"To the pier"
University outreach program aimed at informing, training, and motivating individuals and social groups to exercise leadership in various fields of Latin American and Caribbean social life (economy, culture, art, technology, politics). It seeks to develop a comprehensive critical analytical-synthetic thinking, empowering participants with long-term transformative capabilities, enabling them to create strategic objectives and the means to achieve them in technologized and globalized contexts. The pier and the paths to reach it are created, moving “to the pier.”
From the Anguish's Drift to the Invention of the Pier
Lithograph version of the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch, published in La Revue Blanche, 1895.
1.Anguish, anxiety, and exasperation have never been more present in the emotional landscape of the peoples of the West. While it is true that these are age-old emotions known to humanity, what is new is their frequency, intensity, and the vast scope of the population that experiences them. The pervasive and enduring sense of dissatisfaction, insecurity, and the widespread confusion of our time have taken on dramatic contours due to a complete lack of future perspectives.
2.The prospect of even a distant future is not being contemplated; the present itself has never appeared so confusing and uncertain. Individuals and entire social groups find themselves at a loss regarding the meaning of their lives, which decisions to make, or which path to follow in the scenarios that present themselves.
3.At this moment, across all generations—elders, youth, and adults—the lack of a horizon contributes to a situation of near structural hopelessness. In every group, the symptoms of meaninglessness and lack of direction, along with persistent doubts about the course of individual and collective lives, confirm disbelief in what lies ahead: from disenchantment (individuals capable of work who have given up searching for employment), to the well-known “NEET” youth (not in education, employment, or training), to the widespread mental health crises among teenagers and adults; anxiety and depression affecting millions of individuals; not to mention the apathy stemming from the “crowded loneliness” of atomized individuals, the experience of solitude lived day in and day out, and the rising number of suicides.
4.In the face of this landscape of profound human fragility, there is an abundance of easy illusory promises and false gurus of all kinds: from religious cults to political sects, including commercial sects, financial pyramids, and virtual betting schemes. All represent “miraculous” means of seeking a semblance of security for the future and alleviating the anguish, sadness, and anxiety of the present.
5.With time, empty promises become evident, and fleeting hope dissipates like someone awakening from a dream and soon forgetting it. However, anguish remains resilient and latent, as it does not forget, nor does it simply go away. Promises appear as mirages: the closer one seems to reach a “safe harbor,” the further it recedes or vanishes. And even when one is found, all its piers are already occupied. It becomes a closed loop: one searches so much that they never find anything, and from the prolonged inability to find, they cease searching altogether.
6.Nevertheless, in the face of a reality that concerns and occupies all our attention to the point of exhaustion—diverting it from what truly matters—it is forgotten that new perspectives for the future and long-term goals do not arise spontaneously. Some effort is required to find the meaning of life, define directions, and chart new horizons. While chronic anxiety can be detrimental, it also plays an essential role in the natural alert system of human beings. It indicates that something is not right—both within ourselves and in our environment—and demands a decisive action, an attitude to be taken.
7.Ultimately, it is individuals and communities, making use of the minimal resources they possess, who can transform their own lives. Even if they do not have everything they need—much less the ideal conditions—it is possible, even from limited resources and what is available, to change and improve the situation, no matter how difficult it may seem.
8.The exercise of power, the skill, and the knowledge to transform an impossible problem into a possible reality is what we refer to here as strategic capabilities. The art and science of strategy, from which these capabilities are developed, constitute the conscious and creative way of making the seemingly impossible possible. Through strategy, we create, by ourselves, not only the harbor but also the pier—the exact space in the harbor we choose. With these strategic capabilities, we define the meaning, direction, and navigation paths of life. Uncertainty and anxiety will always accompany us on this journey. However, they will be our companions, friends, and advisers, helping us to stay on the correct course “to the chosen pier”.
The Outreach - The University Contributing to the Inventing of the Pier
9.Before presenting in greater detail the PROCAES – the program that gives rise to this digital platform and other services – it is important to introduce the institution that offers it. Developed at a public university in Brazil, the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), it is a state institution of the Brazilian people for all humanity. Thus, it provides services free of charge, with no profit motive. The mission of UDESC and PROCAES is to promote social development and the well-being of society through knowledge.
10.To fulfill this mission, UDESC and PROCAES utilize one of the three primary functions of the university: University Outreach. It is widely known that the university produces science through research, makes new discoveries, and trains the professionals that society requires. Alongside these functions of research and teaching, there is another, less recognized but deeply intertwined with the others: the task of socializing knowledge directly with society. University outreach plays a crucial role in sharing organized knowledge that has been transmitted through generations. It, together with the functions of teaching and research, constitutes what is referred to as the university’s “tripod”.
