University of São Paulo: Experts debate Brazil’s economy over the past 200 years

To reflect on the last 200 years of Brazil, Revista USP – edited by the Superintendence of Social Communication (SCS) – will publish four special issues dedicated to the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil. The first, which features a dossier on economics and was launched last March, will be the subject of a chat between the authors of the dossier on Tuesday, April 26, at 9 am, on USP’s YouTube channel , with mediation by journalist Luiz Roberto Serrano, from SCS. The magazine is available in its entirety, free of charge, at this link .

The Bicentennial of Independence dossier : Economy – present in the new edition of Revista USP , number 132, is coordinated by Professor Hélio Nogueira da Cruz, from the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting (FEA) at USP. As he states in the presentation of the magazine, which he co-authored with professors Flávio Azevedo Marques Saes and Guilherme Grandi, even two centuries later, Brazil still maintains “certain deep historical ties that still bring us closer to the period of Independence, such as the terrible distribution of income, racism, patriarchy, patrimonialism and the low priority of education and public health”.

“The 200 years of Independence give us the opportunity to reflect not only on what has been done in Brazil since the Europeans settled in our territory, but also on the various achievements during these more than 500 years of existence and cultural formation” , highlight Cruz, Saes and Grandi in the presentation. “We also understand that the articles that make up this dossier are useful for us to think about the broad challenges we have faced in building a more prosperous and less unequal country.”
In addition to the presentation, the dossier brings nine articles by different authors, which address topics such as agricultural activity in Brazil until the mid-19th century, Brazilian slavery at the time of Independence, internal trade and manufactures and the maintenance of privileges and the permanence of of inequality during the Empire. “The persistent reflection on our history and the construction of future scenarios are an exercise that must be done constantly to build a comprehensive vision that guides us”, continue the authors of the presentation. “Right now, the wealth of possibilities for scientific, technological and social advances is immense and facing the difficulties around safeguarding the environment
and the fight against pandemics cannot be postponed. We must together, and in a coordinated way, actively participate in the construction of a more auspicious civilizational future, even more so now, after these 200 years of a long emancipatory path.”

In the next editions, Revista USP will publish dossiers on culture and society (coordinated by professor Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, vice-rector of USP and professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences at USP), politics (coordinated by professor José Álvaro Moisés, professor at FFLCH and columnist at Rádio USP) and science and technology (coordinated by professor Glauco Arbix, professor at FFLCH and coordinator of the Innovation Observatory of the Institute for Advanced Studies at USP), completing the tetralogy on the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil.