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Objective: this paper aims to discuss development practices through the presentation of two case studies from Latin-American contexts. This reflection was done during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-development perspectives were mobilized to explore new analytical dimensions in the epistemological and socio-political critique of the capitalist mode of appropriation of nature in América Latina and their potential implications amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Methodology: two study cases from Brazil and Costa Rica were elaborated. The qualitative methodological framework used to identify actors and their complex interactions became a useful tool in reconstructing different socio-political expressions, symbolic narratives, and survival/resistance strategies emerging from local groups. Results: social-environmental crisis emerging in the Anthropocene context suggest the need for different points of view and ontological turns to gain a better understanding of social change occurred in the margins of in the Western world. Latin-American societies are multiple and diverse. Both, Brazilian and Costa Rican experiences discussed in this paper, represent situated realities which cannot be generalized, but this is a rather important and critical issue. These case studies help illustrate how the non-critical adoption of hegemonic categories of sociotechnical control and securitization is inadequate to understand and explain the contingency emerging from these situated realities. Conclusions: we suggest in the final part of the paper that these reflections contribute to bring a different perspective on how science, political and nature converge in knowledge systems and how these systems are contested for different people, groups, and communities around the world. This reflection is crucial to the study of processes concerned with political legitimacy, democracy, and territorial political identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will present and discuss the data extracted from a course of continuing education of teachers of the area of Natural Sciences, held at the Federal University of Pampa- Unipampa of the campus of Caçapava do Sul, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The experience indicates the development of skills in the process of elaboration and problem solving that can be carried out in the course of immersion with teachers of the Natural Sciences areas and this is linked to the formation of a group of continuing teacher training, as well as justifies the need to establish a teaching group based on the study of Problem Solving in Science Teaching. The results show that the work developed facilitated the improvement of skills in teachers, as well as contributed to minimize the difficulties encountered in teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding institutional change remains a major theme on the agenda of social sciences. Thus, this working paper analyzes, through a comparative perspective, the different institutional transformations of the Portuguese and Spanish intelligence systems after the transifition to democracy and after 9/11. We applied an institutional change model centered on the relationship between ideas and interests, and used process tracing as a technique in order to identify the key drivers and inhibitors that explain the different institutional paths observed in the intelligence systems of both countries after two critical junctures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community is built from the integration and different exchanges between collectives. As a human form of groupment, it is defined by two central elements: politics and space. Thus, with modernity, the dependence from what is outside outweighs what is within, where the hegemonic actors manage to renew the social relations, the means of production and even the understanding about these spaces. Human sciences are also responsible in reproducing different views about the concept of community and its' applications. In Brazil, the political relations stand out on the conformation of communities. The authoritarianism of hegemonic classes imposed in the daily living and the discourse based on local relevance hide the conflicts lived within the communities and hinder internal and external political action of the populace. This paper discusses these questions from a theorical review of authors who work with the theme in order to explain a given local reality. It is stressed the necessity of a political and historical analysis about how the communities spatialize, their dynamics and transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potentialities and limitations of network analysis, not only as a methodological tool that may be used in Social Science research but also as a separate discipline, with its own well-tested theories. Providing a framework for the use of network analysis involves discussing the role that it can play in understanding objects using a field that is sometimes accused of being too technical. Despite the fact that it has increased in popularity over recent years, driven by new communication technologies and especially social media channels, network analysis has a much broader use, and we therefore aim to demonstrate some innovative approaches that may be used in Social Science research. Finally, because it is an interdisciplinary methodology, we discuss some of the associated risks and biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are social systems from joint activities of people, which operation and interaction among those people require a comprehension based on systemic principles. The study of business strategy provides reductive and disjunctive guidance as the product of its positivist treatment based on the precepts of classical science. However, the context of organizations and their own internal operation have been complexified over time, leading to questions about the relevance of the use of more classic orientations in the strategy of organizations. In this paper, we try to associate the development of an organizational strategy to the principles of Morinian complexity theory. Through the analysis of systemic principles, we found associations with various