Economia solidária no Tocantins: desenvolvimento versus vulnerabilidade

Abstract

Unemployment is one of the main social issues currently, challenging the world of work, especially in Brazil, to include effectively people who live from work. The neoliberal hegemonic conception has brought many aspects of precariousness in wage labor relations, besides nearly ending the very existence of jobs for people. Despite that, the measurements and possibilities of the world of work go beyond wage labor. There is another range of possibilities and economic activities, which involve other logic of production and consumption. Thereby, in the 90’s, emerges solidarity economy, conducted by Solidarity economic enterprises (SEE), later recognized as public politics, from 2003 on. We analyzed a case study in a traditional quilombola community of the state of Tocantins, where we tried implementing a broad set of structuring variables for the effective viability of associated and selfmanaging work (solidary economy). Their two data bases made available by National Secretariat for Solidarity Economy – NSSE, part of Labor and Employment Ministry.We wondered if the solidarity economy would have enough content and political support for its enterprises to move from the inherent vulnerability of its initial stage to a perspective of consolidating a stage of authentic structuring development of new social work relationships: Is the associated work self-managing? As aim, the constitution process of solidarity economy will be analyzed, starting from the route and development of solidarity economic enterprises in Tocantins, searching for its vulnerabilities and potentials. How the constitution process of solidarity economy was built, from the insertion of associated work in a capitalist market context, as well as its potentials and vulnerabilities; How public politics developed and behaved facing the constitution of this solidary economy. The results showed there is potential in solidary economy to be an economic alternative that allows collective and horizontally associated work ventures to be sustainable, the emancipatory perspective of combining the dimensions of social emancipation, inclusion, with ideas of social justice. Yet, solidary economy does not obtain enough political support from the Country and its public politics, to move from a state of vulnerability to a standard of development or an endogenous development strategy, which the protagonists are really those people who need it most.