Notes on the collapse of science in Brazil

Abstract

In this article, we problematize the reasons for the crisis in Brazilian science, with the collapse of research funding in the second decade of the 21st century as the epicenter of the analysis. In this context, with neoliberal political reforms and blocked funding, Brazilian state universities and their researchers face one of the most critical moments for producing knowledge. In this purpose, we initially recover evidence from the conjuncture preceding and succeeding the 2018 elections to the overall circumstance of the analyzed period. Then, briefly, we reflect how the financial capital absorbs science reducing it into technoscience. We present data of the decline in public funding for science and research. We analyze the movement of Brazilian political history and its process of change in the economic model to a financially dominant regime, beginning in the 1990s through the Reform of the State Apparatus. Economic configuration that remains in the Brazilian political base in the regulation of public accounts. Finally, we produce exploratory notes on the collapse of science in Brazil. This is an article that analyzes and criticizes the reconfiguration that the state university is going through, the work of the researcher, and the decrease of research funding in Brazil.