The 49th Annual Meeting of Anpocs (the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Social Sciences) took place in person in Campinas from October 22 to 24. From October 15 to 17, the virtual presentations were held. INCT Participa was present in several panels and with a number of researchers.
Euzeneia Carlos (NUPAD/UFES) coordinated the Working Group “Democratic Controls, Institutions, and Participation,” which, according to her, “represented a new forum for debate on institutional participation, associativism, and political confrontation, fostering exchanges and qualified debate in articulation with other forms of democratic control.”
Luana Taborda, a postdoctoral researcher at INCT Participa, participated as a presenter, discussant, and attendee. She notes that the reconstruction of participation under Lula’s third administration was a recurrent theme at the conference.
“The first research diagnostics point to, among other elements, the overlapping of participatory bodies and spaces, with the reinstatement of councils, conferences, committees, etc., and the creation of new spaces, both collective and individual, such as participation advisory offices and the Brazil Participativo platform. The challenge for the INCT Participa research network is to understand the main changes and impacts of these processes on political configurations at both national and local levels,” she states.
For Luana Taborda, it is also noteworthy to observe the thematic and methodological diversity of the research, including conservatism, cyberactivism, gender and sexuality, Indigenous issues, state–society interactions, as well as classic themes of collective action: protests, religious actors, workers, and many others.
“Between the construction of longitudinal databases and investigations of new phenomena, between micro- and macro-social dimensions, there is a noticeable balance that this plurality of research topics brings. The field of participation studies continues to broaden its scope and refine strategies to better understand how social participation has been occurring in Brazil,” she adds.
Lilian Sendretti, a researcher at NDAC/Cebrap and member of INCT Participa, presented her work in a panel on polarization, anti-party sentiment, representation, and the place of emotions in politics.
“It was a panel very much in the spirit of INCT Participa, which brings multidisciplinary perspectives to address a single issue. I presented an analysis of political behavior, focusing on the role of emotions within the scenario of polarization. I spoke about what I call ‘civic burnout,’ which is the exhaustion or fear that voters feel toward politics, which has become a toxic and conflictive environment,” she says.
According to Lilian Sendretti, people avoid talking about politics in order to preserve the health of their affective relationships. “‘Civic burnout’ is not political apathy, because people still have preferences, they just stopped expressing them. Nor is it democratic disillusionment, because it does not necessarily imply adopting authoritarian beliefs,” she continues. “Civic burnout” is a concept Lilian developed inductively from the accounts of voters with different voting profiles in interviews and focus groups.
Marcelo Burgos Santos (NESPP/UFPB), a member of the INCT Participa steering committee, co-coordinated “Working Group 19: Internet, Politics, and Culture.” He highlights the research “Online participation at what cost? A study of the spread of private websites in municipal councils in Minas Gerais and their effects on citizen engagement initiatives,” conducted by Isabele Mitozo (UFMG) with co-authorship by Thales Torres Quintão (UFAC). “Many of the discussions held within INCT Participa were addressed in this working group, such as digital activism and the use of media for politics,” notes Wilson Oliveira (LEPP/UFS).
There were also two other important moments for INCT Participa. First, Professor Rebecca Abers (Resocie/UnB) received the Anpocs Gildo Marçal Brandão Academic Excellence Award in Political Science, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field.
The second was the launch of the book Consequências de movimentos sociais nas políticas públicas no Brasil, organized by researchers Euzeneia Carlos (NUPAD), Monika Dowbor (NDAC), and Maria do Carmo Albuquerque (NDAC), all affiliated with INCT Participa. The event at Anpocs brought together authors and an engaged audience interested in disseminating and discussing this important contribution to the debate on social movements, public policy, and democracy.
Watch the livestreamed sessions on Anpocs’ YouTube channel.
Below are some of the panels coordinated by members of INCT Participa.
