Search

The United States of America (USA) has been the world’s largest producer of ethanol since the late 2000s. In fact, the cultivation and production of corn, the main raw material for North American ethanol, has grown substantially. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships established between the ethanol industry and agriculture in Western Kansas, a rural region in the United States Midwest, in the context of the expansion of ethanol production in Western São Paulo. The methodological procedures adopted were based on bibliographic research, survey and analysis of secondary data and field research, with recognition of the area and interviews held with key people linked to companies that produce grain and ethanol, public officials, extension workers, and farmers. It was found that the production of ethanol in Western Kansas is a complementary activity to grain production and cattle confinement, which featured the characteristics of agriculture and regional economy. Nevertheless, the productive arrangement in which ethanol production is inserted is based on the cultivation of grain, particularly irrigated corn, and is part of a highly intensive agricultural system, which has resulted, over the past 70 years, in a sharp decline in underground water reserves and, consequently, irrigated agriculture. This framework contradicts the narratives of environmental benefits associated with agrofuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Universal Design (UD) of products for people with physical disabilities, such as adults with cerebral palsy is lacking in scientific evidence. The objective of this paper is to know the perceptions of the use of support designs for smartphones, taking the seven principles of the UD as a framework by analyzing a focus group. Face-to-face interviews were performed with adults with cerebral palsy from the countryside of São Paulo, Brazil. Six support designs were taken as an example to use the smartphone on a flat surface or another type of surface, which were evaluated by the group of participants. One design was selected that was useful for everyone regardless of their disability and that showed additional functions for using the smartphone. In conclusion, the study based on the DU model is a valuable theoretical and practical tool to identify the perspectives of people with disabilities, as well as to reflect on the improvements of the product that can be adapted to their needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze social innovation through the implementation of an initiative of the Municipal city hall of São Paulo, focused on active mobility, in the homeschool walking commute: the Safe Route to School (Rota Escolar Segura) program. Documentary research and semi-structured interviews were carried out. Categories and variables for social innovation analysis were applied, relating them to the Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs. Social innovation involves the co-creation of new services/products and is shaped by the interactions between the main stakeholders. In the case studied, participation in co-construction and codesign occurred through feedback and ideas. The co-creation is highlighted in the actions to obtain community involvement, evaluate the acceptance of the project proposal and identify potential points of improvement not foreseen in the pilot project, participatory workshops, informative and interactive panels, preparation and approval of the temporary intervention project, and joint discussion and analysis involving third sector organizations and municipal agencies. The new urban design, with requalification and redistribution of the road space, consolidated the reduction of speeds, prioritizing active mobility, ensuring that society is the beneficiary by appropriating the results of innovation. The results of the research are aligned, above all, with SDG 16, with regard to transparency and social participation, with SDG 11, by the search for improvement of spaces for active and sustainable mobility, and with SDG 13 by the tendency to improve environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the reflections of a high school visual impairment student about his escolar experience through the Photo-Voice technique. It is a case study that analyzes four sessions where semi-structured interview scripts were used. The participant was a first-year regular high school student of an inland municipality from São Paulo in Brazil. The principal results show the effectiveness of the Photo-Voice technique to promote reflections and to motivate the participation of the students through their own stories; with them, the student shows interest in being changing's agents for himself and his community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: this paper is the result of a doctoral research that sought to analyze the trajectories of black and white railroad workers in the interior of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, in the cities of Rio Claro, São Carlos, and Araraquara between 1930 and 1970. The research focused on a reading of how railroad companies in the 20th century, in addition to interconnecting regions and bringing workers of different races closer together, influenced their ascension and mobility in the economic, political, social, and cultural fields in relation to other workers of the period. It aimed to analyze the trajectories and memories of these workers, to understand how black and white workers related to each other considering race and class issues. Methodology: based on the methodological concepts of memory and oral history, approximately 75 former Companhia Paulista railway workers were interviewed. Direct and indirect documentary sources such as books, articles, period newspapers, and other printed materials were also used in the research. Originality: the article advances the analyses presented in terms of possible intersections impregnated by oral history under the criterion of ethnicity and their position occupied in the world of work. Conclusions: the idea of a railway family was adapted to the myth of racial democracy, in its double meaning: although internal conflicts may exist, recognition as railway workers opened the way for all of the workers in the environment outside of work. The ambiguity between color and class coexisted in the trajectory of the interviewees as a relationship of implication, not of causality. The reduction of distances by means of informal cohabitation had an emotional background that was present even in those relationships that would be more characteristically impersonal. The fetish of equality among railroad workers functioned as a mediator in class relations, which contributed to the fact that conflictive situations frequently did not result in factual conflicts, but in conciliations within the railroad company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research studies of use of the Internet for socialization by people with physical disabilities such as adults with cerebral palsy are insufficient. In this paper, the author identifies the potential of this technology as a tool for socialization. Twelve adults with cerebral palsy were asked questions by using semi-structured interviews in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Five thematic categories of analysis were suggested from the analysis and the interview transcripts. First category was related to the use of the Internet to maintain and expand interpersonal relationships. Second category was associated to the benefits of the Internet as an emotional well-being tool to fight critical situations. Third category was related to social visibility of their condition that helps to show who they are. Fourth category was related to the political participation where they can express their points of views and can have their legal rights. The final category was related to the attitudinal barriers that people without disabilities associate when this population group uses the Internet. In conclusion, the use of the Internet has a positive impact in inclusion and participation of adults with cerebral palsy by expanding their possibilities to promote their social and political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first decade of the 21st century, São Paulo's State Government, in Brazil, promoted the construction of a series of schools designed by different local architectural firms, using a system of prefabricated pieces that allowed adapting the projects to the sites and demands of each region, keeping the budget under control. This initiative allowed building dozens of buildings, relieving the school deficit of the most impoverished regions of the state and promoting the construction of public buildings with great social impact by a whole generation of architects. This paper presents the Prefabricated Schools Program guidelines, promoted by the Foundation for the Development of Education (FDE, in Portuguese) illustrating it with seven projects that showcase the architectural richness achieved by the firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the analysis of a specific conjuncture, "Cracolândia" in São Paulo, Brazil, and the "De Braços Abertos" program, this article discusses the complex relationships between drug use and the formulation of public policies directed to the care of users. In methodological terms, this work is based on the qualitative research by using semistructured interviews with thirteen key informants. The empirical material was analyzed from the content thematic analysis and the intersectionality perspective, especially from the theoretical contributions of the "difference" category. The results point out that "differences" are marked by gender, race and social position in the society, reinforcing stigmas and their different impacts on social relations. This paper contributes to the debate on the need to formulate different approaches to the specific needs and demands of populations or social classification categories regarding drug public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an analysis based on the ethnography in sex clubs and sex bars for men in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The paper examines how the different markers that operate in such areas are being melted to produce desirable bodies and subjects. I locate these sites in the broader market for commercial sexual encounters among men in the city, exploring social conventions and practices that permeate the body, sexual practices and erotic choices. This is a starting point for inquiring the ways in which certain stereotypes of "masculinity" are provided with meaning and are embodied. I also propose a revision of the erotic choices and sexual practices, which challenges the idea of eroticism expressed by thinkers such as Georges Bataille. According to him, gender is fixed and crystallized, is linked to sexual dimorphism of sex/gender positions. The body "violated", passive and penetrated, is "feminine"- the opposite of the "masculine" ones, the "active", that penetrates. This design underlines the erotic within the heterosexual matrix, which prevents thinking beyond or outside the limits of its rules. Following post-structuralist thinking on gender and sexuality, as well as queer theory, I wonder if we could try to deconstruct the erotic in other terms, in order to interpret anthropologically the practices, discourses and talks discussed here as potentially transgressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper propose an approach of the book Paranoia Roberto Piva, from a perspective of the molds historiographical questioning of Brazilian modernity. It is to show the existence of other traditions at work in the cultural field of the sixties Brazil, away from both the committed literature and the experimental literature. The Beat Generation and surrealism are two traditions that allow Piva produce a rereading of Brazilian modernism of the twenties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the impact of the transnationalization in Economy localization patterns of the urban activities in an intermediate city -Mendoza, Argentina- and in a city linked with the global economy-San Pablo, Brasil- is evaluated. This study is based on the retrospective and comparative analysis of the aspects related to the land use and to the population, stemming from the definition of geographical typologies and geographical associations. It has been established that the distribution patterns differ according to the consideration of "traditional" or "new" activities. Also, the territorial transformation and the process that originates them are considered. Among the conclusions, it is important to underline the existence of similarities between the localization patterns of urban activities in both cities, although there is a difference in there magnitudes. As a difference between both cities it is noted that while in one of them diversification prevails, in the other specialization develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]