11.In general terms, it can be asserted that teaching and research are indirect means through which the university contributes to the dissemination of knowledge. Teaching imparts knowledge to society through the professionals it trains and prepares, while research provides new solutions in services and technologies. University outreach, on the other hand, is distinguished by being a direct action: it enables the university to share knowledge directly with society, disseminating both the knowledge produced and accumulated over the centuries and the most recent and advanced ways to solve problems that require specialized knowledge.
12.However, more than merely delivering knowledge to society, outreach allows for the construction of that knowledge in partnership with society. In other words, outreach activities operate as a two-way street: while teaching, they also learn from the interests, needs, and traditional knowledge of the populace. In this interaction between the university and community members, the former absorbs the interests, practices, needs, and insights of the latter that it may not be familiar with. This exchange helps to calibrate and enhance its own actions, thereby contributing to the development of society as a whole.
13.This relationship results in mutual learning and a social enhancement of the understanding of life and the world. Based on this reciprocal understanding, the aim is to address social issues by developing effective, sustainable, and far-reaching solutions.
14.The range of problems that PROCAES is dedicated to addressing in collaboration with communities involves significant efforts of understanding and prolonged periods of commitment. These are strategic in nature—issues that can only be tackled through mastery of the science and art of strategy and the development of the necessary capabilities.
What is PROCAES?
For those who want to get loose
I invent the pier
I invent more than loneliness gives me
Invent New Moon to Light
I invent love
And I know the pain of throwing myself
I wanted to be happy
I invented the sea
I invent in myself the dreamer
For those who want to follow me
I want more
I have the way of what I’ve always wanted
And a Savior ready to leave
I invent the pier
And I know the turn to throw myself
[Cais, de Milton Nascimento e Ronaldo Bastos]
15.The acronym “PROCAES” condenses two meanings into a single expression. On one hand, it stands for the Program for the Development of Strategic Capabilities—PROCAES. On the other hand, in a subtler manner, it alludes to the notion of Strategy through the metaphor of the “pier”. The aim is not to find a literal pier, but a destination: a new position (in a cultural segment, market niche, or social sector), a new situation (economic, technological, social, political, or cultural). The pier symbolizes one of the most recognized aspects of Strategy: the definition of a goal, a distant objective that one seeks to achieve. This metaphor inspires and guides the program, being present in its logo, methods, and services.
16.In the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, the acronym PROCAES sounds like a play on words. The word “cais” in Portuguese means pier. When pronounced PRO-CAES in Portuguese, it refers to what would be in English something else like “to the pier”, where the preposition “para” combined with the article “o” transforms into “PRO”; and where the letter “e” in “CAES” undergoes a phonetic inflection in Portuguese towards the sound of an “i,” making it sound like “cais” when pronounced. Thus, the program draws inspiration from the metaphor of those seeking a pier, preparing new leaders to envision a new destination and the “routes” that lead to it (reflecting on the dialectic between means and ends), directed towards the ultimate goal of those who venture to go “to the pier”.
17.From metaphor to reality: although Strategy can be learned and developed by any individual or social group, it remains relatively unknown to the general public. Furthermore, there is a noticeable lack of a culture conducive to the practice of this activity in Latin American and Caribbean countries. For these reasons and others, PROCAES emerges as a unique initiative, offering specially designed services to prepare leaders and groups for the exercise of power.
18.The learning and execution of Strategy, as well as the development of strategic capabilities by individuals and social groups, historically originated as an exclusively military and warfare activity. From its inception, Strategy has been a favored subject of the “wise generals,” responsible for leading the wars of their peoples, kingdoms, and states. By the mid-20th century, the field of Management Sciences incorporated military perspectives into industrial organization and strategic execution so effectively that today, military entities themselves learn from knowledge developed within the civilian domain. Since then, there has been a constant interaction between civilians and military personnel, collaborating to rethink and refine the art and science of Strategy.
19.The target audience of the program consists of young individuals aged between 16 and 35 years, regardless of their formal education, including those who are recent graduates or currently in secondary, technical, vocational, or university education. PROCAES is primarily dedicated to low-income youth, workers, small popular entrepreneurs, underemployed or unemployed individuals, marginalized groups, people with disabilities, women, Black individuals, Indigenous people, and members of the LGBTIQIA+ community, who aspire to transform their social condition and their environment with solutions based on knowledge, throughout our territory.