approaches used in studies of organizational strategy. The contribution of this paper is to show that complexity theory has applicability in various fields of science and, in particular, In the applied social sciences, because It provides new foundations that contribute to a better understanding of natural and social phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1940 and 1960, there was extensive academic research in the field of sociology and anthropology of so-called community studies in Brazil. In the era of large projects in the social sciences in the 1950s, involving research on race relations, education and health, we highlight the research conducted in the São Francisco Valley, under the coordination of the sociologist Donald Pierson. Attention is given in this paper to the issue of health in these studies as a means to make intelligible the relevant issues at the time, namely: cultural resistance to change, relations between tradition and modernity, tensions and complementarities between scientific knowledge and folk healing practices, among others. The examination of the research project of San Francisco identified the issue of health, linked to socioeconomic and cultural aspects, emerges as a key to the knowledge of living conditions and social reality of the communities investigated. Social scientists have sought to describe them in detail and comprehensively, taking the process of cultural change as the main axis of research. This paper presents the research that formed the said project and shows how social scientists have addressed the issue of health in their work. Linked by the theme of health, social sciences and the development context of the 1950s are gathered in the San Francisco Project, whose research allows us to understand the dynamics of social change in that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slightl y open-Slightly closed: The cursed heritage of the concept of communication. This paper discusses a debate that is common in the social sciences and in philosophy, but has not yet received an adequate treatment in the field of communication. This is the debate about the opening and the closure of consciousness and of systems, which is an epistemological attitude that underlies the concept of communication, notwithstanding the lack of a theoretical foundation. The paper deals with that debate by means of Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems, the cybernetics of Heinz von Foerster and the philosophies of Jürgen Habermas, Gilles Deleuze and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It is divided into nine topics and ends with a summary and a short conclusion on the present state of the theoretical debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In any society, individuals differ markedly in relation to their place in the social hierarchy. Those differences are deeply associated to each individual educational opportunities, occupational history, access to goods and services, social prestige and political and social options. In this paper, we assume that all those differences can be adequately described by a unique construct named SES -- Socioeconomic Status. Given this, the main purposes of this paper is to discuss different forms of measuring the SES in applied social science research and to introduce a specific measure, with the appropriate interpretation, for this construct. The usefulness of the new measure is verified with the data from a longitudinal educational survey named GERES 2005 -- acronym for School Generation 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the naming practices in the creolized villages of Guinea-Bissau during the colonial period. Based on a corpus of 496 names presented in a series of lists of deceased persons published by the Health Service between 1892 and 1900, this article describes the process of creolization in colonial society from the perspective of the naming practices. Comparing the naming patterns prevailing in Portugal and in the indigenous societies of Guinea, this paper shows how Creole naming practices were unstable, creative and multidirectional?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposal of this study is part of the debate about interdisciplinarity in research and graduate study. Its objective is to analyze the approaches and interpretations of "development" and "rural" as concepts and practice in the social sciences, based on a case study. To this end, we shall take as a basis the interdisciplinary scientific production (theses and dissertations) focused on the issues of the rural world, generated by the graduate program of Social Sciences, Development, Agriculture and Society of the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro - CPDA/UFRRJ. The analysis of the construction of the Social Sciences in Brazil is significant to the understanding of the choices and interdisciplinary theoretical-methodological stances of many graduate programs, in order to elucidate their research, formulations and interpretations of social processes. As a result, we present within a broad universe of academic papers, examples of studies recognized as being interdisciplinary in their approaches to development and the rural world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the initial ideas of Luiz Beltrão about folkcommunication (1967) and discusses the interpretation about the theoretical basis of this field is the functionalism. For this research was chosen a literature review and the reading of works sources (in the sense suggested by Ruiz, 2002), to verify the bonds between folkcommunication and functionalism (or if they even exist). After the examination of the thesis that led to folkcommunication and of the characteristics in the paper works of the main functionalist authors mentioned in the Beltrão's thesis, the results point that the hypothesis that the folkcommunication is related to functionalism does not hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some applications and limitations of the use of ethnographic methods as a way of understanding and study of organizational culture. Search this topic shows to be relevant because the study of ethnographic method - aims at the understanding of organizational culture - can provide important clues to understanding and identifying