Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: FRANCISCA ELIZONETE DE SOUZA LIMA

TERRITORIAL CITIZENSHIP AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION: PROBLEMATIZATION BASED ON EXTENSION PROJECTS DEVELOPED BY DEGREE COURSES IN GEOGRAPHY AT UERN

Territorial citizenship; used territory; university extension.

The Brazilian territory continues to be marked by high income concentration, the absence of the State in guaranteeing its population inalienable rights such as education, health, housing, and leisure, and the persistence of elements such as racism, hunger, poverty, homophobia, misogyny, among others, which characterize our strong socio-territorial inequality. For this reason, the territorial expressions associated with the processes of expansion and retreat of citizenship in Brazil still need to be thoroughly problematized. Anchoring ourselves in the root of the problem of inequality and lack of citizenship, our thesis proposal—which considers the use of territory as a sine qua non element for the promotion and exercise of citizenship, and the importance of public universities in this context—has as its central objective to "analyze the notion of territorial citizenship, considering it as the foundation for extension projects within the scope of higher education courses in Geography at the State University of Rio Grande do Norte (UERN)." Methodologically, the presented proposal is based on the analytical category of used territory. This will be addressed in connection with the conceptual corollary that permeates the theory of geographical space proposed by Professor Milton Santos, helping us to build a theoretical basis that defines and problematizes the notion of territorial citizenship. Regarding the use of territory by higher education institutions proposing extension projects, in the case of this research, the State University of Rio Grande do Norte, we will seek to understand how it utilizes the Potiguar territory through the execution of extension projects linked to the Geography courses offered on the campuses located in the cities of Assú, Mossoró, and Pau dos Ferros, from 2012 to 2022. As for the technical procedures, these will be developed in five stages: bibliographic research, documentary research, secondary data collection, cartographic production, and interviews. These technical procedures will help us build a model for the development of Geography extension projects that encompass territorial citizenship. Thus, as territory is an eminently geographical concept and citizenship a territorial phenomenon, where its achievement can mean the construction of a truly just civic model, Geography, with its theoretical-methodological framework, helps us think about this notion in the analytical field and empirically implement it through university extension. In this context, the results and reflections undertaken in the construction of the proposed doctoral thesis may contribute to the improvement and redirection of the strategies and methodologies adopted by Geography extension projects developed within the context of UERN, with a view to expanding and strengthening citizenship in the municipalities covered by the extension actions.