This issue brings you articles covering topics such as ethics, growth and sustainable development. There are interesting studies on the condition of women and their social inclusion through professional qualification, as well as the construction of territories and public spaces that preserve social diversity and are inclusive to citizens. You will also find articles dealing with philosophy applied to organizational studies and social movements that seek social justice - including in the agribusiness sector.
Most of the articles have one concern in common: the struggle for social justice in Brazil, which is also a great concern for us as editors of Cadernos EBAPE.BR.
While working on this edition, we recalled Agenda 21, a document launched at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, 03-14 of June 1992. The event - known as the “Earth Summit” - was the definitive landmark for the inclusion of the concept of sustainable development in government policies and gathered 175 countries and 102 heads of state and governments. The Earth Summit reinforced the relevance of sustainable development as a topic for scientific research in several fields, including Administration. The UNCED, through Agenda 21 - with its 40 chapters and 800 pages - set out fundamental definitions and important goals that, after almost 25 years, deserve to be reviewed in terms of what has actually been implemented and the challenges for the future. This issue of Cadernos EBAPE.BR gathers studies connected to this reflection on Agenda 21, portraying the theme of the relationship between environment and economy and others such as climate, energy, water, technology, international trade, poverty and population.
Agenda 21 is divided into four sections:
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social and economic dimensions - international policies directed toward combating poverty and social inequalities, making sustainable development possible;
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conservation and management of resources for development - protecting the environment for future generations;
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strengthening the role of major groups - with attention to nonprofit organizations;
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means of implementation - in order to guarantee financial and legal conditions, so that sustainable development programs can actually be implemented.
After 25 years of the Earth Summit, much remains to be done. Scientific studies on social responsibility and sustainable development are fundamental, as well as themes such as social inclusion, diversity, social justice, sustainable innovation, fight against poverty and human rights - all of them relevant in the field of Administration. Specifically in this field, critical studies are essential to analyze the contradictions present in public and business policies, comparing what is announced and what is actually achieved.
Several institutes and nonprofits were created in Brazil to promote research and publish their observations on these topics.
It is worthwhile mentioning here some of the organizations that have contributed to the themes brought by this issue of Cadernos EBAPE.BR. The Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE), was created in 1981 (among its founders is the sociologist and activist Herbert de Souza, ‘Betinho’). It is a non-profit, nonreligious, nonpartisan organization, with the mission of deepening democracy, according to principles of equality, freedom, citizen participation, diversity and solidarity. IBASE was one of the first organizations to widely disseminate the importance of these issues within Brazilian society.
Business people have also had important participation in disseminating these themes in Brazil, by maintaining and engaging in initiatives such as the Ethos Institute of Business and Social Responsibility, an organization that aims to contribute to the awareness of companies within the principles of social responsibility.
Finally, in the field of public administration, the creation of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights, the Ministry of Women, Racial Equality, Youth, and Human Rights aims to ensure respect for religious diversity and the rights of minorities.
Thus, regardless of any political connection, whether on the initiative of researchers and citizens, government agencies, or business people, the themes related to social justice are gaining increasing importance in Brazilian society.
Scientific journals, consistent with their commitment to ensure publications and visibility to relevant research in areas such as the ones mentioned here, should promote democratic debate and disseminate the results obtained in serious and critical studies.
It is frequent the criticism that scholars often write and are read only within academia. In order to address this issue and include non-researchers and non-scholars in the debates, several events in the field of public and business administration present the so called “practice report”, in which professionals with relevant experience in a given sector present their professional work, debate it and publish. This edition of Cadernos EBAPE.BR is consistent with this trend and brings up some practice reports, always aware of promoting that the subject of academic research is socially relevant.
We invite you to appreciate the articles of this issue, reflecting on the themes that represent our hope for social justice and a better society. We wish you a pleasant read,
Isabella Freitas Gouveia de Vasconcelos
Helio Artur Reis Irigaray
Editors
Articles
The challenges of embodiment in academic research, Maria Tereza Flores-Pereira, Eduardo Davel and Dóris Dornelles de Almeida, explores, discusses and maps the challenges of corporality in research methodology, using qualitative research. The authors observe in their research on corporality that ethnography is the methodological approach preferred by those who research the subject.
