Time and the Wind: Notes on the Art of Bureaucratize Quota Policies at USP

Abstract

 Why quotas in graduate studies? This article addresses this inquiry by presenting a thick description of the several bureaucratic paths fared along the implementation of an affirmative action policy. This process creates an almost unsustainable tension between the long-term temporality of the bureaucracy and the necessary winds of social change that, in this case, claim a transformation of science production technologies and the widening of legitimate environment for scientific knowledge production. This article presents the framework and the events that led to the conception and processing of a quota proposition to the Post-Graduate Program in Social Anthropology of the University of São Paulo (PPGAS/USP). Thus, we present a cartography of the quota policies among other Anthropology Post-Graduate Programs in Brazilian’s current scenario. Finally, a more epistemic stance is presented in order to clarify how the widening of knowledge development environments is fundamental to bring forth plural and democratic venue in the making of anthropological knowledge.