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Abstract: This paper reviews the current socio-cultural and political state of cycling in Brazil and the policies and activities over recent years that have aimed to reverse its marginalisation. In particular it focuses on the city of Pelotas in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul and the significant societal and material transformations that are causing conflict and dissonance in relation to the future role of cycling on city streets. Using a combination of empirical evidence from existing literature; a focus group with members of the cycling stakeholder forum; interviews with planning officials whilst observing cycle infrastructure; interviews with participants whilst taking part in a ‘protest’ bicycle ride (bicicletada); and on street intercept interviews with cycle commuters, this paper highlights the tensions, conflicts, aspirations and imaginaries of a city grappling with significant growth and urban transformation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The southern coast of Brazil has been settled in different episodes between ca. 7.5 and 0.5 ka before the present by hunter-fisher-gatherers, shell mound builders of the pre-colonial Sambaqui cultural tradition. The factors that influenced human migrations in these episodes are diverse. They include cultural changes due to the coming of other groups, chronic food shortages, sea level changes, and lagoon silting. This paper combines geological, geomorphological, meteorological, and archaeological data to show how interactions between environmental dynamics and human settlement played a central role in modeling coastal sedimentary and rocky landscapes on the southern coast of Brazil during the middle Pleistocene to late Holocene. On Costão do Ilhote, a north-south oriented granitic promontory in Laguna County, Santa Catarina State, erosional features such as facets, keels, grooves, flutes, pits, and polished surfaces that developed on granitic boulders and pavements were recognized as ventifacts. In the same context, hundreds of fixed sharpeners/polishers from the production of polished objects by the sambaqui culture have been found crosscutting the ventifacts. Based on crosscut relationships between pre-colonial aged fixed sharpeners/polishers and ventifacts, relative sea-level changes during the Holocene, the age of distinct generation of sand dunes, and the age of shellmounds (sambaquis), four potential intervals of ventifaction are proposed: last 650 ka, last 350 ka, between ca. 115 and 5 ka BP, and between ca. 2.0 and ∼0.5 ka BP, with separated estimated abrasion rates of approximately 3.5 × 10−5 mm/yr, 7.0 × 10−5 mm/yr, 1.7 × 10−4 mm/yr, and 1.3 × 10−2 mm/yr, respectively. The ca. ∼1.5 ka of the last ventifaction interval was synchronous with a period of sambaqui culture retreat in the southern coastal plain of Santa Catarina, and also coincided with a period of abundant sand availability. This period is characterized by a drastic decline in sambaquis construction along the sand barrier and paleolagoon and a migration towards lagoonal and coastal rocky promontories, including Costão do llhote. Based on these pieces of evidence, we propose to add new components to the close interactions between environmental evolution and prehistoric human occupation on the southern coast of Santa Catarina during the Holocene: the strong winds combined with sand availability. • Origin, evolution, and preservation of ventifacts on granitic rocky promontories of Brazil southern coast. • Directional data of ventifacts as Quaternary paleowind indicators. • Age relationships between ventifacts and archaeological sharpeners/polishers. • Interactions between environmental dynamics and human settlement in southern Brazil. • Integrated approach to assessing regional landscape evolution during the late Quaternary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores how technological, commercial and social uncertainties shaped the development of Brazilian biofuels. Technological innovation allowed the country to emerge as a global leader, but Brazil continues to struggle with major social uncertainties due to poverty and environmental concerns common in many emerging economies. Contemporary approaches to development within the innovation literature focus primarily on overcoming technological and commercial uncertainties, but only peripherally explore social uncertainties. To fill this void, we draw on Martin and Hall''s framework for managing innovative uncertainties, which is based on Kuhn and Popper''s approaches to the evolution and methodology of science, and extend it with Aldrich and Fiol''s concept of cognitive versus socio-political legitimacy. Based on qualitative data collected in Brazil, we outline the evolution of automotive fuel ethanol and flex-fuel technology, the development of Brazilian soybean production, and castor for socially inclusive biodiesel production. We show how innovation solved some technological and commercial uncertainties and generated new opportunities, but also created additional social uncertainties that are now being addressed. Through this process, Brazil has acquired capabilities in alternative energy technologies and more sustainable agriculture, becoming an exemplar for other emerging economies. We conclude with implications for policy and industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The relationship between culture and educational action for social transformation has been a major talking point in contemporary debate. In Brazil, some local governments have been assuming a leading role in development by drafting public policies based on the specific socio-economic and cultural aspects of their territory. The city of Nova Iguaçu in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been implementing a public policy called the Neighbourhood-School Programme, one of the basic themes of which is culture. In this paper we describe how the Neighbourhood-School has contributed to social transformation in Nova Iguaçu. We discuss how, by fostering culture, the Neighbourhood-School Programme has the potential to contribute to social change and development in Nova Iguaçu by generating jobs and income, as well as fostering the socio-cultural inclusion of children and youths, providing professional training and creating cultural equipment, among other actions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]