PPGas Center works to rethink democracy anthropologically

The Laboratory of Social Anthropology (lapso) linked to the Graduate Program of Social Anthropology and IFCH, emerged in 2022, from the need for research on the mutually constitutive dimensions of morals and politics. The moral aspects of politics and the political aspects of morals are objects of research from the nucleus, which works from citizenship and democratic values to religion and secularisms. 

The nucleus' proposal is to rediscuss "citizenship" from its corporate production and the political-moral values associated with it in democratic regimes, rethinking the latter as a form of life articulated by values.

Lapse is composed of teachers, invited teachers from other institutions, undergraduate students, master's and doctoral students who participate with their research. The coordinator cites, as an example, a survey that accompanies the work of a candidate for councilor in the metropolitan region and how the figure of a democratically elected representative is built.

The process of knowledge construction in lapse is articulated from the observation of the ways in which politics is increasingly moralized and marked by moral ideals that lead to specific actions, often resulting in conflicts, and is also done by discussing the political positions present in ethical decisions and their justifications.

Currently, lapso develops research within its thematic area, including in partnership with a global researchers network. According to Lapso coordinator, Professor Eduardo Dullo, about eight researchers, including teachers and students from the Social Sciences course, structure research on the future perspectives of young people in global violence.

“started in early 2025, and articulated with a global network research in which I participate, Hidden Peacebuilders Network, headquartered at the University of Leeds in England and with participants from Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan) and Asia (Sri Lanka, Filipines, India). We started thinking about January 2023, at a network meeting in Burundi, and is focused on understanding the prospects for the future of young people in conflict, violence, vulnerability, and how these future perspectives are altered from relations with local religious leaders and social actions of religious organizations, ”explains Eduardo.

The proposal is to understand what are the current perspectives of the future of young people in times of change from the political, economic and climate point of view. In addition to seeking to understand the impact of social actions and religious leaders who work to improve the lives of these young people, aiming to promote social inclusion, a perspective of wage labor or peripheral entrepreneurship, often with racial literacy, gender and sexuality.

In Brazil, Professor Eduardo coordinates the research, which starts through Porto Alegre, with the possibility of expansion to Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza. "This research has a global scope, with field research by Burundi, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and Philippines, as well as England, so that the broadest goal is to have a global comparison of these issues, also thinking from the different religious traditions that are present in the most diverse contexts," he concludes.

it is possible to contact the nucleus by website or instagram (@nucleo.lapso ) that also releases the latest news, events and works produced by lapso.