Lines of Research and professors

Lines of Research of the Master’s Degree

PPGICAL has four lines of research to better cover projects, activities and disciplines which reprensent different agendas and work fronts. This allows us to have more synergy and collaboration among students and professors, and it also makes it easier for us to communicate and share knowledge. Entering students become part of one the lines of research after enrollment and they are advised by professors from this particular line, prioritizing the disciplines from this line of research as well.

Although this is a program of the field of Political Science and International Relations, we have a multidisciplinary teaching staff that emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches in all activities. The Program is mainly focused on regional integration, but we know that this issue can be approached from various perspectives, aspects and fields of knowledge. In this sense, the lines of research play a fundamental role.

• Line: Culture, Coloniality/Decoloniality And Social Movements
• Line: International Political Economy And Regional Blocs
• Line: Geopolitics, Borders And Regionalization
• Line: Politics, State And Institutionalization

Line: Culture, Coloniality/Decoloniality And Social Movements

It aims at thinking about the denaturalization of the national State and it searches to emphasize the region and the territory as cultural constructions as opposed to ideological ones. This approach allows us to think about integration “from bellow” as far as social movements, culture and critical and decolonial interculturality are concerned. This line of research deals with the problematization of the modern construction of the subject/object relation as an agent of the disintegration between the national State and society, also including the predatory relationship with nature. The national State is highlighted as something that promotes economic and political integration rather than social and cultural integration. The decolonial perspective – as an epistemology that is continuously under construction – is part of a proposal for comprehending the relations of power/dominance in space-time, the overcoming of the historical and colonial matrix of power and the liberation of individuals who are subordinated by this matrix, for an effective integration.

Culture and its multiple aspects, which is usually neglected in traditional programs of the field of political science and international relations, allow us to comprehend essential parts of our societies, their social formation, their challenges, symbols and manifestations. The approach to the theme of integration would not be satisfactory if we overlooked the necessity of understanding the cultural aspects of our Latin American and Caribbean societies, our identities and means of expression. The role of culture for regional integration, the means of cultural expression from different sectors of society, the role of different ways of manifestation, cultural policies are all present in the agenda of this line of research. Thesis papers that are common in this line of research are those about our original peoples, our urban populations, debates on ethnicity, gender, religion, cinema, literature, among others. The community of this line of research is mainly formed by sociologists, communicators, historians, anthropologists and art professionals.
Currently, we offer a mandatory discipline for those who are enrolled in this line of research: CULTURE, COLONIALITY/DECOLONIALITY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, besides other several elective disciplines.

 Professors:

Line: International Political Economy And Regional Blocs

This line of research focuses on the following axis: The evolution of International Politics, theoretical and conceptual aspects. Economic theories about hegemony, world order and historical change. Interpretation about the evolution and dynamics of the capitalist intersate system. International financial system and the international currency market. International Political Economy and Unequal Development. Dependence and development in Latin America: the contributions of ECLAC. The insertion of Latin America in the global economy and the controversy of dependence. Following this initial overview, the analysis becomes focused on the practical level regarding the existing economic blocs. The priorities are the agreements among Asian countries (ASEAN), North America (NAFTA), Arab countries (the Great Nation), socialist countries (COMECON), Africa (COMESA, ECOWAS and SADC), Central America (CACM), the Caribbean (CARICOM) and South America (Mercosul, CAN, ALBA and the Pacific Alliance).

This line of research aims at contributing to an intense research agenda about our economic formation, the singularities of our dependent economies, our insertion in international economy and our challenges regarding development. This line of research is formed mostly by internationalists and economists, our research agenda is intended to debate on our regional economic blocs, neoliberal globalization and its impacts, the world of work, aspects concerning the infrastructure of our countries, the specificity of some of our economic sectors. The role of organizations, institutions and international financial organizations and other organizations such as BRICS, G20 and G7 + Russia are also given importance. The overlapping of economy and political science, sociology and international relations is also constantly presented and promoted in the activities and analysis of this line of research. Here, the economic dimension of integration becomes central.
Currently, this line of research offers a mandatory discipline for its students, INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND REGIONAL BLOCS and also several elective disciplines.

Professors:
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Line: Geopolitics, Borders And Regionalization

This line of research is aimed at reflecting about the following axis: Classical Geopolitics and Geostrategy: contributions to the analysis of conflicts and processes of regional integration, fragmentation and regionalization. Geopolitics in Latin America. Critical Geopolitics and Contemporary Geopolitics: contributions to the analysis of conflicts, processes of fragmentation, globalization, regionalization and regional integration. Geopolitics of territories and borders, processes of territorialization, transbordering, fragmentation and regionalization. Analysis of contemporary processes of creation of Regional Blocs and Regional Integration based on the integration of safety and defense policies and the integration of the infrastructure related to transportation, energy and communication.

This line of research opens possibilities of debating our societies and regional integration from the perspective of areas such as geography, demography, sociology and international relations. The main aspects of our hemispherical relations, the understanding about notions such as territory, space, geopolitics of knowledge and the study about borders are the organizing facts of this research agenda and all the other activities related to this line of research. The geopolitical studies comprehend approaches from all those different fields of knowledge, at the theoretical and analytical levels, with the aim of understanding the correlation between politics and geography, considering units such as the State-Nation as well as the International System. This line of research strongly contributes to covering studies that discuss the particularities of the phenomena of our own trinational border.
Currently, this line of research offers a mandatory discipline called GEOPOLITICS, BORDERS AND REGIONALIZATION, and also several elective disciplines.

Professors:
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Line: Politics, State And Institutionalization

Our theoretical and analytical efforts are aimed at understanding the relationships between the powers in Latin America and the relationship between the State, social movements and society in Latin America and the Caribbean. Also, there are the studies about the democratic regimes, from the transition and the debates about the consolidation and quality of our democracies, to the centrality of the debate about Human Rights. Finally, there is the theme of political and institutional integration in Latin America. The following topics shall be covered: Approach to the theories of the State; Formation and types of State in Latin America; Political institution: relationship between the three powers; Relation, confrontation and crisis between the State and Social Movements, the Latin American democracies: Human Rights, Transition and Consolidation. Political and Institutional Integration in Latin America.

This line of politics is closely related to the area which the program is bound to in CAPES, but this does not mean there is no space for interdisciplinarity and to a multidisciplinary academic environment. Basically, this line of research has been gathering students with several different backgrounds such as philosophy, political science, public administration, public policies, pedagogy, sociology, International Relations, law and sociology. Theoretical and philosophical debates have their own space of discussion, as well as analysis about political and social processes in the countries of the region and also their diverse integration and cooperation projects at an international level. Studies about social movements, political and party systems, political institutions, public policies for different sectors, civil society organizations, international organizations, Latin American and Caribbean social and political thinking can be included in this line of research.
Currently, this line of research offers its own mandatory discipline called SEMINARS IN POLITICS, STATE AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION, besides different elective disciplines.

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Lines of Research of the Doctorate Degree

Two of the four lines of research of the Master’s Degree are maintained for the Doctorate Degree, the Culture one and the Economy one, and there is a third one which joins the lines of research of Politics and Geopolitics:

• Culture, coloniality/decoloniality and social movements
• International Political Economy and Regional Blocks
• Politics and geopolitics: state, institutionalization, borders and regionalization