The social construction of a market: the rise of the plastic recycling industry in Brazil

• Grant number: 12/23317-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: April 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Mário Sacomano Neto
• Grantee: Silvio Eduardo Alvarez Candido
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research analyzes the rise of the plastics recycling industry in Brazil based on the theory of Strategic Action Fields. There is clearly a growing concern with environmental conservation in recent decades and the polymers known as plastics are among the enemies of the environmentalism. In this scenario, the high recyclability of these materials gradually becomes important to legitimate their use and recycling becomes an attractive business opportunity. The emergence of this industry in Brazil highlights the influence of social, cultural and political generally left aside in orthodox economic theories. In these approaches, the markets are perceived as pure mechanisms of price formation for the adjustment of supply and demand, demonstrated and applied through sophisticated mathematical formulations. This narrow and influential interpretation has been questioned by approaches of contemporary sociology which propose to study the economic phenomena as social constructions. This project proposes to study the case of the plastics recycling industry in Brazil based on the sociological perspective of Strategic Action Fields theory. A predominantly qualitative approach will be used, taking the prosopographical method as a reference. Primary information will be collected with relevant actors of such emerging market primarily through interviews in order to reconstruct historically the way this field has been built in recent decades. Secondary information will also be gathered. Data analysis will be done based on the theory through the creation of categories and using the technique of Multiple Correspondence Analysis. (AU)

Scientific publications

(6)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CANDIDO, SILVIO EDUARDO ALVAREZ; SACOMANO NETO, MARIO; CORTES, MAURO ROCHA. How Social Inequalities Shape Markets: Lessons From the Configuration of PET Recycling Practices in Brazil. BUSINESS & SOCIETY, JAN 2021. (12/23317-7)

ALVAREZ CANDIDO, SILVIO EDUARDO; SOULE, FERNANDA VERISSIMO; NETO, MARIO SACOMANO. The Emergence of ``Solidarity Recycling{''} in Brazil: Structural Convergences and Strategic Actions in Interconnected Fields. ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT, v. 32, n. 3, p. 363-385, SEP 2019. (12/23317-7)

SILVIO EDUARDO ALVAREZ CANDIDO; MAURO ROCHA CÔRTES; OSWALDO MÁRIO SERRA TRUZZI; MÁRIO SACOMANO NETO. Campos nos estudos organizacionais: abordagens relacionais?. Gestão & Produção, v. 25, n. 1, p. 68-80, 2017-08-17. (12/23317-7)

. Campos nos estudos organizacionais: abordagens relacionais?. Gestão & Produção, n. ahead, p. -, 2017. (12/23317-7)

CANDIDO, SILVIO EDUARDO ALVAREZ; SACOMANO NETO, MARIO; CORTES, MAURO ROCHA. How Social Inequalities Shape Markets: Lessons From the Configuration of PET Recycling Practices in Brazil. BUSINESS & SOCIETY, v. 61, n. 3, p. 33-pg., 2021-01-21. (12/23317-7)

ALVAREZ CANDIDO, SILVIO EDUARDO; SOULE, FERNANDA VERISSIMO; NETO, MARIO SACOMANO. The Emergence of "Solidarity Recycling" in Brazil: Structural Convergences and Strategic Actions in Interconnected Fields. ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT, v. 32, n. 3, p. 23-pg., 2019-09-01. (12/23317-7)