Social justice and intersectionality in the development of affirmative action policies for the admission of public school students to Brazilian federal universities

Abstract

The affirmative action policy of quotas for the admission of students from public schools to federal universities is a public action that seeks to address the demands of people and social groups affected by educational injustice. Implemented at the beginning of the 21st century, it has been regulated at the federal level by the Quota Law of 2012, establishing socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, quilombola and people with disabilities quotas. The goal of this study is to understand how and whether the Quota Law incorporated social justice and intersectionality into its developmental process as an affirmative action policy. The theoretical framework focuses on the concept of multidimensional social justice (redistribution, recognition, representation) developed by Nancy Fraser, from a perspective of convergence of the contradictions of 21st century capitalism. Intersectionality is mobilized as an epistemological-methodological instrument that brings to light several inequalities and their interconnections through social markers of differences. The results indicate that affirmative action quotas are based on socioeconomic redistributive justice, with some
features of the dimensions of cultural recognition and political representation. Intersectionality between the social markers of race, class, ethnicity was fundamental to the demands of rights holders, leading to affirmative action policy itself.