TRANSDISCIPLINARITY AS A DECOLONIZING RESEARCH PRACTICE: : A LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

The paper intends to contribute to an international understanding of transdiciplinarity (TD) from the perspective of Latin America. The basic argument is that TD is a research practice that can foster knowledge democracy within the framework of decoloniality as a social and academic praxis. The first part of the paper highlights some historical and contemporary practices that are important to shape a decolonizing approach to transdisciplinarity. The second section discusses issues involved in the development of transdisciplinary political, contextual and institutional conditions, besides the researcher’s personal and professional commitment and preparedness

The Scale of Participation: From Municipal Public Budget to Cities' Conference

"In a well ordered city every man flies to the assemblies: under a bad government no one cares to stir a step to get to them, because no one is interested in what happens there, because it is foreseen that the general will will not prevail, and lastly because domestic cares are allabsorbing. Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse. As soon as man says of the affairs of the State What does it matter to me? the State may be given up for lost. (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1950: 93)." (author's abstract

Popular Education and Participatory Research: Facing Inequalities in Latin America

"The paper analyzes the construction of a pedagogical-investigative method, which has as its key element the development of strategies for overcoming inequalities in Latin American societies. Paulo Freire and Orlando Fals Borda, among others, provide elements for understanding the origins of a method which, in research, has a close relation to the educational dimension and, in education, integrates the investigative dimension as a part of the process of developing active subjects in their communities. The paper refers to research projects that were developed using participatory methodologies, attempting to identify some recent developments, advances and limits. Among these projects, special attention is paid to those that show the role of pedagogical mediations in participatory social processes in South Brazil (state of Rio Grande do Sul), particularly the activities of a garbage recyclying association and the implementation of the participatory budget in a municipality in South Brazil." (author's abstract

Research and Social Transformation: Notes about Method and Methodology in Participatory Research

"This text is a contribution to methodological reflection on research, based on the experience of a research team who explored various aspects of the participatory budget in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). It is situated within the context of participatory research, and deals with the following topics: method and methodology: the insertion of research and education within the same process of knowing; research and its ethical and political commitment; research as public action directed towards the constitution of the public sphere. The intense interaction in the research process, attending to the assemblies of the participatory budget in various municipalities, being present at council meetings, talking to communities and community leaders as well as participating in academic circles, contributed to understanding research as integrated within the movement of knowledge, values, cultures, worldviews, and above all, people towards the achievement of their goals." (author's abstract

Antioxidant status in acute stroke patients and patients at stroke risk

Background and Purpose: Antioxidant enzymes like copper/ zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and gluthatione peroxidase (GSHPx) are part of intracellular protection mechanisms to overcome oxidative stress and are known to be activated in vascular diseases and acute stroke. We investigated the differences of antioxidant capacity in acute stroke and stroke risk patients to elucidate whether the differences are a result of chronic low availability in arteriosclerosis and stroke risk or due to changes during acute infarction. Methods: Antioxidant enzymes were examined in 11 patients within the first hours and days after acute ischemic stroke and compared to risk- and age-matched patients with a history of stroke in the past 12 months ( n = 17). Antioxidant profile was determined by measurement of glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), SOD, GSHPx and minerals known to be involved in antioxidant enzyme activation like selenium, iron, copper and zinc. Results: In comparison to stroke risk patients, patients with acute ischemic stroke had significant changes of the GSH system during the first hours and days after the event: GSH was significantly elevated in the first hours (p < 0.01) and GSHPx was elevated 1 day after the acute stroke (p < 0.05). Selenium, a cofactor of GSHPx, was decreased (p < 0.01). GSHPx levels were negatively correlated with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores on admission (r = - 0.84, p < 0.001) and NIHSS scores after 7 days ( r = - 0.63, p < 0.05). MDA levels showed a trend for elevation in the first 6 h after the acute stroke ( p = 0.07). No significant differences of SOD, iron, copper nor zinc levels could be identified. Conclusions: Differences of antioxidant capacity were found for the GSH system with elevation of GSH and GSHPx after acute stroke, but not for other markers. The findings support the hypothesis that changes of antioxidant capacity are part of acute adaptive mechanisms during acute stroke. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

The splintered art world of Contemporary Christian Music

...More than twenty years after CCM was begun, the Evangelical world still does not entirely trust rock music - Christian or otherwise - and in the context of this controversy CCM was born, has taken shape, and continues to evolve (Cusic 1990, p. 197). Consequently, out of the necessity to respond to the suspicions of the church (as well as the pressures of the rock music industry), the CCM art world has been forced to develop rationales for the acceptance of the rock idiom as a means for communicating a Christian message. While young fans have had to find rationales to justify their musical preferences to parents, pastors, and friends, it is the artist who has been most often expected to articulate these ration- ales. In addition to defending themselves from the attacks of their \u27Rock music is inherently evil\u27 opponents, artists also must justify their product to their record buying audience. John Styll (1993), editor of Contemporary Christian Music magazine, argues that it has been the audience which, from the beginning, has resisted the artists\u27 attempts to expand their range of subject matter beyond the gospel itself (p. 42). Hence, the artist must play the role of critic, as well as artist, in the CCM art world. Therefore, in our examination of the splintered art world of Contemporary Christian Music we pay particular attention to the rationales developed by artists, as well as those of the \u27pure\u27 critic..

Research as political-pedagogical mediation. Reflections based on the Participatory Budget

"This article analyzes research as political-pedagogical mediation in constituting citizenship, having as a reference the Participatory Budget process of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). It verifies how, through a participative methodology, the researcher is challenged to reposition him or her self and the process of production of knowledge in the context of social change." (author's abstract

A Reforma de Córdoba de 1918 e a internacionalização universitária na América Latina

A internacionalização é uma tendência que, nas últimas duas décadas, tem-se instalado com força no âmbito universitário latino-americano. Contudo, argumenta-se neste artigo que ela é parte de um processo histórico que vem se constituindo dentro da região com características lhe são próprias. Por isso, este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar as contribuições da Reforma de Córdoba de 1918 para a análise do processo de internacionalização universitária na América Latina. Realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, com um conteúdo de cunho histórico. Aponta-se como resultado que o legado da reforma, no que se refere à integração regional e ao conceito de autonomia universitária, contribui para uma visão da internacionalização enraizada no contexto latino-americano

O éthos de uma educação humanizadora

Este ensaio propõe uma reflexão sobre o éthos para uma educação humanizadora hoje. Trata, inicialmente, dos sentidos da humanização e dos desafio para realizá-la. Dentre as ameaças destaca a violência em suas diferentes formas e a exclusão do mundo do trabalho como limitadora do potencial criativo inerente ao ser humano. A aproximação com o processo educativo é realizada em três momentos: a) através da metáfora da construção da casa para ilustrar a possibilidade de desenvolver um éthos propiciador de relações humanizadoras; b) a relação entre moral e ética, tendo como meta o desenvolvimento de uma ética universal do ser humano (Freire), ou seja, fundada em princípios com reclamos universais; c) o comportamento ético como fruto de um aprendizado que passa por um processo de desenvolvimento. Na conclusão, pergunta-se sobre o sentido de ser humano a partir de uma reflexão de Dietrich Bonhoeffer num campo de concentração nazista durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial