Responsible innovation and resilience in social policies (IRR-PS): a combined analysis of health, education, and social assistance governance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Grant number: 22/05924-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2022
• End date: September 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Rogerio Schlegel
• Grantee: Camila Nastari Fernandes
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/08773-5 - Responsible innovation and resilience in social policies (IRR-PS): a combined analysis of health, education, and social assistance governance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, AP.R
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/14920-3 - Applying responsible innovation in social policies: the Brazilian experience in social assistance and education, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Aiming at a more sustainable, egalitarian, and resilient future, this research project deploys the concepts and tools of the RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) approach, in a partnership with one of its world-class developers, to analyze three public policies: health, education and social assistance. In sum, the research design involves observing nine Brazilian municipalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, selected by an outstanding performance regarding social policies before the virus spread, to assess the resilience of these policies and how responsible the adoption of socio-technical innovation has been during the health emergency. In the first phase, a composite index will be developed to express the combined performance of quantitative indicators of the three social policies, in the 201 Brazilian municipalities with over 150,000 inhabitants, in the seven years before the pandemics. The following stage will analyze the indicators evolution in the municipalities with best composite indexes. In the third phase, in-depth studies, including personal interviews and focus groups, will investigate which factors related to governance - understood as the interaction among state and societal actors - have favored more and less virtuous responses to the social and health challenges. The assessment will prioritize the analytical and operational tools of the RRI approach - with its emphasis on anticipation, reflexivity, inclusiveness, and responsiveness - as improved by our partners from the research program In Fieri, at the University of Montreal. Policy briefs on the best practices regarding local governance are among the key products of the project. (AU)