Administration and indigenous people in Brazil: knowledge and interest in master and Ph.D. research

Abstract

Although relevant in historical and current contexts, topics related to indigenous people have received limited attention in the field of Administration Science in Brazil, which motivated this research. An epistemological approach was used by systematizing intellectual efforts and knowledge production in academic research. This paper aims to delimit analytical categories of research on topics related to indigenous people based on interest and knowledge derived from academic production in master and Ph.D. programs in Brazil, in the field of Administrative Science. It is an integrative bibliographic review anchored in lexical analysis with the aid of the Iramuteq software. The processing of the information generated four classes: “University and minority access to higher education,” “Land and conflicts,” “Organizations, management, and sustainability,” “Indigenous socio-political organization, state, and public policies.” The classes bring together theoretical and empirical bases, research procedures, locus, and focus, with non-managerial profiles and hybrid sociological approaches that harmonized in practical, technical, and emancipatory interests in the light of “Knowledge and Interests” from Habermas and the “Circle of Epistemic Matrices” from Paes de Paula. They reveal diversity in the epistemological choices of research in Administration, on indigenous themes, with hermeneutic, empirical-analytical, and critical bias.