A interiorização do ensino superior e as experiências de mudança nos interiores do Brasil: o caso de Acarape e Redenção

Abstract

This dissertation, entitled The interiorization of Higher Education and the experiences of change in the interior of Brazil: the case of Acarape and Redenção, is an ethnographic study conducted in the cities of Acarape-CE and Redenção-CE in 2019-2020. It seeks to describe and analyze the experiences of change that have been occurring in the aforementioned localities in the last decade. Taking as the reference the moment when the Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira (Unilab) was implanted (this University is the result of the action of the project of interiorization and internationalization of Brazilian Higher Education). As a result of this implantation, we found that there are successive comings and goings of its agents, mainly international students who settle there temporarily for academic purposes. The stay of these agents in these cities has triggered, on the one hand, competition for the occupation of residences. This has motivated property owners to renovate and build new properties. On the other hand, the research found that these agents increased and varied the consumption of basic necessities. These conjunctures motivated the skyrocketing price of rents and basic necessities. Around this, the former residents of the two cities began to witness a new configuration of the social and cultural way of life that has been succeeding and changing the previous one that was considered reasonable for the less financially favored people who lived and/or still live in the Central neighborhoods of Acarape and Redenção. Thus, we found that this situation and the sociocultural difference have been interfering in the coexistence and intensifying the climate of conflict between the former residents and the newly arrived international students. In this context, we work with the objective of understanding how the dynamic process of change has insinuated itself into the daily lives of the former residents. We also study the ways in which the former residents and newcomer students interrelate in this context of social and cultural change. To this end, we use a classic field research method, participant observation, and its techniques to achieve our goals. The analysis of the information obtained in the field signaled that changes are underway and that there are social conflicts arising from the encounter between former residents and students, among other social factors. We conclude by suggesting that the university was conceived as a development project, but that the place of the former residents was not thought of.