Tese
Incubadoras tecnológicas de cooperativas populares: o processo de emancipação na perspectiva da economia solidária
Fecha
2021-12-16Autor
Duarte, Tatiane Lopes
Institución
Resumen
The current study has had the aim to understand the emancipation process of the consumers
groups and of rural producers linked to the TECSOL incubator and supported by the solidarity
economy. In this context, this study had as its theoretical framework: substantive economy
(Polanyi), solidarity economy, and emancipation. To reach this goal the following objectives
have been set: i) present the historic process of the University Network of Technology
Incubators for Community Solidarity Economy (ITCPs); ii) report the track record of the
TECSOL incubator, of the Rede Bem da Terra consumer network, and of the Rede Bem da
Terra producer network; iii) identify the prevailing categories in relation to the process of
emancipation at TECSOL, as well as of the consumer and the producer groups; iv) build the
analytical representation of the emancipation process of incubated groups in a solidarity
economy perspective. To reach this aim, research with an interpretivist theoretical contribution
of a qualitative nature was carried out. The research field was the Technology Incubator for
Solidarity Economy Enterprises (TECSOL), which is linked to the University Network of
Technology Incubators for Community Solidarity Economy. The data collection techniques
have been: theme-based oral history interviews, and non-participant observation. Besides
interviews, documents have been used. Interviews were carried with members of the TECSOL
Incubator, Rede Bem da Terra’s Consumer Group, and Rede Bem da Terra’s Germinar rural
Producer Group. Data have been systematized by categories that arose in the field, where
content analysis was carried out. Concerning the results, the categories emerging from the
interviews made with participants of TECSOL, of the Consumer Group, and of the Germinar
rural Producer Group have been interlinked, resulting in the following categories: technical
processes; critical conscience; decision-making process; collective conscience; education;
horizontal organizational process; political dimension; and conscious consumption. The
construction of the analytical representation was carried through the interlinking of a priori
(theory) and a posteriori (empirical) categories, resulting in the following categories: ecology
of productivities; collective conscience; critical conscience; social dimension; political
dimension; economic dimension; democratic decision-making; solidarity; education; social
management; ecology of temporalities; trans-scale ecology; horizontal organizational process;
awareness; dialogue; conscious consumption. From the analyses it was verified that the
categories are interconnected like leitmotivs, being linked to each other towards the
emancipation process of incubated groups in a solidarity economy perspective; namely, no
category overlaps the other and what likely happens is that one of them is more prominent
during the process. Furthermore, the process (the road to emancipation) is understood not to
be linear and still; it shall depend on the time and the context of each group. Finally, it should
be noted that this dissertation had no intention of being conclusive or of creating an
emancipation model like a roadmap and that nothing prevents new categories from arising and
being used for other groups and collectives which have as their core the criticism of the capitalist system.