Dos grandes objetos aos objetos de grandeza cidadã: interiorização do ensino superior público e ordenamento cívico-territorial na Amazônia paraense

Abstract

Considering the ongoing tensions and intentions of territorial planning in the Amazon as an object of study, this thesis argues that the processes of expansion and internalization of public higher education have contributed, albeit not without contradictions, to an expansion of the a “geographization of citizenship” in the state of Pará, providing important foundations that envision the outline of a civic-territorial ordering in this space. To this end, the research aimed to analyze the contours of this ordering as a possibility in light of the aforementioned processes of public higher education and the corresponding response to the demands of forest peoples for this level of education in the Pará Amazon. The research was based on the assumptions of dialectical thought and, through a quali-quantitative approach, employed techniques such as literature review, documentary collection and analysis, content analysis, systematic field observation, and semi-structured interviews. Based on the qualitative selection of three public higher education institutions – Federal University of Pará, Federal University of Western Pará, and Federal University of Southern and Southeastern Pará – and the analysis of their regular undergraduate course offerings in the Pará space, it demonstrates both the creation/reinforcement of urban centralities of a socio-territorial nature, given the presence and role of these social fixtures in cities in the region, and the strengthening of organic solidarities and spatial horizontalities, especially through the provision of certain higher education programs, such as those aimed at addressing the demands of forest peoples for this level of education. On the other hand, it shows that these institutions also respond to the onslaught of capitalist interests in the region by offering degrees that instrumentalize major economic activities, which are largely responsible for the historical configuration of an economic-corporate territorial ordering. Even as spaces of contention, it can be concluded that public higher education institutions can be recognized as important social fixtures that support the “geographization of citizenship” and, therefore, they can be understood as objects of civic grandeur, whose spatialization helps envision the construction of a civic-territorial ordering as a possibility in the Pará Amazon.