FGV EAESP

The relationship between technology and society has been increasingly paradoxical in our century. If on one hand the technological development has brought great advances in the quality of life and productivity in many regions of the world, on the other hand its omnipresence in all spheres of human life and the different levels of penetration in different areas has also been a source of tensions and criticism. Research in ICT - information and communication technologies - point to a positive contribution of these technologies for social development in various areas of activities, such as health, education, employment and many others. The positive effect is mainly through increased access to information and reduction of communication costs. Internet and mobile phones have great potential for improving health and education systems and in fighting regional and social inequalities. However these benefits are not being fully realized for a number of reasons of a different nature, which can be analyzed from different perspectives. In this interdisciplinary course we discuss the different roles that ICT can play to social development. The focus is the Brazilian scenario, but during the course will be extensively discussed examples of other cultures and territories. This theme, which has already been internationally known as ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development), has produced extensive bibliography that will be widely used during the course.

Analyze social and institutional vulnerabilities in contemporary Brazil in the light of a minimal definition of vulnerability and focusing on: a) specific vulnerable groups, notably related to police and judicial violence (black, poor, peripheral); and b) as State institutions, within the scope of the three powers, with an emphasis on the legal/political dimension and in the context of the events that occurred in the country between 2013 and today. Finally, it intends to demonstrate an articulation between both focuses.

The course presents current topics on the provision of public services - in the context of rising demands and scarce public resources - and the state of the art of academic research on such topics. Brazil will be situated in perspective compared to the OECD countries. The objective of the course is to provide the participant with insights to formulate relevant and useful research questions, establishing clues that favor applied research connected to real problems.

This course is designed for the students and the instructor to explore together the relevance of regulatory policies in contemporary democracies, its concepts and governance tools and the politics involved in regulating areas such as markets, public goods, and services. We will explore the case of Brazil, but will also compare Brazil to other countries; the course shall also introduce students to the regulation of services and intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization (and its consequences); as well as recent debates on regulation as an alternative social instrument that shift the allocation of welfare costs between actors and institutions.
Regulation is a broad concept, spanning infrastructure industries to private health insurance to environmental policies, and can be analyzed using normative and positive theories. This course intends to give students an overview of regulatory issues and is by no means exhaustive of the regulatory literature.

The course will be developed based on approaches to political economy and how interest groups and companies articulate around state and government policies. This is an interdisciplinary field of study between political science, economics and public administration that seeks to analyze how political actors organize themselves to influence government decisions and the public policies that result from them. Although there is agreement on the object of study, there are many theories that propose to analyze this process. It seeks to create opportunities for the knowledge of these different approaches as a way of expanding the analytical possibilities of the organized action of interest groups and companies.

Through the analysis of some of the major institutions, the aim of the course is to advance students' knowledge of the functioning of democratic political institutions in order to increase their understanding of the functioning and consequences of different types of institutions.

This course aims to understand the nature of local economic development, focusing mainly on the role of microfinance – mainly in microcredit – in financial inclusion, poverty reduction and social inclusion. The specific objective of this course is to familiarize students with microfinance and its main products, such as microcredit, microsavings, microinsurance and non-financial services. How are these products different from classic banking? Why is there a need for microfinance? Let's see that Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are very diversified organizations that seek a double financial result, which consists of serving low-income people in a financially sustainable way. We will have the opportunity to explore the impact of microfinance through the lens of recent academic literature. Finally, students will learn how to rate and assess the financial and social performance of MFIs.