title: [(Re)visiting some elements of the situational approach: a critical examination of some of Carlos Matus's contributions].
abstract: Throughout his work, Carlos Matus offered a number of theoretical and methodological contributions to planning. Among them, I emphasize the understanding of planning as a way of calculation that precedes and presides over the action, the notion of situation, self-reported to the social actor who plans the importance of explanatory procedures and the so-called directional calculation. From a pragmatic reading of science and some contributions by Giddens, this paper examines the theoretical assumptions underlying these contributions. Specifically recognizing the importance of such contributions, it is a reading that radicalizes the self-reporting character, rejecting the claims of constructing a general theory of situational changes, focusing on the ability of social actors themselves to systematize the calculation that precedes and presides over the action from its own repertoire of interpretation. It explores the possibility of understanding the contributions of systematic and explicit calculation that precedes and guides the action as a way of expanding the theoretical understanding of the actions supported by human agents. Finally, we indicate the practical consequences of this (re)reading.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20550-900. ruben@ims.uerj.br
authors.forename: Ruben Araujo
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: de Mattos
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D006285:Health Planning / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge