According to the movements of the network: the sociopolitical process of regulation of the solidarity economy in Brazil

Author(s)

Joannes Paulus Silva Forte

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2019-03-29

Examining board members

Márcia de Paula Leite; Alicia Ferreira Gonçalves; André Ricardo de Souza; Fabio Jose Bechara Sanchez; Leda Maria Caira Gitahy

• Advisor: Magda Barros Biavaschi; Márcia de Paula Leite

Abstract

This paper analyzes the sociopolitical process of regulation of the solidarity economy in Brazil (2002-2018). In this perspective, the research problem refers to the articulations (by networking) and to the political strategies that different entities and social actors construct in the process of institutionalization of the solidarity economy, through social and legal regulation. It is a phenomenon of national proportions, with no territorial seat defined, which allows the analysis of the process of socio-political construction of the "regulatory legal framework" of solidarity economy wherever it occurs, based on the interaction of social actors and their entities linked to the Catholic Church, to the State and to the social movements, the three large and heterogeneous institutional agents of the solidarity economy in Brazil. Over the research, I sought answers to the following synthesis-question: how does institutionalization reveal, through national regulation, concepts and practices of solidarity economy that would favor the "social insertion of excluded groups" in the capitalist market, moving away from the proposal of a "other economy" as an "alternative to capitalism"? Based on this question, I analyzed the process of regulating solidarity economy based on a triangulation between the following theoretical and methodological procedures: reading the specialized literature; mapping of institutional documents; observations at local, state, regional and national events of the political articulation of the solidarity economy and visits to public agencies and solidarity economy organizations in the states of Ceará, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and in the Federal District; and semistructured interview. In particular, I discussed how diverse entities, organized in a network of solidarity economy networks, articulate strategies aimed at the process of socio-political construction of the regulatory legal framework, under the banner of the struggle for the right to associated work and solidarity economy, in the midst of negotiations and conflicts between different discursive matrices, namely: the religious, that of self-managed socialism and that of syndicalism of CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores). This construction takes place in the field of relations between three large and heterogeneous institutional agents that have greater influence (Catholic Church, State and social movements), that demand a "National Public Policy of Solidarity Economy", through political mobilization, normative acts of the public power and projects of law (PL), especially the PL of the House of Representatives nº 4.685/2012, concerning the creation of a national legal framework. That said, the thesis defended here is that the institutionalization of solidarity economy, through national regulation, reveals concepts and practices favorable to the "social insertion of excluded groups" in the capitalist market, moving away from the original proposal of an "other economy" as an "alternative to capitalism", favoring, above all, entities linked to the Catholic Church in their historical task of "caring" for the poor (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/09925-0 - The sociopolitical process of regulating the Solidary Economy in Brazil
• Grantee: Joannes Paulus Silva Forte
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate