Fernando de Azevedo, a Brazilian durkheimian?

• Grant number: 13/12527-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Fundamentals of Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Belem Hey
• Grantee: Francesco Andrade Tomei
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Fernando de Azevedo is well-regarded as one of the most important characters in the Brazilian educational system in the first half of the twentieth century but he isn't sufficiently recognized for his sociological work, which he affirms is heavily influenced by Émile Durkheim. Therefore, this research aims to read his sociological works to understand the relation between his thought and the period when it was written, when the French tradition was growing in Brazilian sociology. Besides the reading of Azevedo's writings, it would be fundamental to qualify the influence of Durkheim's works in his writings and to see the impact of Azevedo's sociological works in the academic field of the period. The research is limited to the sociological writings of Fernando de Azevedo of the period between 1935 and 1943 due to the similarities of themes between Durkheim and Azevedo, among them the interest in educational sociology and the methodological problems of cultural studies. We intend to analyze and compare Azevedo's Principios de Sociologia (1935) with Durkheim's The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) and Azevedo's Sociologia Educacional (1940) with Durkheim's Education and Sociology (1922) in order to understand how those theoretic and methodological principles were applied in Azevedo's most famous book: A cultura brasileira (1943). In addition, we intend to contextualize Fernando de Azevedo and his writings by analyzing his influences and his reception in the Brazilian academic field. To do that we would analyze the reviews and the critics of his books published by French e Brazilian academics in the period. This research will consider only the sociological aspects and the theoretical and methodological foundations of those aspects in Azevedo's writings and in its pundits. (AU)