Design social e biotecnologia ambiental: pesquisa para inovações sociais em Moita Redonda, uma comunidade artesã do Ceará

Abstract

This Social Innovation project addresses an alternative that opposes the current mass-produced industrial model characterized by the accelerated destruction of the environment and the favoring of inequalities. Here, more efficient, sustainable and fairer solutions will be investigated and proposed in relation to those that already exist, since they are based on social values as a primordial factor instead of profit. To this end, this research encompasses the dialogue between three areas of knowledge: Environmental Sciences; Design; and the tradition of a community located in Cascavel, Ceará Metropolitan Region, known as Moita Redonda, where the activity of crafts with clay is carried out. By appropriating the collaborative vision, from the bottom up, of Social Innovation, and assuming systemic thinking, Design becomes effective in the processes of Design social

social transformation. Faced with the complexities identified, strategies are created in order to solve the community demands. The main demand of this work is related to the loss of tradition caused by the scarcity of clay with white pigment (toá branco), used to make graphics in clay pieces. The knowledge brought from generation to generation allied to scientific knowledge and articulated in this research, were able to start a process of transformation of a clay with red pigment, more abundant in the region, into clay with white pigment through of biolixiviation. This process favors the interaction between metals and microorganisms with the specific objective of converting insoluble metals into soluble compounds. In this case, the bioprospection of autochthonous, non-pathogenic microorganisms capable of solubilizing ferrous metals that compose the red clay is studied for bleaching of this material, in order to emerge an empowerment of the community within the biotechnological principles in the materials used and the Social Design in its application.