Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap)
CEBRAP
Cebrap: Analyzing the Brazilian
reality for 40 years
CEBRAP
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A reference point for cutting edge research
The Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap) was founded in 1969 by a group of professors, some
of whom had been removed from the universities by the military dictatorship. Throughout its 40 years of
existence, the center has housed some of the country’s greatest intellectuals. It has acted as a debating forum
for core national problems and their solutions, and has become a reference point for cutting edge research in
the various social sciences, in philosophy and in literary and artistic criticism. During the military dictatorship
(1964-85), its works were marked by an independent critical output and a resistance to the regime. During the
period of transition and democratic consolidation, it cemented its position as a research center of the highest
standard. The Center is currently undergoing a process of internationalization, via the creation of long-lasting
international partnerships and the undertaking of comparative research projects. Cebrap’s main focus has been
the analysis of the Brazilian reality. This has been carried out in a distinctive research style, with specialization
and an interdisciplinary approach, at the service of an analysis based on questions relevant to the country. This
has made possible a constant dialog between different theoretical perspectives, methodologies and disciplines.
Sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, economists, historians, anthropologists, demographers and
city planners represent the institution’s thematic areas and regularly collaborate on research projects.
Cebrap included amongst its founders many intellectuals who
went on to positions of great importance in the national life of
the country
The founders of Cebrap have become figures of great significance to the country’s intellectual and political life.
The initiative brought together 22 researchers, amongst whom stand out: Antonio Ignácio Angarita Ferreira
da Silva, Cândido Procópio Ferreira de Camargo, Celso Lafer, Elza Berquó, Eunice Ribeiro Durham, Fernando
Henrique Cardoso, José Arthur Giannotti, Juarez Brandão Lopes, Ruth Corrêa Leite Cardoso e Paul Israel Singer.
Also participating from the foundation were: Betty Mindlin, Beatriz Muniz de Souza, Carmen Sylvia Junqueira,
Esdras Borges Costa, Leôncio Martins Rodrigues Neto, Manoel Tosta Berlinck, Maurício Segall, Oswaldo
Herbster de Gusmão, Paulo Sandroni, Pedro Paulo Poppovic, Rubens Murillo Marques e Waldomiro Pecht.
Cebrap is a consolidated center with the installed capacity to
take on projects of any size
All told, the Center has 22 24 senior researchers, 18 21 permanent researchers, 39 45 associate researchers
and 53 research assistants. Between 1986 and 2007, Cebrap fine tuned the academic training of some
116 young academics on its Course of Academic and Professional Training (which ran from 1986 to 2003)
and its Post-Doctoral Program (between 2003 and 2007). In the last five years the Center has had an
average of 10 research projects a year. Two of these have been of a thematic nature and 11 consultancy
work for municipal, state and federal government(s ). It has a budget of between R$3 and 4 million a year.
The magazine New Studies: a stimulus to debate
The magazine New Studies (Novos Estudos) has been in existence for more than 25
years (from 1981 onwards) promoting the (domestic) intellectual and academic debate.
It has a wide national circulation and is acknowledged for its excellence. The magazine received maximum marks in
the area of human sciences in an evaluation carried out by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of
Graduate Education (CAPES). It is a quarterly publication, with 79 issues and counting so far 1,236 articles published.
Works that marked an age, written at Cebrap.
Certain works of great importance in the intellectual history of the country were written by in-house researchers.
Some that deserve special mention include such classics as: The Brazilian Economy: A Critique of Dualist Reason
(1972) by Francisco de Oliveira; The Brazilian Political Model and other essays (1972), by Fernando Henrique
Cardoso; São Paulo 1975: Growth and Poverty (1976), by José Álvaro Moisés, Lúcio Kowarick, Maria Hermínia
Tavares de Almeida, Paul Israel Singer e Vinícius Caldeira Brant; The People in Movement (1982), edited by Paul
Singer e Vinícius Caldeira Brant; and São Paulo: Living and Working (1989), edited by Vinícius Caldeira Brant.
Specialized Centers, knowledge and diagnostics for the
refinement of public policy.
