Public conversations project in the difference of opinion about Bolsa Familia cash transfer program

• Grant number: 16/19156-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2016
• End date: November 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Laura Vilela e Souza
• Grantee: Pamela Lopes Marques
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The implementation of the Bolsa Família Project (PBF) in national public policy divides opinion and is the subject of heated debates that end up serving for the dissemination of hatred and prejudice between people. The methodology of the Public Conversations Project, still unknown in Brazil, offers tools for an alternative conversation for the antagonism of ideas. In this project, we seek to analyze the effects of using this methodology to promote a dialogue between people with polarized opinions on the PBF. Therefore, there will be a meeting of public conversation in the city of Ribeirão Preto, with the participation of six people with extreme and divergent views on the subject. Individual preparatory conversations with each participant and the meeting will be audio-recorded and transcript. Forms of feedback will be completed by participants at the end of the meeting. All the material will be analyzed from the social constructionist perspective. Studying this dialogical process is to give space for contents that are not usually present in the public spaces of debate on the PBF, allowing new meanings to less conflictive conversations on the subject. In addition to providing interventions for facilitating dialogue on the subject, in preventive way in favor of a culture of social peace. (AU)