Social contestatory practices and struggle for recognition of rights: analysis of the motivations of students in the occupied schools in São Paulo (2015-2016)

• Grant number: 19/12975-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2019
• End date: September 30, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law
• Principal Investigator: Samuel Rodrigues Barbosa
• Grantee: Ricardo Juozepavicius Gonçalves
• Supervisor: Robin Celikates
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/00924-1 - The Law in Axel Honneth: elements of a critical theory of law centered on the category of recognition, BP.DR

Abstract

This research project deals with the recent debates about the relation of dependency between subject practices and critical theory. We aim to present a theoretical construction between Axel Honneth's and Robin Celikates' conceptions of the centrality of social contestatory practices motivated by experiences of disrespect, in order to elaborate an updated conception of critical theory better connected with the social agents' experiences. We start from the assumption that in democracies rights must be constantly in dispute, in a way that social forces question the law and mobilize its language in order to change its dynamics and functions, both in the institutional and social arenas. We develop a study of social contestatory practices as forms of struggle for recognition of rights, that is, conflicts and civil demonstrations that would lead agents to express their sufferings and demands driven by the "emancipatory interest". In this sense, giving voice to suffering, resisting oppression and domination is, at the same time, struggling for recognition. In a second moment, we elaborate a study about the practices of public school occupations by students in the state of São Paulo (2015-2016) against the government authoritarian proposals for education. Observing this new form of political action from the perspective of the subjects involved, with special attention to the violations that were determinant to the reverberation of practices throughout the cities of the state and in other social areas, in order to illustrate the theoretical construction among the mentioned authors.