20.Given the comprehensive nature of the themes and issues addressed, Strategic Studies are characterized by their interaction with a diverse range of knowledge, from popular to academic. Within the academic realm, the field engages with disciplines as varied as Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Technology. Often, it draws directly from areas such as Political Science, Military Science, or Strategy. However, the work naturally expands into broader horizons, encompassing fields such as Geography, International Law, Philosophy, Design, Biology, and applied areas such as Medicine and Engineering.
21.PROCAES reflects this interdisciplinary approach in its operations, being developed by professionals who adopt a comprehensive and discerning perspective. Furthermore, the program presents two distinguishing features that deserve emphasis.
22.The first lies in the way PROCAES addresses its themes, uniting Science and Art. Through both, whether via Social Sciences or Natural Sciences and Technology, one can arrive at the same reality in different ways. Through the reflection of Seneca’s Stoic philosophy (see the quote in the box above) or through the song by Milton Nascimento (read the lyrics and listen to the music in the upper right corner), we gain a precise understanding that Strategy is a dense image, a project, a system composed of a holistic vision, means, paths, options, choices, resources, aspirations, capabilities, dreams, values, initiatives, inventiveness, risks, solitude, and collective decision-making regarding what, how, from where and to where, when, and how long it will take to reach the pier (destination), to some place or situation. It is about stimulating the formulation of pathways, seeking to escape social and mental chaos, and embarking on the quest for a social “pier” within a systemic project. It is through Art that we will also arrive at the reality upon which Strategy intervenes. It is both science and art.
23.The second distinctive feature lies in the target audience of PROCAES. The practice of formulating and executing a strategy, the activity of exercising power, has historically been confined to the highest echelons of states and governments (dominant both domestically and internationally) and to socially dominant groups and their elites. Globally, the formulators and executors of strategies are—almost without exception and overwhelmingly—male, white, or particularly Anglo-Saxon individuals, in ethnic-racial terms. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, beyond the aforementioned circles, the effective exercise of power has also been concentrated in the large transnational corporate monopolies of developed countries, without, however, extending beyond these dominant, restricted circles (economically, culturally, generationally, in terms of gender, socially, and racially). The proposal of PROCAES, in contrast, seeks to democratize the knowledge and practice of Strategy, promoting access to diverse social groups, overcoming the economic, cultural, gender, and racial barriers that traditionally limit the exercise of power by these subalternized groups.
24.Strategy, historically concentrated in socially dominant groups, is a powerful capacity that PROCAES seeks to democratize by sharing this knowledge with the populations who most need and would benefit from it. For the absence of conditions to exercise power is one of the main factors perpetuating social inequalities, both within and between countries. Therefore, PROCAES focuses its efforts on Latin America and the Caribbean, a region urgently in need of collective guidance and strategic leadership capable of transforming community, national, and regional realities. The program’s target audience is youth aged 16 to 35, with or without formal education, including those recently graduated or currently enrolled in secondary, technical, vocational, and university education. PROCAES is primarily dedicated to low-income youth, workers, small popular entrepreneurs, underemployed or unemployed individuals, those marginalized, persons with disabilities, women, Black and Indigenous people, and members of the LGBTIQIA+ community, who aspire to transform their social condition and their surroundings with knowledge-based solutions, across our entire territory.
25.In summary, PROCAES is a university outreach program, organized in a coherent and systematic manner, originating from a public university and operating on a non-profit basis. Its objective is to altruistically and selflessly share strategic knowledge and skills with a wide audience, supporting the formation of leadership and the development of transformative initiatives capable of addressing serious social problems while simultaneously seizing new opportunities in Latin American and Caribbean societies. It seeks to develop both the objective and subjective elements of social reality and the exercise of power, as well as the capability to formulate and implement a strategy and to exercise the capabilities created. Ultimately, PROCAES aims to inform, train, reflect, think, and act on the strategic capabilities that enable individuals, social groups, peoples, countries, and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean to live a substantively fulfilling life in the current stage of technological and globalized development of our societies.
What is the Strategy for?
The muisca raft represents the investiture ceremony of the power of the Chibcha-Muisca leaders, indigenous peoples who inhabit the central region of Colombia. This gold piece was crafted between 600 and 1600 AD, and is held at the Gold Museum in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: Diogo Pereto, 2023.
26.Humanity, since its origins 200,000 years ago, has aspired to or needed to live in qualitatively better conditions than those immediately encountered. Aspirations and needs have always been diverse throughout history. However, the most important of these involves the necessity of survival in the context of competition among human groups. This always entails the exercise of power and capabilities over other human beings and their institutions, in relation to territories and resources (water, food, tools, property, capital, etc.). The increasingly sophisticated aspirations and increasingly complex needs throughout history have necessitated a set of knowledge and skills required to overcome the significant challenges that arise in reality: Strategy.
