Resumo

Some initiatives of "tecnologias sociais" (TS) have led to public policies with a social character and are examples of experiences that were created without the help of the public sector, but whose practices have been improved and disseminated through their inclusion in the policy, such as the Cistern's Program that emerged from an active community action to provide drinking water and better living conditions for the inhabitants of the brazilian semi-arid region.

This study addressed the following problem: What is the role of the “tecnologias sociais” of the Cisterns’s Program in the northeastern brazilian semi-arid region? To answer this problem, this study aimed to analyze the role of the Cisterns’s Program as a generator of “tecnologias sociais” in the semi-arid region of the Brazilian Northeast. Specifically, it aimed to identify the “tecnologias sociais” that constitute this program, to recognize the "tecnologias sociais" elements that make up the Cisterns’s Program, and to identify the results (impacts) obtained through its implementation.

The "tecnologia social" is the result of a paradigm shift characterized by scientific and technological initiatives whose focus is not on economic profitability (as in traditional technologies), but on improving the quality of life, inclusion, autonomy and social transformation of society (ANDRADE; VALADÃO, 2017), starting from a performance based on methodology (method), innovation, social participation and results (impact).

This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study conducted through a single case study and data collection through interviews and document analysis within the Cisterns’s Program.

Many of the elements identified in the research as components (and operationalization forms) of the formative aspects of “tecnologia social” (methodology, innovation, social participation and outcomes) confirm the perceptions and add new insights to the studies (DAGNINO; BRANDÃO; NOVAES, 2004; GARCIA, 2007; ITS, 2004, 2007; ANDRADE; VALADÃO, 2017; POZZEBON; TELLO- ROZAS; HECK, 2021) on this subject.

The results (impacts) from the implementation of "tecnologias sociais" (cisterns) in the northeastern brazilian semi-arid are multiple and include benefits from access to drinking water, social empowerment, strengthening public health, increasing productive capacity, mitigation of desertification, improvement of production in drought-affected regions, and even reversal of rural exodus. These results highlight the need for continuity of initiatives, projects and policies whose main objective is the adoption, use and diffusion of “tecnologias sociais”.

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