Sociology Of Absences Research Articles

Organizing in the Informal Sector: A Case Study in Mumbai’s Shipbreaking Yards

ABSTRACTBuilding on empirical data collected through interviews with representatives of the Mumbai Port Trust Dock and General Employees Union, the International Metalworkers’ Federation, and shipbreaking workers, this paper presents the results of a case study conducted from 2011 to 2013 in the shipbreaking yards of Mumbai. I first examine India’s liberalization shift in the early 1990s and observe its effect on the transformation of labour markets, then present a brief overview of the literature related to unions and the informal economy. Using the conceptual framework developed by Sousa Santos (2004) around the “sociology of absences, the sociology of emergences and the work of translation” and the analytical tool developed by Comeau (2005) to study collective struggles, the core of the article explores the development of shipbreaking activities in India, chronicles the history of collective action in the shipbreaking industry, discusses practices, strategies and demands put forward by the unions, and identifies issues arising from the difficulties facing traditionally organized unions engaged in transforming their practices to adapt to the growth of the informal economy.

A reinvenção da deficiência: novas metáforas na natureza dos corpos

Resumo O conceito de deficiência tem sido profundamente contestado nas últimas décadas, tanto política como epistemologicamente. Por um lado, está em causa o reconhecimento de que a filiação de determinadas diferenças sob a noção de deficiência constitui uma recente “invenção” da modernidade ocidental. Por outro, trata-se de pulsar as consequências dessa construção para as pessoas marcadas pelo estigma da deficiência. Estabelecendo um diálogo com importantes contribuições da teoria crítica, recrutando noções como “páticas de separação” (Michel Foucault), “materialização” (Judith Butler), “corpo múltiplo” (Annemarie Mol) e “sociologia das ausências” (Boaventura de Santos), o presente artigo procura entender como a noção de deficiência pode ser desmobilizada por leituras insurgentes das hierarquias da modernidade.

Museologia social e sociologia das ausências no contexto da Amazônia brasileira: uma aproximação teórica.

This article aims to establish a theoretical approach between the Social Museology and assumptions of Sociology of Absences, from a preliminary analysis of the concepts of monoculture and ecology conveyed by Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Souza Santos. Monocultures are responsible for the proliferation of social invisibility and from them, ecologies arise as alternatives to enable the visibility of the silenced social practices and therefore, in forgetting process. The social museology, in turn, has been dedicated to transforming marginalized social processes narratives and museological initiatives that enable reflection and citizen participation from a perspective that includes the museum as a space that can act in the deconstruction of social forms of production of non-existence. Thus, social museology finds fertile ground in the interpretations proposed by the Sociology of Absences to deal with the deconstruction of hegemonic ideas guided to strengthen the non-existence produced by the ignorant image; residual; lower; local and unproductive. Search is here to highlight the possibilities of building a dialogue approaching this sociological interpretation model of social museology scenario highlighting some initiatives of northern Brazil. Key words: social museology; sociology of absences; Brazilian Amazon; museums.

Alternativas socialistas, experiências solidárias: luta pela terra, reforma agrária e cooperativismo no Brasil e em Portugal

This article debates the experiences of land reform in the South of Portugal and the South of Brazil as points of intersection of the socialist alternative and solidarity economy experiences. For this purpose, we will make a theoretical essay about agrarian reform in Brazil and Portugal. Then, we will present the points of dialogue between the socialist economy, the cooperative and solidarity economy, emphasizing that the experiences of solidarity economy can be found in many past experiences that came to be called socialist experiments. In this sense, the aim is to treat the common experiences of the past from on the basis of which Santos (2002) defi nes as Sociology of Absences and Emergence. In the Brazilian case, we will stick to a theoretical essay on cooperatives in the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (known in Brazil as MST), through a literature review. In the Portuguese case, we approach the UCP Terra de Catarina in Baleizão, through a literature review and documentary research in the Archives of Agrarian Reform in Montemor-o-Novo. We also used interviews based on the methodology of oral history. The aim of the paper is to refl ect on common experiences established in the struggle for land in Brazil and Portugal, particularly the emergence of agricultural cooperatives as a productive paradigm in the areas of land reform. We do not mean, however, that cooperatives are the only possible model of alternative production for land reform areas, but rather to affi rm them as a possible model within various possibilities of solidarity experiences.Keywords: agrarian reform, solidarity economy, cooperatives.

