Contributions of ‘Extensão’ to Activating the Public Role of Universities in Brazil: A Discussion of the Experiences of the Territorial Justice Laboratory at Federal University of ABC

Brazilian experiences of university “Extensão" activities, engaged research, and the application of popular education principles in the relationship between academics and members of non-academic groups, particularly those from the periphery and working-class communities, have been the subject of much interest and debate in recent years.

The participation of academics from Brazilian universities in "Extensão”, which in practice translates into technical, social, or legal advice to vulnerable communities and popular movements, has been noteworthy. However, many academics remain distant from this work beyond institutional walls.

Since 1911, there have been reports of higher education institutions developing university extension activities in Brazil in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other cities. Its provision in legislation dates back to 1931 through a decree that established the foundations of the Brazilian university system (PAULA, 2013).

In Brazil, extension played a considerable role in the efforts for social transformation in the context of the struggles for structural reforms that took place between 1950 and 1964, in a context of intense political and social mobilizations with national strikes, the emergence of movements fighting for agrarian reform, the campaign for the nationalization of oil, the banner of health reform and the campaign for the defense of public schools, which coincided with the important literacy movement centered on the method developed by Professor Freire.

University extension activities and collaborative research involving peripheral and grassroots communities have developed powerfully in recent decades, despite the numerous challenges and obstacles.

This paper aims to present and reflect on practical experiences in which academics from the Federal University of ABC in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, organized in the Territorial Justice Laboratory, have exercised through activism, advisory and technical collaboration with housing struggle movements and popular communities, using principles of Popular Education and Action Research (FREIRE 1983, BORDA, 2016).