processes that form the institutions. Much of the literature is concerned with investigating specific industries and processes in different organizations. However, the ethnographic method is only referenced in the topics of methodology and/or results, however not, have suggestions for innovative ways of application and there is little debate about its limitations. It is emphasized that as we get more dense reports of problems faced by researchers during the process and the solutions proposed to solve them, and discovered new paths can be used by researchers in future research, enabling a deeper ethnography - with the construction dense descriptions - and historical difficulties and construction of new perspectives on their problems, for more effective and consistent with the organizational reality interventions. This information is essential for the development of management policies that aim the process of deploying attentive to the demands of the institutions organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that mainly affects adolescents and young women. Although the relationship with body and food is always present when addressing the disease, as it is conceived as psychiatric disorder, often their understanding is limited to the field of mental health. Through an ethnographic study with adolescents in treatment for anorexia nervosa in a public health reference service in the city of Rio de Janeiro, it is intended to meet everyday functioning of the institution and demonstrate as understanding the disease can be enriched by other disciplinary viewpoints and by adolescents themselves. This paper presents a first approach to the field and adolescents surveyed. It also deals with the construction of the field of research and the "conversion" of nutritionist in anthropologist. Such a conversion was needed for, among other issues capture the tension within the health service chosen among health professionals, families and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the recent literature in the field of social sciences in which the term "South" is regarded as a theoretical, methodological or epistemological alternative to the colonial effects of our disciplines. Analysing the books of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Reawyn Connell and Jean and John Comaroff it seeks to point out some of their fragilities and possible alternative paths for a sociology beyond the Euro-American tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents reflections about the decision-making process within the action realm that regulates graduate study at public and private universities and about the information needs that underlie such decision-making. The empirical object of this research extended to the informational environment of the Information Science Graduate Program of the Information Science Department at the Federal University of Pernambuco. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with the program's coordinator and on information gleaned from the CAPES area document for the Applied Social Sciences. Although the resulting findings were complex, it was possible to determine that many rational decisions are decomposed into understandable elements and to identify the information needs that emerge from the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to develop a brief reflection on the Teaching of Sociology in Vocational and Technological Education, pointing to possible contributions that science could bring to training in the Integrated Technical High School. The questions put here develop as substrate main theoretical the contributions of Anthony Giddens, as well as considering the purpose of sociology in high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses an old issue: does advertising lie? Through theoretical arguments, especially from the areas of advertising ethics, sociology and anthropology of consumption, marketing and advertising language, it presents reflections on the contexts in which emotional and informative advertising can actually be considered misleading, as well as ethical alternatives towards a more responsible attitude in this regard. In its results, it shows that emotional advertising cannot be always considered misleading, but that there are, however, times when discussing this issue is legitimate, and that ethical approaches of action can be easily adopted by professionals seeking to avoid misleading representations in informational and emotional appeals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the issue of the relationship between theology and the social sciences. For this purpose, the author seeks to formulate the terms of the relationship of these two areas of Knowledge, highlighting the importance, the role and the place of the social sciences in the development of the theological discourse and of the theological product. At the beginning of the text the author presents a discussion on the relationship between theology and the social sciences in Latin America in recent decades through its main representatives: Gustavo Gutierrez and Clodovis Boff, Juan Luis Segundo and Ignacio Ellacuria. The paper also presents a systematic outline of the fundamental theoretical framework of the relationship between theology and the social sciences, showing that this relationship binds to the knowledge of the reality in which faith is placed. In conclusion, the texts highlights that faith must be considered theologically on three levels: with the social dimension of the Kingdom of God, which is an issue of Christian Theology; with the social character of theology as a theory; with the ideological suspicion and with the process of liberation of theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Departing from Freud's image of the shadow of the object that fell upon the ego, Bollas discovers an inexhaustible source for his own ideas, unfolding a myriad of meaningful and creative contributions to contemporary psychoanalysis. Following a tradition in psychoanalysis that emphasizes the role of the environment in psychic constitution, Bollas turns to the main aspects of classical Psychoanalysis theory, either proposing new concepts or invigorating those already well established. Without committing to the easy solution of opposing intrapsychic and intersubjective