Pluralismo Jurídico e Justiça Comunitária na América Latina: Potencialidades a parir da Sociologia das Ausencias e das Emergencias

Trata-se de um estudo que busca identificar no contexto de pluralismo jurídico e no espaço geopolítico latino-americano manifestações de uma juridicidade emancipatória, produzida fora da concepção monista do direito tradicional, por sujeitos historicamente (so)negados em sua cultura popular. A análise se dá a partir da investigação sobre a manifestação de justiça comunitária no contexto de países andinos e uma justiça alternativa na territorialidade brasileira, em suas diversas modalidades e mecanismos, diante da inserção de uma teoria da sociologia das ausências e uma sociologia das emergências como paradigma jurídico para o Sul global a partir das idéias de Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Tal tarefa cumpre afirmar outras formas de justiça, diferenciada da tradição jurídica liberal de produção do direito atomizado em indivíduos isolados, voltando os olhares para as realidades periféricas latino-americanas, onde há inser-ção de uma nova racionalidade jurídica germinada com ímpeto emancipatório de alteridade. Consta da metodologia a análise bibliográfica; pesquisa documental indireta e um método procedimental comparativo e sociológico das experiências manifestadas em diferentes realidades do continente latino-americano se utilizando como marco teórico o Pluralismo Jurídico de tipo comunitário e participativo proposto por Antonio Carlos Wolkmer. Busca-se demonstrar como os resultados de manifestações diferenciadas ou alternativas de justiça produzidas para integração, identidade e pertinência social dos sujeitos envolvidos, podem apresentar um viés de direito crítico à epistemologia jurídica europeizada, atomizada, excludente e hegemônica/colonizadora.

Toward a Development Discourse Inclusive of Music

This article argues for a reconceptualization of the orthodox development discourse to consider music as a form of powerful cultural expression. Elucidating the way in which musical cultural expression is an important aspect of the rich lives of those who experience development, the author illustrates the way in which orthodox development conceals culture and musical expression through nonrecognition. Drawing from Santos' sociology of absences to explain the way in which culture and music have been made actively invisible by the orthodox development discourse, the author makes a case for engaging with music in order to make explicit the limitations of rational, individualized, economic-centric development. The author argues that the practice of development is ultimately contingent upon deploying nonmaterial and nonmarket epistemes through its coercive governance. Through the use of historic examples, the author shows that music has been both a means of emancipation from domination but also instrumentalized as a tool for domination. By attempting to deny the relevance of culture and music, orthodox development is shown to contain a central contradiction, one that points to the need to account for a more inclusive conceptualization of politics.

The Arts in a Knowledge Economy: Creation of Other Knowledges

The knowledge economy that is so much etched into contemporary collective consciousness is reviewed against the small city of Hong Kong, a large financial hub. In its ingrained and single-minded economic pursuit, the territory’s history and education has moulded it into the international status it is today. Where do the arts stand in the knowledge economy and how are the arts able to contribute to it? By exploring Santos’ (Glob, Soc Educ 4(2):303–318, 2006) sociology of absences and his call for a sociology of emergences, this paper explores the linear, literal and quantitative as characterised by economic development against the arts’ non-literal, abstract and qualitative features. If unchanged, I view the knowledge economy’s goal as a reductionist closed point, whereas the arts offer possibilities into the unknown where creativity is located. Taking Appadurai’s (1996) five “scapes” in the global cultural flow, I propose the sixth “creative learning-scape” led by the arts. In the concluding section, unlike the schooling system, I argue that arts organisations through an arts learning model could be better equipped to lead in knowledge creation for the twenty-first century.

ALTERNATIVAS À EPISTEMOLOGIA DOMINANTE

We propose a critical epistemological model of the modern capitalist society, aview highlighted by Boaventura de Sousa Santos. We support our discussion, a number ofworks by the author, who seeks to highlight the criteria that were used for construction of thedominant paradigm of modern science. We will highlight the alternative approaches to therecognition and enhancement of epistemologies in position against the production of absences,engendered by the sociology of absences, emergencies and ecology of knowledge.

Criticism of the media in hypermedia narratives

Based on our surveys in recent years of media narratives, which led to the construction of two hypermedia, one still in its final stages, in this article we shall develop the following themes: a) how to analyze and expose criticism of media narratives; b) what transversal perspectives with other disciplines were and are necessary to establish themes in contemporary journalistic narratives? Specifically, we present the role of political philosophy in Badiou and the sociology of absences in Boaventura Santos, among other authors; c) the methods adopted for the analysis of communication media contracts, which rule the post-modern narratives of magazine journalism. Our ultimate goal leads to epistemological and methodological debates, which are necessary for what this research faces in terms of “education for media”

As representações sociais das parteiras tradicionais e o seu modo de cuidar

Este artigo discute, com base na Sociologia das Ausências e Emergências de Boaventura de Souza Santos, as representações sociais do saber/fazer das parteiras tradicionais. Busca salientar a necessidade de diálogo entre os diferentes saberes e sinaliza que a educação popular pode contribuir para uma ecologia de saberes e para a prática educativa dos profissionais de saúde.

Sujeito, consumo e solidariedade: as ausências e presenças

Neste texto, problematiza-se a questão do consumo como categoria importante na produção cotidiana da vida. Intenta-se demonstrar que as formas de consumir bens materiais e imateriais são produto e produtoras de fluxos de subjetivação, geram modos de viver e de ser e, portanto, podem levar a formas mais (ou menos) solidárias de existência. No campo do consumo ético e solidário, discutir a questão das práticas de consumo é fundamental para compreender a produção e reprodução da vida social, na direção de modos mais solidários de viver. Além de uma revisão da literatura das ciências sociais sobre o consumo, utiliza-se o referencial da sociologia das ausências e emergências, de autoria de Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Procuramos assim trazer ao debate uma reflexão que inclua o problema da subjetividade.