A história como testemunho, "eu estava lá"

Abstract

The main goal of this thesis is to write a new snippet in the history of the complexity study group – GRECOM/UFRN, based on the complementarity between the narratives of several witnesses who did in the Group their postgraduate training. With 25 years of existence, this is a research from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), linked to the Fundamental and Education Policies Department and, formally linked to the Education and Social Sciences Post-graduation programs. It is a group that transcends its physical space in order to experiment and learn with the various fields of knowledge. The researches developed at GRECOM are aligned with the construction of a non-reducing and non-leveling science, but a science that lets sensitive operate instead of a solitary and linear technique. Working with the perspective of new links for knowledge, GRECOM goes beyond UFRN’s physical limits throughout its history, becoming a solid experience for the Complexity in Latin America. In Brazil, it is the first point for the itinerant chair UNESCO Edgar Morin for the Complex Thinking. This reconnection space is where happens the regeneration of the researcher, that starts to have the opportunity to make science with pleasure, passion and sharing. As a historian, I defend the thesis that, for the building of a plural history, we need to give up the place of witness and open space for a set of experiences that are in the formation base of the group, and that are the support for the countless types of documents we can find on its collection. Therefore, I’ve searched in the writers Jean-Philippe Pieron, Edgar Morin, Ilya Prigogine, Jacques Le Goff and Michel Serres the elements to discuss about Testimony, Narrative, History and Science, as well as in the study works produced at GRECOM, to find the clues to build this history. To compose the set of testimonies about the group, I have tried to listen the intellectual partners, researchers and post-graduation ex-students that had here their own formation process. To get that, I used interviews and written testimonials. In addition to these materials, photographic images were used to complement the historical records regarding the group.