TEMAS is currently associated to Post Graduate Program in Rural Development (PGDR) and the Graduate Program in Sociology (PPGS), including researchers and students at both masters and doctoral level.
The general objectives of this research Group are:
- To deepen multidisciplinary debate and reflection on the main contemporary social theories regarding society-nature relations;
- To identify and analyze the nature and influence of the “environmental component” in the social dynamics in the agriculture and development;
- To stimulate and support the education and training of researchers for action and research regarding development, science and technology, and environment;
- To encourage varied forms of scientific production, integrating distinct areas of knowledge in the analysis of the general and specific themes of the group;
- To motivate theoretical and methodological contributions, in order to support the production of new knowledge and social practices compatible with the objectives of this Group;
- To organize and participate in academic events, with the objective of evaluating and disseminating theoretical and methodological advances, with a multidisciplinary focus, regarding the themes of the Group;
- To establish academic exchange and cooperation with other national and international groups that address the same or similar themes.
At present, TEMAS is based around five general thematic axes of investigation:
- the diversity and dynamics of society-nature relations in specific social contexts;
- environmental conflicts in friction with megaprojects and civil enterprises;
- controversies surrounding novelties and technological innovations;
- climate change and social studies of science and technology;
- food practices and technoscience.
The analytical approaches of the research group are restricted to the social sciences, especially the socio-anthropology of science and technology, of environmental conflicts and of the rural.
TEMAS has been including researchers in the natural sciences in an attempt to strengthen the interaction between the natural and the social sciences in research on nature-society relations.
The group’s coordinator, Jalcione Almeida, is a CNPq researcher, currently working in the postgraduate programs of Rural Development (PGDR) and Sociology (PPGS), both at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).
