Abstract in English:

Antonio Barros de Castro participated actively for 40 years in the academic life and public debate on development policies. This insightful intellectual belonged to a generation of professors that influenced both the academic debate and Brazilian society's interpretations of its problems and alternatives. Castro stood out for his meticulous analysis of the problems he studied and for his critical acumen, having spearheaded various debates on the country's economic problems and the strategy to overcome them. According to his interpretation, Brazil was a case of interrupted economic "catch-up", and a major portion of his research work focused on the discussion of alternatives for the country to resume its path to sustained growth. The current article aims to discuss some of the principal themes and studies developed by Castro during his long and successful academic career, as an overview of the economist's contributions.

Abstract in English:

The relationship between representative democracy and participatory and deliberative experiences is not trivial. Those who endorse the discourse of a crisis in political representation sometimes defend participatory and deliberative modalities of democracy as a way of denying the legitimacy of the Legislative Branch, questioning the latter's real capacity to express the people's sovereign will. Still, the emergence of new democratic spaces, as well as new actors involved in the management of the public good, can be seen as a way of strengthening political representation, and not as a sign of weakening in its institutions. The current article defends this argument, seeking to demonstrate that the Brazilian national conferences on public policy have actually provided impetus to the National Congress, thereby strengthening representative democracy in Brazil through a participatory and deliberative practice.

Abstract in English:

This article intends to demonstrate that a good sociological approach to the "financial crisis" is to view the theme as a dispute between different social representations, rather than proposing an alternative explanation to the phenomenon (simply different from or complementary to those presented by the economists). I draw on information and assemble chronologies based on the situation in the United States, and particularly that of Brazil. I then suggest that there is not "a crisis" in the singular, but various narratives vying for primacy, and that this social game, first and foremost, provides the basis for the distributive conflict inherent to any capitalist society.

Abstract in English:

The voting rate in Brazil only reached 40% (considered consistent with a modern democracy) in the 1980s. However, the bibliography always refers to the 1986, 1945, and 1933 elections as moments of "re-democratization", when explicitly or implicitly the original "democracy" could only have existed during the fraudulent and oligarchic First Republic (1889-1930). This article focuses on the process by which the 19th century Brazilian elites slowly forged this purely liberal-institutional concept of democracy, with extensive repercussions during the following century. The concept found its symbol in the "starched collar democracy" to which Teófilo Ottoni referred in his campaign in 1860, limited to the educated and moneyed stratum of the population, and reclaimed by the UDN party in the 1945 presidential campaign.

Abstract in English:

Using an innovative databank, this article conducts validity and reliability tests for various measures of the concept of interpersonal trust. The Brazilian round of the Americas Barometer 2008 included different measures of the interpersonal trust concept, allowing the evaluation of its internal consistency and external validity. After a battery of tests, the conclusion is that the measure of interpersonal trust traditionally used in series like the World Values Survey, Eurobarometer, and Latinobarometer suffers from serious validity and reliability problems.

Abstract in French:

Dans cet article, on reconstitue la trajectoire théorique de Gabriel Cohn, dont l'oeuvre peut être partagée grosso modo en deux phases. Dans la première, sous l'influence d'Adorno et de Weber en particulier, la modernité est vue sous l'angle de la domination et d'une tendance à la construction de systèmes inclusifs par l'oppression. Dans la seconde, une fois conservés ces fondements, la notion de "pluralisme" et d'indifférence, à partir d'une lecture critique de l'oeuvre de Luhmann surtout, est envisagée comme formant un nouveau modèle de civilisation. Cohn devient ainsi une référence fondamentale du point de vue théorique dans la compréhension de la modernité à ses débuts et dans sa phase actuelle.

Abstract in English:

This article reconstructs the theoretical trajectory of Gabriel Cohn, whose work can be divided broadly into two phases. In the first, particularly under the influence of Adorno and Weber, modernity is viewed from the angle of domination and a tendency towards the construction of oppressively inclusive systems. In the second, maintaining these fundamentals, the issues of "pluralism" and indifference (particularly with a critical reading of Luhmann) are perceived as shaping a new pattern of civilization. Cohn thus proves to be a fundamental theoretical reference for understanding modernity in both its initial and contemporary phases.

Abstract in English:

This article discusses several elements that allow understanding the conversion of "bandits" to Pentecostal Evangelical churches. The empirical material consisted basically of interviews with individuals who had "lived a life of crime" before converting to some Pentecostal denomination. The analysis is based on the idea of criminal subjection - meaning the social construction of the "bandit" as a subject. Criminal subjection is highlighted in the narratives of conversion. The study thus provides elements for understanding the construction of two identities that are strikingly present on the poor outskirts of Brazilian metropolitan areas and that constitute an important part of their daily reality: the "bandit" and the "believer".