Museu de Ciência e Tecnologia da Bahia: um possível instrumento de transformação urbana e sociocultural na cidade de Salvador

Abstract

In this thesis, it is proposed to discuss the importance of implementing and maintaining public equipment for education and culture, not only as transforming spaces in these fields, but as agents of social, cultural and territorial transformations. As a case study, the Museum of Science and Technology of Bahia - MCT-BA, the first facility of its kind in Latin America, is analyzed through the analysis of its different planning cycles, from project design, through its implementation, maintenance, and management. In addition, through the comparative investigation of four other museological facilities – Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences – MAST (Rio de Janeiro), “Espaço Ciência” (Recife/Olinda) and Catavento Museum (São Paulo), in Brazil, and the Explora Park, in Medellin, Colombia, constitute a repertoire for analyzing the differences and similarities in the implementation, management, maintenance, public policies, programs and actions developed by the State and, by the museums themselves, showing results or benefits, notably for the communities located in your surroundings. The research was consolidated after surveying a considerable volume, within the time frame from 1975 to 2022, of documents, interviews, graphic materials and information, mainly coming from news and reports from the main newspapers in Bahia, relating them to theoretical foundation that is based on the analyzes and literature already produced on the subject of public policies, aimed at producing and stimulating knowledge of science and technology, as well as related to studies on cultural policies, museums and science centers, in addition to existing references on right to the city, cultural capital, habitus, among others. The theme brought to the center of this discussion the relationship between the existence of museums and contemporary urban processes related to cultural, political, and economic aspects of the country, throughout its history. It also seeks to understand the role of the State in the creation and maintenance of cultural public policies and incentives for science and technology, regardless of political parties, interests and personal disagreements of managers, enforcing the implementation of State policies that permeate a period of government. Finally, in the final considerations, the main points of similarity and divergence between the museums studied were unrolled, trying to answer whether the Museum of Science and Technology of Bahia would have been a possible instrument of urban and sociocultural transformation in the city of Salvador, if it had a history of continuity, maintenance, and operation, as well as in its investments.