Social inclusion as a scientific project

• Grant number: 11/50392-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2011
• End date: August 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Nauras Akhras
• Grantee: Fabio Nauras Akhras
• Host Institution: Centro de Pesquisas Renato Archer (CENPRA). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The growing informatization of the society leads to the need of exploring in full the potential of media technologies to support social inclusion. On the other hand, social inclusion is a subject that has been largely neglected by traditional science, which seeks to develop precise models of the phenomena being studied, leaving a whole area of technological developments oriented to support social inclusion still to be advanced. In this context, the aim of this research project is the development of an ontology and models that can be used to formalize notions and principles associated with the problem of social inclusion, in diverse contexts. In this way, the project intends to fill a gap in the area of Science and Technology for Social Inclusion, which is the lack of a scientific basis to approach the problem of social inclusion. The development of the ontology and models will be based on the analysis of three projects of using media technologies to promote social inclusion which we are currently developing. The general objective is to identify and discuss questions associated to supporting the social inclusion of individuals and communities, in the context of these three projects, and explore forms of expressing these questions in precise terms, producing an ontology and models that can provide a foundation for the design and the analysis of social inclusion systems. This will help to state the principles on which social inclusion systems are built in a common language, allowing comparative studies and making possible to share the results of social inclusion projects, bringing advances to the field. (AU)