Cebrap is also made up of centers of renowned prestige in highly competitive areas of knowledge. The quality of work
developed in these centers is reflected in a history of production of knowledge relevant to its areas of expertise, as well
as in specific recommendations for the fine tuning of public policy formation. The Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM )
develops advanced studies on themes related to urban processes, with a particular emphasis on the Brazilian context, but
also interfaces with international output on the subject. The CEM’s brief is to investigate mechanisms of social inequality
reproduction within metropolitan environments, a task with both academic and political importance and one strongly linked
to policies aimed at the alleviation of social deprivation. Throughout its eight ten years of existence its research has resulted
in a dozen books and the presentation of more than 150 papers at national and international seminars. The audio-visual
area has produced four documentary shorts and one full feature from the research carried out.
CMS is an institution financed by Fapesp (Sao Paulo State Research Foundation), CNPq (National Council for Scientific
and Technological Development), and the Ministry of Science and Technology, by means of a new model of organization
for the scientific research, implemented through the RIDC (Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers) and the
INCTs (National Institutes of Science and Technology).The CEM has been financed by Fapesp (The State of São Paulo
Research Foundation) within the special program for Cepids (Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers). By
2008 there were 11 Cepids financed by Fapesp, the CEM being one of only two in the human sciences area. Recently,
the CEM acquired National Center of Science and Technology Center status, thereby integrating itself into the
system of national centers financed by the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq).
The Commission for Citizenship and Reproduction (CCR) looks at problems of population and society. Founded in 1991,
the CCR has counted with the financial support of the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation. Its objective is the promotion of those reproductive rights enshrined in principles laid down in the declarations
of the United Nations, specifically those of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women. The Commission aims at influencing the health agenda where Brazilian reproductive rights and sexuality are
concerned, monitoring and influencing legislation and public policies in this field. It tries to ensure a permanent and
dynamic dialog with the various sectors of society, especially health institutions, the media, and organized social groups.
In 2003, wih financial support from the MacArthur Foundation, the CCR launched the Support Program for Projects
on Sexuality and Reproductive Health (Prosare), with the aim of contributing towards the consolidation of existing
conquests, and the broadening of rights in these fields, within Brazil. Between 1996 and 2002, with financial support
from the Ford Foundation, it published the newsletter Eye on the Media. This stemmed from an analysis of news items
on reproductive health and sexuality published in the country’s main newspapers. It was also responsible, between May
1994 and October 1995, for the publication of the newsletter Debates Series and, in 1998, for the book, Politics, Market,
Ethics: Demands and Challenges in the Reproductive Health Field, organized by Margareth Arilha e Maria Teresa Citeli.
Cebrap Publications: a source of inspiration and knowledge
During its 40 years of life, Cebrap has been responsible for various publications, amongst which figure: Cebrap Studies (27 numbers,
published between 1971 a 1980); the Cebrap Notebooks and Cebrap Notebooks New Series (38 numbers published between
1971 and 1986); the Research Notebooks (8 numbers); and the Cebrap Population Studies (38 numbers published between 1977
and 1982). Some of these publications have been made available in their entirety on the Cebrap site - (www.cebrap.org.br).
Cebrap is part of the country’s intellectual history
In its 40 years, Cebrap has included amongst its academic staff intellectuals who have helped define the way in which we understand
Brazil and the world. Amongst these it is worth singling out:
Lúcio Felix Frederico Kowarick
Bolivar Lamounier
Luiz Jorge Werneck Vianna
Boris Fausto
Luiz Felipe de Alencastro
Elza Berquó
Maria D’Alva Gil Kinzo
Eunice Ribeiro Durham
Paul Israel Singer
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Roberto Schwarz
Fernando Novais
Rodrigo Naves
Francisco de Oliveira
Ruth Corrêa Leite Cardoso
Guillermo O’Donnell
Vilmar Faria
José Arthur Giannotti
Juarez Brandão Lopes
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Senior Researcher
Adrián Gurza Lavalle, Alvaro Augusto CominAlexandre de Freitas Barbosa, Alvaro Augusto Comin, Angela Alonso,
Argelina Maria Cheibub Figueiredo, Cristina Pompa, Eduardo Cesar Marques, Elza Berquó, Fernando Limongi, Haroldo
Torres, John Sydenstricker Neto, José Arthur Giannotti, Márcia Lima, Marcos Nobre, Margareth Arilha, Marta Teresa
da Silva Arretche, Miriam Dolhnikoff, Nadya Araujo Guimarães, Omar Ribeiro Thomaz, Paula Montero, Pedro Puntoni,
Ricardo Ribeiro Terra, Ronaldo de Almeida, Sandra Mara Garcia, Sérgio Costa e Vera Schattan P. Coelho.
