Founded in 1967 by the Society of Jesus, the Center for Studies and Social Action (CEAS) is a non-profit association that is part of the Jesuit Network for Socio-Environmental Justice. With a multidisciplinary team and a popular and participatory methodology, CEAS works with rural and urban communities in the state of Bahia, focusing on strengthening autonomy and popular power. The entity's work seeks to combat inequalities and oppression through constant dialogue between scientific and popular knowledge, guiding the transformation of reality from grassroots.

Its activities are divided into three strategic areas: popular accompaniment, training, and memory. Through its Rural and Urban programs, CEAS carries out popular education work on issues such as the right to decent housing, agroecology, and defense of territory. Since its inception, in a period marked by the violence of the military regime in Brazil, the entity has strengthened the struggle of social movements and organizations and sought to preserve the history of social struggles in the Northeast through the magazine Cadernos do CEAS, the Cláudio Perani Library, and the Casa da Memória Popular (Campo), which safeguard collections essential to understanding the popular struggle in the region.

In the field of ideas and political practice, CEAS prioritizes cross-cutting themes such as the defense of territory, the right to communication, and the protagonism of women and young people in the political struggle. The organization understands territory as a space for resistance and collectivity, combating the logic of capital exploitation. By fostering the organization of marginalized groups and fighting against the monopoly of information, CEAS reaffirms its mission to build new social relations based on the sovereignty of peoples and the confrontation of sexism, racism, and social inequality.