conceptions about the psyche, he rather keeps them in a permanent and fertile dialogue. This paper, an introductory one, presents some of his major conceptions about the role of the other in the constitution of the silent - though evocative - roots of the unconscious in its structural dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present the joint and the intertwining of the theories of Heraclitus in Heidegger's thought. Will achieve this purpose by means of an analysis of the fragments of Heraclitus enumerated by Diels-Kranz as 16, 123 and 51. Despite the prominence of these fragments due to their relevance to the topic, other fragments of the Greek thinker are used as a subsidy for the proposed clarifications. Following Heidegger's interpretation of Greek terms used by Heraclitus, one comes to a new understanding of the fragments in question. Taking as starting point the three fragments mentioned, we intend to clarify the meaning and purpose of reading Heidegger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a theoretical presupposition of the research project, Materialist Revision of Bioethics, developed by the author. This paper aims to discuss the main concepts of the philosophical critique of materialist type of religious and theological thought. It will explain the categories that make up such a critical position, which have been proposed and deployed in the history of Occidental philosophy. Moreover, attempts are also carrying out a reconstruction of this criticism, examining aspects still unilateral and insufficient, in search of an understanding of the fullest possible social objective determinations of the resurgence of religion and the expansion of obscurantist tendencies in the capitalist world, which are heard producing obstacles to the advancement of scientific knowledge and human-societal emancipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the adoption of the mandatory discipline of sociology in high schools throughout the basic education network in the country (2009), the process of institutionalization and consolidation of sociological analysis must be discussed. The institutionalization of the social sciences in the country occurred in a particular way, being initiated by "interpreters of Brazil" - doctors, engineers and lawyers -, and was subsequently consolidated as a scientific discipline. Thus, this paper brings a literature review based on classical and contemporary authors of Sociology. It is noteworthy, though, the experience of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the consolidation of the discipline. The reflections emphasize that the general explanations on social problems, essays and systematic scientific production were significant elements in the consolidation of the Social Sciences in the country. The discussion aims to establish a foundation for sociology teachers and researchers as well as for professionals from other fields of knowledge that use sociology as a reference to investigate the country's current social problems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approaches to, and expressions of, social issues as poverty involve discussing how social fractures connected with the process of capitalist restructuring are shaped and to be addressed in several dimensions (economic, political, cultural and social). This paper aims to review this debate 40 years after Jose Nun's marginality theory turned a fresh eye to Latin American poverty. It highlights singularities over that period in ways of looking at poverty as a social issue in Latin America and the approximation with French theorists of social exclusion. After the 1990's the debate is steered by the theoretical perspective of social exclusion, operationalised as a category capable of revealing the weakening and breakdown of social cohesion in terms of multiple levels and relational dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the current conditions of production in social sciences in Latin America, and the expectations regarding this branch of knowledge. It examines some of the barriers that hinder its regional development, and it discusses the arguments that call into question the global nature of social sciences, introducing some examples of local development with global impact. At last, it suggests some strategies that might help our production in social sciences reach a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to expose the theory developed by Axel Honneth on the idea of "struggle for recognition" as the explanatory key of social conflicts and, therefore, in the wake of communication theory outlined by the author, discuss possible reinterpretations about a classic theme in social sciences - the dichotomy of public / private - and its implications on the sociological understanding of the formation of individuality and public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My main purpose in this paper is to demonstrate that for Saint Augustine the human will become truly free by a paradoxical process, that is, by being submitted to the True [Veritas]. That process occurs only by means of the help of divine grace. To the Bishop of Hippo, liberum arbitrium and grace are not contradictory forces but work together in the process of conducting the will back to God. To discuss that, I took into account mainly the polemic texts wrote by the Saint against Pelagio (the texts about Grace). The result of that controversial is that Augustine completely reversed the Pelagian ideas, defending the insufficiency of human will to help us to return to God, and the necessary work of divine grace for our restoration to freedom [libertas vera]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the as a sphere of dialogue between Police and community and, consequently, a new organization of traditionally hierarchical structures through the insertion of the citizen into the management of public policies. The matter of popular participation in public policies emerged as a focus of analysis in Brazilian social sciences, especially after the resignation of city councils, seeking to approximate public policy managers and citizens. In the specific case of public security, the motivation for the engagement of citizens in public policies acquires a more incisive connotation due to the growth of violent