Important projects developed in-house:
a wide range of varying nature
Projects developed at Cebrap range from consultancy work for City Hall bodies and other political institutions to
comparative international projects.
In general terms, the projects are divisible into five main categories:
a) Consultancy work and the development of informative and technological data to help in the establishment of
public policy priorities.
Examples: Paedi (Business Attitudes towards Research and Innovation Survey) and economic development strategies
for the central area of the municipality of São Paulo .
b) Projects of great sweep in the gathering of information and creation of diagnostics in demographics and urban
studies.
Examples: housing and living conditions policy in São Paulo (SP); the national study of Brazilian sexual behavior
and perceptions of HIV/AIDS; the National Survey of Demography and Health of Women and Child (PNDS) 2006; the
project Regional Development and Socio-productive Inequalities: Recent Tendencies and Developments in terms of
Public Policies
c) Those realized in partnership with international institutions and being of an internationally comparative nature.
Examples: Associativism and Popular Representation - a comparison of Latin America and India;
Governance and Collective Action: Fundaments of Responsivity. Comparisons of São Paulo, Mexico City and New
Delhi; Participatory Governance and Democratic Innovations in the South; Social Mobilization and State Interaction
in India, Brazil and South Africa.
d) Cutting edge projects in a variety of knowledge areas, even the Humanities.
Examples: Unknown Land: the Workings of and Prospects for the Brazilian Congress;
Participation, Justice and Environmental Governance in Brazil: A Study of the Environmental Deliberative Inclusionary
Process ; Effects of intellectual and cultural rights protection on traditional people and traditional knowledge. Case
studies in Brazil.
e) And finally, special research projects, developed to meet specific demands and financed on an ad hoc basis.
Examples: Mobit (Methodology to Conceive and Execute the Brazilian Mobilization Plan for Technological Innovation),
carried out in seven countries.
Plus, Industrial Policy, Innovation and the Law in Economic Development.
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Cebrap’s board contains people of the utmost importance in
the national sphere
Members:
Amauri Bier, Antonio Candido de Mello e Souza, Antonio Flávio de Oliveira Pierucci, Antônio Kandir, Antonio Ignácio
Angarita Ferreira da Silva, Beatriz Muniz de Souza, Betty Mindlin, Bolivar Lamounier, Boris Fausto, Carlos Estevam Martins,
Carmen Sylvia Junqueira, Celso Lafer, Danielle Ardaillon, Diana Reiko Tutiya Oya Sawyer, Esdras Borges Costa, Eunice Ribeiro
Durham, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Fernando Novais, Francisco Correa Weffort, Francisco Maria Cavalcanti de Oliveira,
Frederico Mathias Mazzucchelli, Gabriel Bolaffi, Geraldo Muller, Gesner José Oliveira Filho, Goffredo da Silva Telles Júnior,
Jair Lício Ferreira Santos, John Manuel Montero, José Reginaldo Prandi, José Serra, Josildeth Gomes Consorte, Juarez
Rubens Brandão Lopes, Leôncio Martins Rodrigues Neto, Lídia Goldenstein, Lúcio Felix Frederico Kowarick, Luiz Antônio
de Castro Santos, Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira, Luiz Carlos Costa, Luiz Felipe de Alencastro, Luiz Henrique Lopes dos Santos,
Manoel Tosta Berlinck, Maria Carolina S. Leme, Maria Flora Gonçalves, Maria Graciela Gonzalez Perez de Morell, Maria
Hermínia Tavares de Almeida, Maria Nazareth Ferreira, Maria Teresa Sales de Melo Suarez, Marleida T. Borges, Maurício
Segall, Melanie Farkas, Mônica Baer, Orlando Sampaio Silva, Oswaldo Herbster de Gusmão, Paul Israel Singer, Paulo Alves
Pinto, Paulo Sandroni, Pedro Luiz de Barros Silva, Pedro Paulo Poppovic, Plínio Soares de Arruda Sampaio Júnior, Rebeca
de Souza e Silva, Roberto Schwarz, Rodrigo Naves, Ronaldo Porto Macedo Júnior, Rubens Murillo Marques, Rui de Britto
Álvares Affonso, Teresa Pires do Rio Caldeira, Waldomiro Pecht e Walter Barelli.
