In August, September and October, the four meetings of the Urban Theories and Practices Seminar: Paths will be held, organized by UFMG professors Geraldo Costa and Heloisa Costa, from the Institute of Geosciences, Roberto Monte-Mór, from the Faculty of Economic Sciences, and Rita Velloso, from the School of Architecture.

Inspired by a previous event, held in 2015, which resulted in the publication of the book “Theories and urban practices: conditions for urban society”, the Seminar Theories and Urban Practices: paths aims to deepen the debate on urban theories and practices, with the aim of guiding thread the concept of ‘paths’, elaborated in several texts by the French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre.

The idea of reflecting on ‘pathways’ permeates this author’s theoretical reflection on the inseparability between theory and practice, emphasizing the need to confront philosophy with the world. Lefebvre argues that the understanding of the urban must signal the adoption of a strategy, a path, as opposed to the idea of a model, which stops the creative capacity and makes the practice illusory.

For the meetings, researchers from Brazilian and foreign institutions were invited, who will have the opportunity to experience an environment of dialogue and exchange of experiences, culminating in the production of a collection of chapters that will be published later.

Registration for the activities that make up the seminar must be made through the UFMG Event Management system. Certificates will be issued for those who register and sign the attendance list on the day of the event. The event will take place over four meetings, each with a specific thematic focus, which will take place on different dates and locations. The complete schedule can be accessed here.

Emancipation Axis (August 10th and 11th, Auditorium 1 of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at UFMG): the debate will be centered on the possibilities that reflections on “urban theories and practices” can point to, indicating possible emancipatory paths, expressed in various forms of emancipation , from political emancipation, economic emancipation, social emancipation, to human emancipation, which is comprehensive and leads us to the notion of freedom.

Reproduction Axis (August 30th and 31st, UFMG Institute of Geosciences Auditorium): the focus of this second meeting will be reproduction, analyzing the mechanisms and processes that give rise to the community, and consequently to cities, as a result of practices and relationships social [of production-reproduction]. It is about proposing a reflection on the scope of praxis in which the emancipatory struggle is raised to the forefront of political discussion/action.

Nature Axis (September 19th and 20th, Auditorium 1 of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at UFMG): in the third meeting, the central theme will be nature, exploring how other forms of society, such as those of traditional communities, their knowledge and reproduction practices social and territorial, can lead to experiences that put nature and humans in contact through more respectful relationships. It is expected to reflect on the urgent rescue and reinvention of relations of recovery, recognition and appropriation of nature.

Utopia Axis (October 16th and 17th, Auditorium 1 of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at UFMG): the last meeting will focus on utopias, with a focus on identifying, disseminating and debating concrete and experimental utopias, which indicate new ways of life and new futures possible. It is a question of seeking alternative ways of life, social and economic organization and alternatives to the economy itself, having as reference the overcoming of the bourgeois mode of existence and the capitalist mode of (re)production characteristic of modernity.

The Urban Theories and Practices Seminar: paths is the result of the CNPq research productivity projects of the proponents and the articulation between the following research groups From alternative economies to alternatives to the economy: exploring socio-spatial and cultural concepts and practices beyond economic rationality, included in the 2017 call for the IEAT Research Group program, Cosmópolis: meta-method and The Laws of Science and Nature and (Un)Sustainable Development. Paths to a Healthy Future, contemplated in the 2022 call of the same program.