A ciência e a tecnologia entre projetos de sociedade em disputa: o caso do IFSC

Abstract

The objective of this research is to understand the influence of competing society projects on science and technology productions, and the (im)possibility for the workers to have access to science and technology knowledge. To achieve this goal the country policies and the production of science and technology were analyzed; we have also analyzed how close or how far workers education is to the scientific and technological knowledge, its resolution and constraints to Brazilian professional and technological education policies and the influence of these questions in the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Santa Catarina - FIESTSC. The historical and dialectical materialism was elected as the theoretical and methodological framework to drive this research, working with literature review, document analysis, direct observation and interviews with professors and managers from FIESTSC. Thus, the research started with material reality, taking its history as analytical assumption: in the movement of this reality (under a dialectical process), it seeks to apprehend its intrinsic aspects. As a main result, it was identified, in the country, a broad process to shape consensus related to science and technology production with the innovation term and concept. Competitive edge and economic growth are attributed to the innovation capability. Innovation is then treated as a condition to achieve social transformation and to build a new society project. However, the meaning assigned to innovation, socially shared, relates to the explicit science policy and this is made by ideological constructions that legitimate the state intervention in technology and productive infrastructure, which is not new in Brazilian reality, since it is something that has been done since long ago. Besides, it is noted that the implicit science, technology and innovation policy is committed with the present social logic and its conditioners. The following aspects are revealing to this comprehension: the S,T&I policies results (explicit policy); the beneficiaries of the current policies; the resource usage of the S,T&I and industrial policies; the business sector investments in R&D and innovation, among others. When the access to scientific and technological knowledge based education is analyzed, it is verified that only a small selected portion of the society has access to it. To the others it is offered an education that follows the long social architecture, a distinct and unequal education to distinct social groups. In this context, a big contingent of the population has access only to a simple, punctual and fragmented education. This contradictory process happens because, under a dialogic process involving the constriction of the capital reproduction and the capitalist system counter attack, we see the use of the highest form of technology and innovation merged with the magnification of the absolute and relative value added extraction – therefore, magnifying the deterioration process of the work conditions from a broad portion of the workforce. In this context the worker "under qualification" begins to be a structural element to the reproduction and accumulation of capital. It was verified that these social reality movements also unfold inside the FIESTSC, where there is a broad educational architecture that reproduces the existing social architecture, which means that the access to a science and technology based education is still limited. Also it has been identified a naturalization process of the social classes or the comprehension that an education which prepares the worker to assume a "role" inside the "social system" (in the long social architecture, which is extremely unequal) is inclusive and in behalf of the workers. In this institution it is also verified a consensus about the importance of the innovation, which is then used to drive the production of science and technology through research. Therefore, these results indicate the need to magnify the debate about current society projects and its relations to S&T production and the workers access to scientific and technological knowledge.