Universidade pública e as concepções de desenvolvimento tecnológico: o caso da Universidade Federal de Lavras à luz das tecnologias sociais

Abstract

The Public University is a vector of production of scientific and technological knowledge that play an important role in promoting national development. However, the universities of underdeveloped countries are suffering from a process of dysfunction, since the knowledge produced by them is not able to guarantee local development, since the academic community is concerned with the development of international publications, seeking to solve endogenous problems of the field of research, rather than exogenous ones that reflect the yearnings of the society in which the University is inserted. Considering the large number of university research centers installed in small-sized cities in the interior of Brazil, they are the first responsible for ensuring the production of science and technology capable of solving local challenges. One of these cases of university centers installed in small-town centers is in the city of Lavras-MG, which counts on the presence of the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA). Thus, the work seeks to raise UFLA's historical and current understanding of technological development, that is, to analyze how the University behaves in relation to the production of science and technology, if it meets with scholars exposed by saying that they suffer a dysfunction, or if there is concern about production aimed at local development. For this purpose, a documentary research was carried out in order to raise the institution's technological development history and, later, interviews with the academic community were applied to identify the current view of the University on the subject. At the end of the study the University's vision of technological development was identified, showing that there is a greater concern in the production of conventional technologies, which are determined by international standards, aiming at innovation and recognition of the institution. This vision has remained the same from its foundation to the present day, although more initiatives have been created to develop social technologies to promote local development. Finally, this paper aims to serve as an analysis for future research that seeks to understand the process of technological development at the Federal University of Lavras, in addition to providing a historical basis for those interested in the trajectory of the University since its foundation in 1908.