This qualitative documentary research analyzed the presence and absence of African-based mathematical knowledge in the curricula of master’s programs in Mathematics Education at five Portuguese universities. The methodology included an analysis of course curricula available on the official websites of these institutions. The results indicate that the curricula contain limited or non-existent content related to African-based mathematical knowledge, highlighting the predominance of a Eurocentric approach in the training of Mathematics teachers and of practices that perpetuate inequalities, resulting in the marginalization of African cultures. The prevalence of these narratives contributes to the erasure and silencing of African knowledge systems, restricting epistemological diversity and limiting the understanding of Mathematics in different cultural contexts.
The commercialization of handicrafts has become an important livelihood strategy adopted by the Kaingang Indigenous people within the context of tourism activity in southern Brazil, particularly in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. This study addresses Kaingang mobility in one of their territories, the Rio das Cobras Indigenous Land, in Paraná. Through a qualitative field research methodology, the study investigated the meanings attributed by the Kaingang to the production and commercialization of handicrafts, as well as their perceptions regarding their experiences during trips to urban centers for the purpose of selling these products. Although such journeys are interpreted by Brazilian state and federal institutions as occurring within a context of vulnerability, Indigenous people understand them through two dimensions – pedagogical and territorial – which, when articulated with subsistence needs, allow for a broader understanding of the concept of territoriality.
This paper discusses the Community Land Trust (CLT) for the permanence and strengthening of organized mobilizations and struggles for access to land and housing in Brazil, exploring its potential for collective land management combined with individual arrangements for housing rights. The premise is that informal settlements that already have social organization can maintain their cohesion more easily by sharing land management. We examine three Brazilian cases with different levels of organization: the Anchieta Occupation (Santos, São Paulo); the Marielle Franco Occupation (Curitiba, Paraná), led by the Homeless Workers’ Movement; and the Faxinalense area (Pinhão, Paraná). We argue that the CLT, associated with participatory land regularization processes, can increase social cohesion and politicize the territory, challenging the logic of capitalist private property.
Semiotics has been essential for understanding emerging social issues, including sexual and gender diversity. As symbolic representations stand out in the process of identity formation, it is crucial to analyse how images and signs reinforce or challenge structural norms. The purpose of this integrative review was to explore the relationship between semiotics and sexual and gender diversity, reflecting on the duality between representativeness and intolerance across different contexts. Through content analysis of the selected articles, it was observed that the various possibilities of representation are important for ensuring inclusion, while they may also reinforce normativities. Thus, the role of semiotics is fundamental in articulating discourses, images, and practices, standing out particularly in the process of legitimizing multiple subjectivities.
This article seeks to outline a general overview of the theoretical perspectives that have been developed within the research agenda on lawfare, in order to discuss the different conceptual divides that address this phenomenon. The two main currents analyzed in this work can be roughly distinguished between a more normative, progressive-oriented view – more widespread in South America, mainly by legal authors –, and a less axiological, broader and more analytical view. Throughout the article, it is argued that the more normative current, predominant today in the debate on lawfare in Brazil, proved to be too partial in its analysis of the phenomenon and fails to contemplate the multiple possibilities of using lawfare. After a critical reflection, it is proposed that a broader view is more useful in Political Science studies.
The paper revisits the theme of utopias as constructions of alternative futures grounded in the present, following the approach advocated by Erik Olin Wright. It draws on research into contemporary social activism conducted across countries in both the South and the North. As its analytical framework, the research both developed and employed the concept of action collectives. With this purpose, it combined literature reviews with successive periods of field immersion, examining documents and manifestations produced by or concerning the collectives, alongside direct visits, interviews, and attendance at activist events. It indicates that these collectives engage with a range of global issues, acting both as agents of contestation and as proponents of alternatives. In particular, they seek to prefigure the desired future through concrete and effective projects that, at present, embody their utopias of alternative ways of life.
Beyond the debate on drugs as a concern for international security, this paper incorporates perspectives on well-being and public health as “alternatives” that may contribute to the promotion of peace. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective on the international governance system and domestic drug decriminalization policies, this study aims to analyze the implications of drug regulation on conflicts, violence, and peace. To this end, we employ a qualitative methodological approach, grounded in a historical-genealogical analysis, to investigate and compare Portuguese and Brazilian policies as models based on the logic of harm reduction, albeit with distinct implementation practices.
This article analyses how children and young people, aged between 6 and 18, express their perceptions and interpretations of the 25 April 1974 Revolution through audio and video productions. Within the framework of the project bYou: Study on children and young peoples experiences and expressions of the media, the initiative “Tell me about April 25th” gathered 128 productions from different locations between January and March 2024. The analysis of these productions reveals a diversity of perspectives and narrative approaches to the Revolution, exploring themes such as freedom, democracy, social and political transformations, gender inequalities, and the role of the media. It also provides insights into how younger generations engage with narratives about the past and reinterpret this historical event in the present. The study contributes to understanding the processes of social transmission of memory and the role of media practices in constructing meanings about recent history in democratic contexts.
