Important Dates

The pandemic situation caused by the emergence of a new coronavirus in the first months of 2020 unfolded in a global context already characterized by a significant range of ongoing transformations, both in terms of the redesigning of forms of electoral political legitimacy within States, combined with the redefinition of hegemonies, alliances and rivalries in international relations, and in terms of the formation of broad and diffuse coalitions around global political agendas, concentrated especially on the relationship between human society and the environment, and on fighting diverse structural manifestations of racism around the world. Given this complex panorama, it is important to ask to what extent the current pandemic crisis represents an opportunity for paradigm growth and change, or whether, conversely, it constitutes the prelude to an entrenchment of discriminatory practices and a steady weakening of the most vulnerable at the global and local level.

In this event, we want to expand the reflections already started in the year 2020 when we held a cycle of eight meetings, dealing with themes around the pandemic such as culture of violence, xenophobia, racism, datacracia, fascisms and hygienism. This year, the Fábrica de Ideias journey will deal with the pandemic in contexts of durable inequalities, looking through the lens of critical epidemiologies and information dissemination strategies in a scenario where fake news spreads at the speed of contagion by the coronavirus.

Due to its high international studies course, the activities will have an English-Portuguese translation.

Main goal

Reflect on the impacts of the pandemic from the point of view of social reconfigurations imposed by social isolation, as well as the effective participation of the State in the conduct of this global crisis and in the manufacture of new political agendas in transcontinental contexts.

The four main topics the event seeks to explore are durable inequalities and pandemics, critical epidemiology, research methods strategies to circulate information, and masculinity, pandemics and authoritarianism.

Specific Objectives

• Investigate the grammar of the pandemic (lockdown, new normal, immunological paradigm, etc.) in the light of contemporary theories and classical sociological thinking to revisit old concepts and their applications in pandemic contexts.
• Reflect on emerging possibilities arising from the global collapse of political agendas and polarized narratives that sustained the 20th century;
• Facing the economic crises ahead and their impact on social reinvention processes;
• Understand the emergence of new agendas and new global players and the challenges posed to the construction of a post-pandemic world.

Organizational Information

The XXI edition of the advanced and intensive course “Factory of Ideas - Doctoral School” will be held entirely on a virtual platform for five weeks from May 4 to June 10, 2021. For the first time, the course will rely entirely on distance learning through a set of 12 lives.

The virtual platform used will be Streamyard and the whole program will also be published on the Youtube Channel of the event.

For more information please follow this link to the website.