Professor Alfredo Falero, from the University of the Republic in Uruguay, will give the Grand Conference on the 3rd of October on the construction of social ignorance and the struggles for knowledge in Latin America. The activity will take place in the Congregation Room of the UFMG Faculty of Law, at 2:30 pm.

The conference is open to the general public upon registration through the UFMG Event Management System (GES). Anyone who registers and signs the attendance list on the day of the event will be entitled to a certificate of participation.

The construction of social ignorance

A few years ago, there was a lot of talk about the knowledge society, emphasizing the challenges and demands of this society in a 21st century of rapid technological advances.  However, just as the challenges and possibilities of accessing knowledge have increased, for example, through independent electronic media, the mechanisms through which ignorance or lack of knowledge about different subjects is generated have also increased. Some of the mechanisms for the generation and reproduction of social ignorance facilitate or enable the reproduction of capital.

According to Alfredo Falero, the objective of the conference is to examine these social mechanisms of production of ignorance and lack of knowledge that are generated in Latin America and that have a set of effects that are not necessarily identified. This process involves the media and social networks, but is supported by concrete social actors.  “We will focus on the struggles for knowledge.  In other words, many social struggles in the region for objectives linked to work, territory, human rights, among others, are, at the same time, struggles for knowledge and against socially induced ignorance on different issues”, he highlights.

About the professor

Alfredo Falero Cirigliano has a PhD in Sociology, belongs to the National System of Researchers of Uruguay, was a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic (Udelar) until 2021 and a visiting professor at several universities. He is currently a professor and free researcher at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology (PPGS) at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) and postgraduate professor at the Faculdade de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación (Udelar). Author of numerous publications in Uruguay and abroad, among his books are “Ver más allá de la coyuntura. Production of knowledge and societal projects” (Buenos Aires, 2021), “Informational enclaves of the capitalist periphery: the case of Zonamérica in Uruguay” (2011), “The battles for subjectivity: social struggles and construction of rights in Uruguay ” (2008), and “Intellectuales, democracy and rights” (co-organizer and author, Buenos Aires, 2020).

Alfredo Falero’s visit to UFMG is carried out within the scope of the FUNDEP/IEAT Chair Program, promoted by the Institute for Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies (IEAT) and financed by the UFMG Support Foundation (Fundep).