Utilidade social em empreendimentos da economia solidária: o caso das mulheres do artesanato (Natal/RN)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to reveal, in the light of the construct social utility, dimensions of work and production in the solidarity economy based on the experiences of women in enterprises of the handicraft segment. The dissertation was derived from the project Social Management, Social Technologies and Sustainability: Incubation of Solidarity Economic Enterprises in the Municipality of Natal (2016/2017) originally fomented by the former National Secretariat of Solidarity Economy of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security by means of action research conducted by the Organization of Learning and Knowledge in Solidarity Initiatives and Studies in the Third Sector of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Particularly, regarding the limited financial return and the questionable economic viability of the enterprises, by identifying precariousness in the organization of the enterprises, considering the predominance of informal groups with a reduced number of members. In terms of incomes, monthly compensation amounts below a minimum wage, very low income and even nonexistent, directly impact the permanence of the partners and the longevity of the enterprises. Despite the restriction of socioeconomic profile surveyed, the assumptions made are that crafts enterprises assume a condition of welfare promoters, because they link work and art, and in this condition, the economic dimension appears subordinated to social utility. In addition to this, it is assumed that the mechanisms of performance evaluation centered on the economic, monetary and market bias are not sufficient to evaluate economic enterprises in solidarity that assume high community representativeness and social relevance. As operational objectives, there is a) characterization of the dimensions of social utility in the productive practices of the ESS; b) to identify in the perspective of social utility the characteristic that explains the viability of the enterprises and c) to evidence contributions of the studied SEEs to the life of the associates and the community. Methodologically, this dissertation adopts a qualitative character of research, with descriptive-exploratory, cross-sectional objectives. The case study was considered and the data collection was done through observation and the realization of focus groups. In all, 12 focus groups were held, with 13 of the 17 groups mapped out to participate in the UFRN / SENAES / SEMTAS Natal cooperation project. The sessions were guided by a semistructured script and the data collected were analyzed through content analysis (BARDIN, 2011) and lexicographic analysis, with the aid of the free IRAMUTEQ analysis software. The software generated six interlaced analytical categories, derived from the textual corpus of data collection, which resemble the categories of analysis created based on the theoretical framework to understand the dimensions of social utility in associations. As results, it can be understood that the strongest variables in the process of explaining the feasibility of these enterprises were sociability and knowledge, not income, as in analyzes of traditional viabilities. It has been proved that the survival of these enterprises is not only due to economic and monetary bias. It happens through the social, cultural and affective relations of social utility and by the capacity of the enterprises to develop associative dynamics, to establish cooperative ties based on trust, solidarity and sense of belonging.