crime levels in the country. The present article offers a case study of the Council of Public Security in Brumadinho, a city in the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. This case presents relevant elements for the understading of the complex interaction between social and public actors as well as their implications for the construction of public policies. In this way, it is possible to simultaneously discuss the challenges of popular participation and the new arrangement of the public structures, traditionally responsible for managing public security policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper proposes an approach about the study of the Legal Anthropology associated with the perpective of the decoloniality, the objective is to describe how this association contributes to a decoloniality of the power and the knowledge in the legal sphere. The reflection about the coloniality comes from the Decolonial Thinking, this thinking provides new perspectives to the world of the social sciences and humanities, configuring "other places" to the production of knowledge. Finally, it presents an analysis of the Legal Anthropology with the intention to verify how this, associated with the studies about the decoloniality, means not only a tool that enables criticism of the dominant discourse, but also represents an alternative to speak about "worlds and knowledges otherwise". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the traditional philosophical debate concerning body and spirit that has formed a multidisciplinary field of researches about brain and mind in the twentieth century, called cognitive sciences. Among the various divergent positions in this area, three of them had their nuances about the future of this exploited enterprise, and also their relations with the social sciences that basically move in these directions: (i) the defence of the singularity of human sciences' object considered in the philosophical consciousness model as intentionality; (ii) the searching of a biological understanding of the mind, also viewed in this case as intentionality and consciousness, and finally; (iii) the critic of the notions of intentionality and consciousness through the cybernetic and also the cognitive sciences achievements, that can feed a new relation between humans and machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we measure phenomena that cannot be directly observed? The principal aim of this paper is to demonstrate why factor analysis technique is the best answer to this question. Methodologically, we use a database with different indicators of democracy to show how principal component analysis can be employed to measure the two polyarchy dimensions proposed by Robert Dahl (1971): contestation and inclusiveness. On substantive grounds, we hope to facilitate the understanding of factor analysis technique in Social Sciences in general and in Political Science in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the establishment of the scientific field of Food and Culture in Brazil, guided by Bourdieu's concepts. We describe the science park corresponding to this field, its geographical and institutional distribution, its insertion in the fields of knowledge, the issues investigated, the qualifications of the researchers, their academic programs and its links with post-graduate studies, their societies and scientific organizations are more specific objectives of this paper. Three areas of social science world are analyzed: "Sociology and Anthropology," "Health" and "Food and Nutrition" which is incorporated into the habitus of its main agent, the researcher of the Health Sciences, reflections, potential and methodological resources from the Social Sciences and Humanities. A woven web of meanings in this meeting place of different knowledge is marked by hegemonic biomedical viewpoint, resents and demands a stronger field of concepts and methods capable of dealing with the complexity of reality and the problems beyond laboratory benchs in life in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food fact is essentially multidimensional: it goes between ecological, biological, psychological, socio-economic or political spaces. As other complex phenomena, today no one can deny that food should be studied from a cross-disciplinary perspective. In Spain, there are many studies made from experimental, social or human sciences that, using hyper-specialized knowledge, show nutritional, psychological or economic dimensions, e.g., of food preferences and aversions, food consumption or malnutrition. However, they are usually unidirectional approaches of the same phenomenon, supported by the frameworks of each epistemic science. Scientific collaboration includes scarcely closer disciplines. But sparing scientific intersections does not seem, as I will try to show in this paper, appropriate or useful. Especially when it is necessary to understand and solve problems, that affect social groups, operate in multiple and changing contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper continues our research study entitled Metalúrgica da Longra (1920-1993): ancoragem para um estudo sob os regimes de acção. It is an historical and social case study treading the line between tradition and innovation, based in the sociology of action and centred in a composite analysis of diverse elements: collective spaces and factory objects, activities and interrelations, paths and strategies of the actors/actants from this emblematic company, seen here as manifestations of compromise/dispute and plans of action, as points of view or as "worlds". