Tecnologias sociais na apicultura e meliponicultura: análise sobre a produção de conhecimento científico, tecnológico e popular

Abstract

Recognizing how is configured the body of scientific, technological and popular knowledge about Social Technology for beekeeping and meliponiculture, registered in international databases, is an essential activity to support strategic actions in the field of Science, Technology and Society (STS) that aim to contribute to policies directed to society and the environment. The interest in beekeeping has been notorious in recent years, both for the sweet commercial attractiveness and for the awareness of the importance of species for the environmental balance. However, conditions in Brazil are not favorable: high mortality rates of bees, increased use of pesticides and lack of incentives. Beekeepers and meliponiculturists have been experiencing increasingly complex problems and with the Covid-19 pandemic new difficulties have been added. This thesis aimed to analyze the current scenario of the production and evolution of scientific, technological and popular knowledge with potential of Social Technology for beekeeping and meliponiculture. The methodology included exploratory and documentary research, literature review, case study, and bibliometric research in the database - Web of Science. The results about scientific, technological and popular knowledge were organized in groups: appropriation and transformation of the learned knowledge and opportunities for diffusion and appropriation. A systematization of international and Brazilian experiences was carried out, gathering projects from Italy, England, Bulgaria, Greece and Spain. In the sequence, the Cooperativa de Trabajo Apícola Pampero Limitada (CAP) from Argentina was studied, with agroecological principles, participatory methodologies, respect for people and traditional communities. As for public perception and dissemination of popular knowledge, the study of technologies and practices of the Technologies and Practices for Small Agricultural Producers (TECA) platform maintained by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was used. About the Brazilian experiences we had as sources the Fundação Banco do Brasil (FBB), the Fórum Brasileiro de Economia Solidária and the Instituto de Tecnologia Social (ITS). To identify the panorama of inventions and innovations, the current picture of patents deposited at Google Patents and at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) was surveyed. This research is concluded with the verification of funding in grants and scholarships, making a case study, at the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). From these results, some strategies of approach and exchange of knowledge and practices between producers of scientific and popular knowledge for the development of beekeeping and meliponiculture were proposed. It is hoped that in the near future, through projects involving teaching, research and extension; organizations, researchers, associates, cooperative members, among other interested parties, can articulate themselves to preserve, exchange, transmit, anchor, and pollinate more and more knowledge in this area.