This article discusses the formulations of the theoretical school known as the New Political Culture (NPC), seeking to evaluate the limits and possibilities of this approach for interpreting contemporary Brazilian culture. Based on research by the Network of Metropolitan Observatories in partnership with other Brazilian and international institutions, the authors argue that this approach is limited in its ability to analyze current changes in Brazil, where the values and behaviors related to NPC, although gaining strength in recent decades, are far from constituting the main existing cultural grammar.

One of the specificities of the Bolivian social formation is the coexistence of social and territorial organizations with a longstanding historical tradition. The current analysis focuses on the formation of citizenship in Bolivian society, in which the collective dimension is affirmed in the struggles, demands, and exercise of rights, as well as in the various modalities of extension of rights stemming from the state. The current study argues that during the neoliberal period in Bolivia, a series of policies oriented towards restructuring of the state deepened the collective dimension of citizenship as both status and participation, with the certificate of incorporation as the maximum symbolic expression.

Universalism and particularism have become essential structural issues for modern thought and lead to distinct definitions of democracy, citizenship, and social policy. Challenging Habermas and the Habermasians, the current article argues that democracy can never be identified with domination. Meanwhile, contesting Chatterjee and Foucault, the author reaffirms citizenship and law in their various forms in relation to both bounded and unbounded serialities as the basis for democracy, beyond and despite governability. Latin America and especially Brazil provide the empirical focus for the discussion, albeit mediated by other countries, particularly India.

The article argues that variations in the outcomes of the same public policy can be explained by different practices and enforcement styles adopted by front-line bureaucrats. Based on extensive field research on the enforcement of labor legislation in Brazil, the author develops a typology of the outcomes of labor inspection in terms of levels of compliance with labor regulations in different economic activities. Findings from comparative analysis (across and within cases) indicate consistent associations between the enforcement style adopted by labor inspectors that combines sanctions with technical and/or legal assistance, and the reconciliation of labor rights with increased company performance and competitiveness.

This article discusses the specificity of citizens' "participation" in contexts of decision-making on the acceptance of nuclear risk, demonstrating that such acceptance depends on mediation by professionals who are willing to translate the typical scientific jargon of technical reports and/or produce their own reports, by way of counter-expertise; otherwise, lay people are unable to confer scientific legitimacy to their arguments. The basic empirical references for the current analysis are the recurrent themes from public hearings organized for licensing of two Brazilian nuclear power plants using German technology, Angra 2 and Angra 3, with an emphasis on the latter, now undergoing prior environmental licensing. The forms of "social control" engendered in France serve as a counterpoint for developing the article's argument.

The article presents a revision of the strategies for national coordination used by the Brazilian federal government and proposes a conceptual distinction between norms dependent on subnational government's initiatives and norms that generate immediate effect. By tracking the decentralization policy of elementary schools, the study reviews the explanatory power normally attributed to one single national law (Fundef), a norm approved in 1996 which defined rules concerning the distribution and allocation of all educational revenues collected by or transferred to subnational governments. Other explanatory factors emerge as relevant to explain the outcome, especially the existence or absence of state-level programs with additional incentives to the national law.

This article analyzes the current development of the sociology of higher education in countries of the Northern Hemisphere, with an emphasis on the United States and Europe, as well as the field's progress in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, Chile in particular. The author reviews the processes of academic institutionalization and research professionalization and output in the central countries and its subsequent evolution by geographic diffusion, inclusion of new themes, interdisciplinary emphasis, differentiation, and specialization of approaches due to growth in comparative studies of national systems. The article also identifies weaknesses in these same processes of academic institutionalization, professionalization, and research output in Latin America, in contrast with the region's contribution in terms of key characteristic perspectives and study topics.