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "social issue" has gained new relevance in the academic debate in the 90s, owing to the changes observed in relations between state, economy and society. In this debate, the issue of exclusion lies at the base of questions to state intervention, particularly with regard to the erosion of social protection systems. This paper, aiming to understand implications of these changes for health policy in Brazil, summarizes two distinct perspectives of social exclusion, which address the problem from the collapse of wage-based societies, and their impact on work; and, from the breakdown of the principles of solidarity's organization and the failure of the traditional concept of social rights. It concludes that health policy, part of the Brazilian social security system, would benefit from the enrichment of the concept of social right, the identification of appropriate means to a state action territorialized and consistent with the differentiation of social needs, and the analysis of inclusive interventions related to the core of the production and distribution of wealth systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTER-REGIONAL RELATIONS IN PORTUGAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE LISBON METROPOLITAN REGION. In this paper, we address the issue of territorial interdependencies in the case of Portugal. Given the lack of previous scientific work on inter-regional exchanges, the topic is approached from a broad perspective, by referring to the development synergies that can be found between the various regions. In particular, we discuss the specific relations that arise both from proximity and from regional similarities. Using data at the NUTS III level, we argue that, beyond the consolidation of a specific mode of development in the Lisbon metropolitan region, a sustainable articulation between demography and economy can hardly be found anywhere in the country. We conclude that the complex nature of inter-regional relations in Portugal calls for further methodological work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article “The territory’s management in question: a perspective coming from Brazil” is divided into four parts: the first one, destined to the presentation of the initial idea for the analyses at hand, the territory’s management by the National State; the second part demonstrates, by means of inquiries, new contributions from geography, sociology and economy regarding the territory’s social and political potential. Composing the two last parts of the paper, the present positioning for Europe’s territorial planning, in a very tight synergy with the scientific effort, as its influence on Brazilian territorial policies; concluding with the author’s interpretation regarding these innovations under Brazilian perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with discourse based on two previous studies with newspaper texts that interpret not only the discourse process but also the political aspect concerning the linkage of language with history and ideology. Thus, it evaluates the theoretical-methodological principles and procedures of the French Discourse Analysis (DA), based on its use in the Social Sciences field, especially byPolitical Science. It shows that the connection between the social scientist and DA allows the awareness that it is not a field exclusive to Linguistics, but is formed by both Psychoanalysis and Marxism, with close relation to the Social Sciences. Guided by Althusser's analysis of Marx, it reviews concepts of ideology and subject as well as the relation that is established between them in the subjectivation process. The use of this methodology, which is also a theory, places the social scientist, during the process of understanding the studied object, up against theoretical-methodological challenges that may lead him/her to review this reflection based on his/her own education and disciplinary fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent enlargement is unprecedented for many reasons. One of the most visible implications is the sizeable heterogeneity that characterises the European Union (EU). Since income differentials between member states have widened, the question is whether the EU is affected by this intense heterogeneity. Therefore, the role of cohesion policy (especially regional policy) is at stake. The paper examines two alternative solutions: the preservation of the existing stow quo and the reform of regional policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synergic combination of the scientific and technological fields that presented a rapid growth rate in the last few decades -- nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technologies, and cognitive science including neuroscience -- is nowadays known as Convergent Technologies. This paper reviews its recent impact on the international scientific community and points out the need of amplifying the discussions to include humanities and social sciences and other important actors of contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In emerging economies, various public programs have been created to stimulate local firms to adopt innovations, with the ultimate goal of increasing rates of economic development. This paper provides a preliminary attempt to identify factors associated with institutional influences in the processes of innovation diffusion in those areas, and proposes some basic associations: between the governmental interventions and the phases of the process of innovation diffusion; between the actions of governments and the forces that stimulate the process; and between the public policies and the characteristics of the institutional environment generally found in emerging economies. The analysis integrates concepts from various fields in the social sciences to offer five propositions, at different levels of analysis, describing various aspects of the potentially strong influence that national governments exert on the process through which innovations are diffused in the institutional environments of the areas known as emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on reflections and studies derived from a research trip experience to Paris, France, in which the (supposed) exoticism and Brazilian cordiality were under scrutiny. Carnival, soccer, natural spontaneity, women's eroticism (and exoticism), among other aspects, produce reifying and essentializing images of what is or would be the Brazilian identity. The paper approaches mainly the work of Sergio Buarque de Holanda, "Raízes do Brasil", characterized above all, by the idea of cordiality as the Brazilian contribution to civilization. Would the work of Buarque de Holanda be an example of our "sociology of the non authenticity"? Would Brazil be a country condemned to an imitation or an example of authenticity? These are the types of question that punctuate the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]