Research statement of Larissa Magalhães at the CeDEM16 PhD colloquium in Krems

1. Unveiling the political crisis in Brazil
The first months of the year 2016 will be remembered as the second president of the Republic of
impeachment democratically elected in Brazil. This whole process gains more notoriety by leading
public measures, such as approval in the House of Representatives and the Senate analysis, and
also the consideration of the Supreme Court.
This situation reflects the symbolic character of the crisis due to the particularistic content of
impeachment by the House of Representatives, and the establishment of a dubious consensus in
civil society.
The incredulous situation can be illustrated by the following facts. The then President Dilma has
no accusations of theft or corruption, but was threatened by the logic of the tax pedaling while
those articulated for that left the office, and styled themselves as promoters of change, facing
accusations of the same gender.
Some sectors of the policy justifying the necessary condition output presidentapela need to return
to economic growth and able to generate confidence. The media contributes to the commotion on
tax and pedaling on the banner to government integrity.
Again our culture is revealed by the prestige privatist interests. Of course Dilma, in his
government driving distanced from the model employed by Lula before, in fact the economic
dimension nothing surprising in its interventionist version for creating business, suffering from
the persistent criticism of the conservative economic sectors leading the scenario political and
economic country. But what political and economic aspiration of this large block reveals is the
need for another pattern of accumulation and surplus. So this new model reveals a condition of
underdevelopment and subordinated insertion of the country to neoliberalism.
But what this debate on macroeconomics and government agenda has to do with the university?
What concerns us is to think of a democratic state in which "pretexts" or "models" justify the
dismissal of an elected president, and more than that the concern for the democratic imbalance in
Latin America, sometimes justified by moments of ungovernability. Here's reunion with the timid
bourgeois autocracy of blocks in new guise of oligarchic nature, and that discourages the flag of a
democratic state.
Strikes, protests, descontentamos universities reinforce the need to think and reform this
democratic state that I spoke up. Depletion of the academic community reactions represent the
negation of the questions which it placed, so in addition to the political and economic turmoil,
other issues are being put into debate as political hatred, racism and lack of inclusiveness in the
university.
So I emphasize the opportunity to bring these issues to the political debate. Overall, the research
has become a challenge in the country, as we had a cut of more than 10 billion in the budget of the
Ministry of Education, which includes cuts in funding of research assistance and scholarships. I
warn therefore not only threats to democratic mechanisms in Latin America, corrupted by
contradictory arguments. What worries me is not that others, especially those who are not part of

2. the academic community, do not think like me, but because they do not think. The current
governor of Sao Paulo, said the Fapesp (greater funding of research in the country) prioritizes
funding for research in sociology and of no practical use. Unfortunately this is the attitude of our
politicians. Unicamp (my university) and two other University of São Paulo are responsible for
more than half of the publications in the country, has the largest number of high impact
publications, and even then the humanities receive fewer resources and not declared by its
uselessness.
Still, it is worth remembering that the discussion of the political turmoil in the country recalls the
year 2013 when the student movements in the country, especially from the high school and college,
organized in the struggle for rights and citizen inclusion. The cycle of events favored the
emergence of various collectives in the country (even played a role in mediating opportunities
speeches on social networks between social movements and the state). The internet has emerged as
an organization strategy among them to garner support from other movements, other government
organizations and the press itself (a kind of proxy). I think these forms of communication and
interaction accelerate the formation of a broader identity with other movements that go through
similar situations of precariousness rights and repression of políciae dogoverno. During the
clashes, and desencademento the impeachment process, the generated perception is that no trust
in politicians and governments.
This scenario led the researchers to speculate about the "crisis of representation" or quality of
mechanisms and forms of decision-making. The questioning of the current democracy, particularly
in Latin America, the casket, in the streets and networks, suggested research on the ways and
projects that promote transparency, political participation, political culture, social control,
independent communication and open government. So the bottom line of my research
accompanies this series of events.
Thus, the situation of the country's political crisis has generated a general understanding that we
must continue to fight for their rights, particularly among young people. I understand that a time
of reconstitution of a political body, but also means a new management and a real democracy
technology. This change also questions the role of the university as a training of researchers,
strategists for politics. I believe that political science is the transformation, not the current setback
that we are living in Brazil.
By Larissa Galdino de Magalhães.
larissagms@yahoo.com.br
www.researchgate.net/profile/Larissa_Magalhaes3

3. He graduated in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (2008),
Social Master Sciences at the Graduate Program in Social Sciences from the Federal
University of Espírito Santo (2013) and is doctorate at the Graduate Program in Political
Science the State University of Campinas (2014). It is currently a researcher in the project
management and political status of institutional participation funded by the Foundation for
State of São Paulo (FAPESP). Doctoral fellow of Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination
(CAPES). Scholarship CNPq in the Observatory of the Metropolis territory, social cohesion and democratic
governance, in partnership with the Instituto Jones dos Santos Neves and National Institute of Science and
Technology (INCT) (2013/2014).