salsa dancing. Framed within a theoretical context that views bodily practices as both the enactment of normative ideals and as a negotiation of personal freedom against normative ideals, social salsa dancing offers a rich empirical context to explore how we make sense of our bodies, bodily practices, and embodied experience. Drawing on fieldwork conducted as part of a doctoral study in addition to a decade of personal experience, I argue that social salsa dancing cultivates kinesthetic, tactile, and musical senses, and emphasizes the value of attentive embodied interactions and momentary connections with others. I conclude that exploring the possibilities of these interactions and connections offers a potentially emancipatory way of working on one’s embodied self.

Sociolinguistic correlates of negative evaluation: Variable concord in Rio de Janeiro

AbstractVariable agreement in Brazilian Portuguese is subject to social stigma. It was brought to the general public's attention in 2011 in a heated nationwide sociolinguistic debate triggered by TV Globo, the principal network. In order to isolate objective factors underlying this debate, we examine the variableeducationin a trend study of Rio de Janeiro speech. Relying on logistic modelrelative weightsand their correspondingranges, we usepolarizationto designate the magnitude of these ranges. Polarization of the education variable in 1980 was moderate, whereas in 2000, polarization becomes extreme in an increasingly uneven social distribution of standard marked forms. The increased effect of education is also reflected in a comparison with the statistical effect of mass media: in 1980, media contact had a stronger effect than education did, whereas in 2000, education exhibits a stronger effect. The results reveal objective correlates to speakers' subjective reactions, suggesting that public discussion of linguistic prejudice would be useful to the community, which can profit from results of sociolinguistic research in a humanistic and emancipatory way, as foreseen by Sankoff (1988a).

The ideology of temporary labour migration in the post-global era

Temporary labour migration is becoming intellectually topical once again. Following renewed government interest in temporary labour migration on a global level, migration scholars are now also showing renewed interest in the area. In this essay, we seek to explore the potential of these two movements, by states and by scholars, to yield different outcomes than earlier dialogues surrounding guest-worker programmes in the 1970s and 1980s. By looking at key ideological elements of temporary labour migration, we assess the potential for an alternative trajectory for understanding and reframing the discussion in terms that are capable of responding in a more emancipatory way to the lived experiences of migrant workers. We identify three concepts central to most analyses of temporary migration policies and programmes: temporariness, the labour market and rights. Our central contention is that these concepts function ideologically, and as such they constrain innovation with regard to temporary migrant labour programmes. We draw on Hannah Arendt's work in The Human Condition to work towards an alternative conception of what is at stake in temporary migration programmes.