Working with Social Sciences and Historical Reparations: What to Do with Weak Institutions?

Brazil's recent history shows that democratic institutions are fragile and, in a way, not protected against threats from the ultra-right or new dictatorships. In this context, how can we approach the issue of reparations from the point of view of our institutions if a critical approach to history allows us to question whether we have in fact consolidated our democratic state? In this proposal, we will try to point out contemporary challenges for the consolidation of policies to strengthen democratic values and the defence of human rights, which may be related to the processes of “democratic transition” that we have gone through in our history as a nation, reflecting on the role of the social sciences in a context as racialized as Brazil.