27.Strategy is the determining human capability utilized to transform aspirations, needs, and desires into achievements that require medium and long-term timelines, and which cannot be accomplished otherwise. As a propaedeutic introduction, Strategy involves the development of a plan, the organization of human resources, and a process to make what is desired possible, without forgetting or losing sight of the goal while attempting to achieve it.
28.Strategy is a capability, a resource of thought and action, consciousness and practical conduct that enables the realization of difficult things. It allows one to perceive possible paths of improbable causes within reality. Going beyond mere perception, it indicates feasible ways to guide actions in order to achieve what seemed impossible or even unlikely. Strategic capabilities equip us to be realistic in demanding and extracting from reality what is supposedly impossible.
29.However, Strategy is neither magical nor a miraculous practice. On the contrary, as a conscious effort, it particularly empowers those who, for any reason, feel incapable of changing their circumstances or who naively believe that the future will improve without any initiative. Strategy mitigates unrealistic solutions and demystifies magical explanations, combating feelings of powerlessness in the face of the world’s problems. It reduces subjective alienation, which leads individuals to delegate control over their futures to others. Through Strategy, men and women can reclaim their agency in their lives, becoming truly responsible for their destinies.
30.The outcome is not always certain. One characteristic of Strategy is its engagement with the level of confidence and the degree of uncertainty inherent in a vision or project. Often, the formulation of Strategy provides greater certainty to a project and inspires more confidence in its executors, allowing the project to achieve dimensions and contours of excellence. In other instances, Strategy reduces uncertainties. At times, it points toward a path that remains uncertain but could not even be explored without it.
31.In situations where Strategy operates as a form of “experimentation,” one of its most valuable functions emerges: serving as a tool for learning, correcting trajectories, and reformulating Strategy. It ensures the accumulation of memory, generates knowledge about itself and the environment, and creates more solid foundations for new and necessary beginnings.
32.Strategy is essential for defining the scale of change: determining whether it should be limited or extensive. It often enables the identification of the hidden cause of a problem that was previously incomprehensible. It also allows for calibration between gradual action, reform, or abrupt and disruptive transformation, guiding the type of intervention required—whether soft and diplomatic or firm and decisive. Strategy plays a crucial role in shaping the directions of societies and nations, creating diverse scenarios such as those of Peace and War, well-being or inequality, democracy and dictatorship, failure and success, and the rise and decline of groups, institutions, peoples, and nations.
Final all, What is Strategy?
“The reason we make mistakes is that we consider the parts of life, but never life as a whole. The archer must know what he is aiming for; then he must aim and control the weapon with his skill. Our plans fail because they lack a goal. When a man does not know which port he is sailing to, no wind is the right wind.” (Seneca, Letter LXXI, 2-3)
33.Will, aspirations, visions, projects, or urgent needs of medium or large proportions. Strategy is the means to realize them. Its utility lies in being the capability that enables other capabilities; it is the mother capability. Thus, from finding “a relatively stable direction in life” to starting or transforming a business, achieving a new situation (economic, social, political, cultural), undertaking significant ventures (corporate or social), and transforming countries, nations, and societies, whether one desires it or not, Strategy must always be present for the success of challenging endeavors. There are cases where its presence is felt through its absence, which is the worst of situations.
34.In somewhat more precise, technical terms, Strategy is both a science and an art. A prerequisite for the effective exercise of power, it allows for the planned and harmonious conduct of collective political action, whose aim is to acquire/conquer, guarantee/consolidate, and maintain/preserve advantages in relationships and positions of power over allies, competitors, adversaries, and enemies.
35.Broadly speaking, in a somewhat schematic manner, it can be said that, as a science, Strategy involves calculating the initiatives and measures necessary to be taken, based on the motivation and resources assessed and measured as necessary and/or sufficient to achieve the ultimate goal. As an art, Strategy employs intuition, sensitivity, accumulated experience, boldness, fearlessness, courage, and other subjective elements that are differentiating factors of action.
36.In this context, strategy becomes a mediating instrument between thinking about reality and concrete action. That is, strategy is the mediating category between social theory (perception/interpretation of reality) and social praxis (action). Knowledge of the situation (global and synthetic) arises from the theory itself and should make clear to agents at least: 1) the nature of the sector, society, country, region; 2) its potentialities and possibilities for adjustments or profound changes in that nature and the main development trends; 3) the forces that control the sector, society, country, region, their power base, and the willingness or capability to adapt to new situations.
