The Human Condition in Contemporaneity

Research Line 1: Subjects of Discourses, Narratives, and Mobilities

Contemporary societies are characterized by the possibility of diverse and intense political, cultural, educational, and communicative engagement. This dynamic leads individuals to increasingly produce, reproduce, be affected by, influence, disrupt, and align with narratives and discourses across various communication platforms. This field can be understood as encompassing the mobilities of people, objects, and ideas. This research line, therefore, focuses on the analysis of human phenomena related to social engagement and participation. Relevant topics may include: the question of rights; engagement in digital communication media enabled by the Internet; the circulation of discourses; political and social participation; media narratives; the functioning of the media in the digital era; the study of social networks (both digital and non-digital); the ruptures caused by the clash between traditional and modern elements; the multifaceted nature of the human condition, among many other possibilities. Research submitted to this line may contribute to understanding new forms of social engagement and participation, as well as to the theorization, study, and critical analysis of key concepts and categories in contemporary science, such as subject, discourse, media, mobilities, narratives, and social networks.

Research Line 2: Inequalities and Differences in Contemporary Society

Contemporary societies, both locally and globally, are marked by social inequalities and differences of various kinds, bringing to the forefront debates on civil, political, economic, social, and environmental rights. These issues are understood not only in terms of legal, political, and institutional aspects but also through dimensions such as culture, economy, identity, power, subject formation, subjectivities, gender, ethnicity, intergenerational relations, media, sexuality, and education, among others—requiring a rethinking of the contemporary subject.
From this perspective, this research line aims to analyze, from an interdisciplinary standpoint, the human condition in contemporary times and the reproduction or possible mitigation of inequalities, taking into account the markers of difference. The debate thus includes topics such as labour and its precariousness in a capitalist and globalized world; the role of popular culture in shaping contemporary subjects’ sensitivities and subjectivities, as well as Southern epistemologies; the body, gender, and sexuality in intersection with ethnic-racial and class conditions; the production of social and political identities; education; science; biotechnology; relationships with the urban environment and the distribution of natural resources; feminist epistemologies; and studies on the human and post/trans/human conditions.