Incubadoras tecnológicas de cooperativas populares: o processo de emancipação na perspectiva da economia solidária

Abstract

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.