Municipal, state and federal government(s), international
bodies and internationally renowned research centers all make
use of Cebrap’s services
Over its 40 year period of existence Cebrap has established itself as a highly respected research institute within Brazilian
Human Sciences, managing to expand and diversify both its client portfolio and sources of finance. The Center currently
works with a wide variety of institutions, ranging from research development institutions in Brazil to national research
institutes, municipal, state and federal bodies, international research institutes, international cooperation and research
development agencies and various international bodies. The following organizations have financed our projects, either
as partners or by hiring our services:
At National Level: CNPq (National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development), Fapesp (The State of São Paulo
Research Foundation), Finep (Finance Institute for Studies and Projects), the Carlos Chagas Foundation, the Getúlio Vargas
Foundation, the São Paulo State System for Statistical Data Analysis (Seade), the Brazilian Institute for the Environment
and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), the Applied Economic Research Institute (Ipea), the Ministry of Health, the
Municipal Mayor’s Office of São Paulo, the Municipal Mayor’s Office of Guarulhos, and the Municipality of Embu.
Internationally - British Council, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, IDS/DRC – CFS (University of Sussex), IDS/
DRC – CPA (University of Sussex), PNUD, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), The United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA),The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Unesco.
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Research areas, nucleus of research and special projects
Cebrap’s researchers are organized in line with their thematic areas, which, in turn, sort their relation to other areas by research problem.
All told, there are seven areas (Environmental Conflicts, Culture and Politics, Developmental Studies, Philosophy and Politics, History,
Politics and Society, Population and Society) and two research nucleus (Citizenship and Development, Law and Democracy) Cebrap
also undertakes special projects, independent of area, but which, nonetheless, maintain thematic links to the accumulated wealth of
thematic experience acquired during in-house research.
The research focus of the areas is as follows:
Environmental Conflicts: structure and dynamic of collective mobilization as regards environmental problems in contemporary Brazil.
Culture and Politics: centers symbolic and political processes within the plane of articulations between cultural specificities and legal
demands, understanding the logic of cultural configurations as part of the process of the constitution and consolidation of public space.
Developmental Studies: ongoing transformations in the labor market that have affected the nature of the industrial backcloth, the
profile and identity of the actors whose interests are linked to production, and work, and the institutional spaces in which said interests
have been represented and negotiated.
Philosophy and Politics: an area always open to research and interdisciplinary dialog, characterized by its linking of research of a logical
nature (in the broadest sense of the term) to the examination of fundamental problems in the human sciences.
History: the political organization of the period and the role of elites in the construction of the State, with emphasis on the nineteenth
century.
Politics and Society: recent political processes, above all in Brazil, with an emphasis on the institutional system and its effects on public
behavior, the decision making process and public policies.
Population and Society: ongoing domestic socio-demographic transformations.
Citizenship and Development Nucleus: relation between processes of democratization and development in Brazil and other countries.
Law and Democracy Nucleus: conjunctions between ethical, legal and political topics, by means of a productive collaboration between
philosophy, law and approaches taken from the social sciences.
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Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615 - Vila Mariana - CEP 04015-902 - São Paulo-SP - Brasil - Tel.: +55 (11) 5574-0399 - Fax: +55 (11) 5574-5928