Cross-cutting Studies: Gender, Religion, Knowledge, and Technologies
Faculty members: Yumi Garcia dos Santos, Nina Rosas, Cristina Maria de Castro, Renan Springer de Freitas, Yurij Castelfranchi
This research area explores the various ways in which human activities, knowledge, and beliefs intersect through dynamics of representation and power relations. Special attention is given to the intersections among knowledge/beliefs, technologies, and modes of innovation and/or preservation of collective life. We are particularly interested in public perceptions and attitudes of individuals and collectives, probing the dimensions of science and democracy. Epistemologically and methodologically, this line emphasizes the intersection of markers such as gender, class, race/ethnicity, religion, generation, and territory, aiming to understand phenomena of interest at local, national, and global scales, including digital dimensions. Topics addressed include institutional political representation and public policy, labor, energy and population transition, dynamics of peripheral areas, cultural and religious expressions, the mobilization of scientific and technological knowledge, and disputes over truth regimes and rights.
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Economies, Organizations, and Inequalities
Faculty members: Sílvio Salej Higgins, Jorge Alexandre Barbosa, Antônio Carlos Andrade, Marisa Singulano, Dimitri Fazito, Jerônimo Oliveira
The research area “Economies, Organizations, and Markets” studies three key factors that facilitate the emergence and stability of markets and their socio-political relations and dynamics: institutions, organizations, and interaction networks. This triple focus is applied to the wide spectrum of economic initiatives arising from private organizations, families, state bureaucracies, networked movements, or synergies among these actors and institutional types. The aim is to analyze their multiple consequences for societies, including the production and reproduction of inequalities.
Methodologically, faculty and researchers working in this area apply a broad range of techniques suitable for various types of explanatory research designs, such as:
a) probabilistic design with inferential validity (management of survey samples and census data),
b) in-depth case studies (use of discursive data, network analysis, among others), and
c) quasi-experimental research (management of sample and census data).
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Crime and Public Security
Faculty members: Ludmila Mendonça, Andréa Silveira, Bráulio Figueiredo, Cláudio Beato, Cláudio Santiago
The research area of Criminology and Public Security focuses on studies related to violence and crime, from deviant behavior and its socio-environmental, individual, and institutional variables to the violence generated within and by the very institutions responsible for its control. It draws on diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to conduct research on victimization, the prison and juvenile justice systems, criminal and delinquent trajectories, public security careers, the criminal justice process, and human rights and citizenship. The line also addresses studies on modeling, monitoring, and evaluating policies for public security management and promotion.
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Spaces and Societies: Urban and Environmental Inequalities
Faculty members: Ana Marcela Ardila Pinto, Ana Paula Vasconcelos Gonçalves, Corinne Davis Rodrigues, Dimitri Fazito, Elaine Meire Vilela, Eugênia Dória, Marden Campos, Raquel Oliveira
This research area brings together work that seeks to understand the social processes behind the production of space, focusing on meanings, identity, practices, and experiences that contribute to asymmetries, hierarchies, and conflicts across different territories and scales. Key themes guiding research, outreach, and teaching activities include:
a) **Urban sociology**, addressing topics such as socio-spatial segregation, gentrification, urban mobility, urban sociability, public spaces, poverty, peripheries, marginalization, crime, and urban violence;
b) **Population mobility and migration**, including refugee situations across different territorial scales and their effects on socio-economic inequalities;
c) **Virtual sociabilities and spatialities** resulting from the digitization of individuals, groups, and institutions in contemporary societies;
d) **Political ecology**, environmental justice, environmental risks and conflicts, and the social effects of large-scale development projects.
Research in this area combines qualitative and quantitative methods along with spatial analysis. It connects with the following academic centers: the Urban Studies Center (CEURB), the Environmental Studies Research Group (GESTA/UFMG), and the Laboratory for Digital Sociabilities (LSD). Faculty and students in this area are part of national and international research networks that integrate a variety of disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological perspectives.