A group of ecology and education researchers, visual arts teachers, a sculptor, and secondary school arts students collaborated to create immersive experiences with an urban stream. Through careful observation, vivid sensory imagination, and a deep attentiveness - seeing with all the senses - they sought to become one with the stream while honoring its multiplicity. This approach was inspired by delicate empiricism, a method of inquiry developed by Goethe, which also guided the research process. The voices of the young participants - expressed through drawing, painting, audio recordings, sculpture, and writing - formed the core of the work. An urban stream (and its inhabitants), invisible to many, became a space of transformation. There, we learned to be like other beings - human and non-human alike - with whom we have been learning the value of socializing with other species and of becoming a community with them
The recovery of communal lands (baldios) in Portugal by rural communities that had historically managed them began in the wake of the Carnation Revolution, following decades of state intervention. Drawing on the case of Northeastern Portugal (Vila Real and Bragan & ccedil;a), this article examines the forms of collective action underpinning the struggle for the restitution of the baldios, the emergence of local social movements, and the communities' capacity for mobilization. Two main phases are identified: an initial period (1974-1976) characterised by spontaneous popular action, and a second phase, between 1976 and 1979, marked by institutional consolidation after the approval of the Constitution and the Commons Law. The study argues that the baldios became a central way for asserting rural autonomy and contesting state authority.
Reimagining property rights The capacity to imagine different worlds is central to how we engage with our struggles in the future and the present. The difficulty of imagination influences our processes of prefiguration and hinders our ability to recognise what is diverse in the present, and it affects and impoverishes our descriptive repertoire of reality. This text seeks to address this situation and focuses on the diversity of existing property arrangements around the world. It shows that property situations in our society are more diverse than we often assume. It also shows that such diversity in property is not merely a form of resistance or a relic of ancestral times, but rather offers fully functioning and often expanding alternatives. In doing so, it challenges the idea that territory is irredeemably dominated by an overwhelming capitalism that leaves us without options. It presents case studies of noncapitalist forms of property across the world. Considered together, they have the potential to reconstruct the landscape of property, revealing a world that is diverse and contested.
Amongst the resources that can foster public life, those that offer the means for collective action and social renewal, community-engaged research (CER) is a powerful bulwark against contemporary forms of deprivation and crisis. Community-engaged research is a critical form of research generation through which theory and academic knowledge are incorporated with the world and in collaboration with communities, to understand, analyze and reimagine the conditions governing our lives. In this paper an institutional example of CER is shared to highlight the potential of community-centred research to operate as a space for world-building in support of training, collaboration, and research leadership, along with two projects that suggest the potential of CER to address some of the most intractable matters of concern that affect societies today.
The capacity to imagine different worlds is central to how we engage with our struggles in the future and the present. The difficulty of imagination influences our processes of prefiguration and hinders our ability to recognise what is diverse in the present, and it affects and impoverishes our descriptive repertoire of reality. This text seeks to address this situation and focuses on the diversity of existing property arrangements around the world. It shows that property situations in our society are more diverse than we often assume. It also shows that such diversity in property is not merely a form of resistance or a relic of ancestral times, but rather offers fully functioning and often expanding alternatives. In doing so, it challenges the idea that territory is irredeemably dominated by an overwhelming capitalism that leaves us without options. It presents case studies of non-capitalist forms of property across the world. Considered together, they have the potential to reconstruct the landscape of property, revealing a world that is diverse and contested.
A group of ecology and education researchers, visual arts teachers, a sculptor, and secondary school arts students collaborated to create immersive experiences with an urban stream. Through careful observation, vivid sensory imagination, and a deep attentiveness – seeing with all the senses – they sought to become one with the stream while honoring its multiplicity. This approach was inspired by delicate empiricism, a method of inquiry developed by Goethe, which also guided the research process. The voices of the young participants – expressed through drawing, painting, audio recordings, sculpture, and writing – formed the core of the work. An urban stream (and its inhabitants), invisible to many, became a space of transformation. There, we learned to be like other beings – human and non-human alike – with whom we have been learning the value of socializing with other species and of becoming a community with them.
The year 2023 marked the centenary of Eduardo Lourenço (1923-2020), one of the most original and recognised personalities in philosophy and culture in Portugal. With an enchanting style of writing, where philosophy and literature engage in a fruitful dialogue, Eduardo Lourenço’s essayism is a way of corresponding to the rhythm of time itself, in the way it becomes thinkable. Beginning with the special relationship between Eduardo Lourenço and Brazil, this article looks at the importance of Lourenço’s “Brazilian time”, not only in awakening to the problem of colonialism or the experience of language in the interaction between cultures, but also in consolidating the essay as the singularity of the Portuguese thinker.
The recovery of communal lands (baldios) in Portugal by rural communities that had historically managed them began in the wake of the Carnation Revolution, following decades of state intervention. Drawing on the case of Northeastern Portugal (Vila Real and Bragança), this article examines the forms of collective action underpinning the struggle for the restitution of the baldios, the emergence of local social movements, and the communities’ capacity for mobilization. Two main phases are identified: an initial period (1974–1976) characterised by spontaneous popular action, and a second phase, between 1976 and 1979, marked by institutional consolidation after the approval of the Constitution and the Commons Law. The study argues that the baldios became a central way for asserting rural autonomy and contesting state authority.