37. Therefore, Strategy is always the conduct of major political operations, often referred to in the jargon of strategists as “grand strategy” or “grand politics.” The exercise of strategic capabilities requires its agents, both male and female strategists, to possess an abstract knowledge, not merely empirical, hostage to everyday understanding based on opinions and appearances. Strategy requires, to a certain extent and as much as possible, knowledge about reality at the ontological level of what truly is. When well conducted, it subsumes tactics and operations under its guidance, acting in a transformative manner rather than conforming to or passively adapting to reality. Currently, the culture of narrow pragmatism and short-sightedness has never been so strong and present across the continent, in the daily operations of businesses, in social movements, or even within the State, completely blinding the horizon of action for individuals. Any mention of strategy, with rare exceptions, has not gone beyond mere rhetoric.
Who Needs Strategy?
Manuela Sáenz (1797-1856), the Libertadora of the Liberator (for saving the life of Simón Bolívar), posthumous Colonel of the Ecuadorian Army, was the leading woman in the fight for independence in Spanish America. Portrait by Marco Salas Yepes, 1960
38.In a word, those groups of individuals, institutions, organizations, societies, and nations facing the most complex and challenging difficulties require Strategy. These challenges demand the expenditure of resources, will, and effort over a period that is neither quick nor short nor immediate. Individuals and social groups aspiring to effectuate substantial change in their circumstances and alter the status quo need strategic capabilities.
39.To exacerbate the situation, the poorest and most disadvantaged individuals, small businesses, societies, and nations—who paradoxically need it the most—are the ones with the least access to strategic capabilities. After all, wealthy nations and powerful societal groups, through their elites, have long understood, mastered, and applied the notions of strategy to improve their own living conditions, often at the expense of the well-being of many others.
40.Large transnational corporations, along with rich and powerful nations, possess complex systems for strategic formulation. They truly are systems: they have training centers for strategists; research and strategic formulation centers, conventionally known as think tanks; diverse and pluralistic yet interconnected in their reflective discourses; multiple decision-making centers and governmental bodies to formulate, implement, and control strategy. There are not only hubs but articulated systems of strategic action among (self)privileged groups and nations.
41.The (self)privileging of groups, business monopolies, and socially dominant countries deepens economic, social, educational, cultural, and power inequalities within communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. These dominant groups increasingly exercise their strategic capabilities to ensure a secure world at the expense of a distressing, uncertain, and unsafe world for the majority of the population.
42.They will only be able to change this situation when the communities of Latin American and Caribbean countries take the strategic initiative to overcome it. It will be women, indigenous populations and nations, Black communities, peripheral groups, family-owned small businesses, and grassroots organizations and movements that most need strategy and to develop their strategic capabilities. It is the marginalized social groups, peoples, and countries that, organized to prevail, will overcome the anguish of the present reality, forging new futures and living new hopes.
PROCAES – Phase I
43.The work of PROCAES is to contribute to the construction of a strategy of hope for the communities served by the program. As we have discussed thus far, PROCAES is framed within the broader scope of developing the strategic capabilities of individuals and collectives, utilizing the resources of the sciences and the arts to enhance this purpose, making available to society the entire cultural, artistic, and scientific arsenal systematized by the university. Together with the communities, we seek to understand their problems, interests, values, and knowledge, systematizing them within the body of universal knowledge and fostering their growth, development, and empowerment.
44.Phase I of PROCAES, the first edition of this university outreach program, is dedicated to creating the fundamental conditions to solidly promote the development of strategic capabilities. To achieve this objective, four projects have been established that define the current phase of the program:
– To create a bilingual digital platform (Portuguese and Spanish) to store and provide access to a collection on strategic themes, as well as to disseminate issues of strategic interest to the communities of Latin America and the Caribbean;
– To create a digital archive of maps, documents, works, and biographies of leaders and strategic processes of the involved communities, with the aim of preserving, systematizing, and maintaining the social memory of their socio-spatial experiences;
– To conduct political analysis courses;
– To organize workshops and cultural and sports events (film screenings, lectures, observation walks of relevant territories) on topics that address and stimulate general interest in strategic issues.
45.The current phase of the program also emphasizes the development of:
– the capability for analytical-synthetic, critical, creative, complex, and long-term thinking, contributing to the development of leadership within communities capable of global reflection, assisting in the identification of problems and solutions, and being able to formulate strategies, programs, and projects for local, national, regional, and international development, aimed at the empowerment of communities;
– a public opinion sensitive to the strategic problems of marginalized and subaltern social classes and groups (indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, landless people, homeless individuals, etc.), organizations, institutions, cities, and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as to international strategic issues of cooperation and regional integration;
– productive activities, the generation of decent employment, entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation, encouraging the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium enterprises.
Diogo Pereto, PROCAES Coordinator
February 2025