The scientific field of administration: an analysis from the circle of theoretical matrices of Elinaldo Leal Santos Presents an examination of the epistemological bases of knowledge in the field of business administration. The author, using the concept of ‘circle of epistemic matrices’, conceived by Paes de Paula (2015), develops his analysis based on three matrices of knowledge (Orthodox Studies, Organizational Studies and Critical Studies), describing their history and highlighting the need for repositioning and re-signification of the scientific object in Business Administration.
Outsourcing as knowledge Management Strategy the author Pedro Jácome de Moura Jr. proposes, through the theoretical approach of the resource-based firm, a conceptual research model in which it explores and describes to what extent managers would choose for the implementation and conduction of knowledge management in their organization through outsourcing, knowing the difficulties of this activity using only their own resources. This article draws on the literature on knowledge management and outsourcing, highlighting points of intersection between these themes. In addition, the article proposes a model for practical application in companies that want to improve their knowledge management practices.
Professional ethics and accounting students: analysis of the intervening variables, Alexandre André Feil, Liciane Diehl and Rogério José Schuck aims to evaluate and understand accountancy students’ perceptions of professional ethics, considering the intervening variables related to individual factors. The results indicate that the characteristics of the individuals (which differ in relation to the existence of more ethical and significant attitudes) are: they are female students, up to 25 years of age, non-religious, who work in the financial/accounting area, with academic maturity and education on ethic. Education on ethics has been crucial in inspiring ethical behavior among accounting students.
Niklas Luhmann neosystemic theory and the notion of communicative autopoiesis in organizational studies, Josep Pont Vidal presents the theory of Niklas Luhmann and discusses his concepts in relation to other authors of poststructuralist social philosophy, particularly analyzing aspects related to communication and language. The author also conceptualizes and discusses the idea of reflexive autopoiesis in Luhmann’s works, an approach that is not discussed in organizational theory within the area of Administration.
Individual and contextual predictors of entrepreneurial intention among undergraduates: a literature review the authors Aleciane da Silva Moreira Ferreira, Elisabeth Loiola and Sônia Maria Guedes Gondim identifies in empirical studies the main individual and contextual predictors of entrepreneurial intent among university students. The authors used the theory of planned behavior, taking into account the attitude of each student to develop their own business. They carried out research on the main national and international journals of the areas of entrepreneurship, psychology, organizations and administration and on SciELO database, from 2004 to 2015. Based on the results, they propose a research agenda in the area of entrepreneurship.
Drawing resistance: counter-hegemony and aesthetic expressions of the agro-ecological movement in Brazil, Flávia Neves and Yuna Reis discusses several social movements, especially the agroecological movement, which has been constituted as a means of resistance to the hegemony of agribusiness in Brazil. The study establishes an unconventional - in this field - theoretical-empirical “bridge” between studies in aesthetics and the Neo-Gramscian discourse approach developed by Laclau and Mouffe. Thus, in the light of the concepts of aesthetics and the Neo-Gramscian discourse analysis on hegemony and antagonism, this article studies how aesthetic expressions influence the construction of counter-hegemony in the Brazilian agroecological movement.
The ideology of economic growth and the business discourse of sustainable development, Luiz Gustavo Alves de Lara and Samir Adamoglu de Oliveira investigates how the ideology of economic growth deals with the contradictions of the discourse of sustainable development. The authors critically analyzed news media reports linking state-owned and mixed-economy electric power generation companies listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange’s Corporate Sustainability Index, as well as news media reports discussing sustainable development and the Triple Bottom Line model. The article carried out an analysis of the ideologies in place and their contradictions and social implications.
Creative Economy and Used Territories: a debate based on the contributions of Milton Santos, Lisiane Closs and Sidinei Rocha de Oliveira explores the national and international literature on creative spaces, highlighting the theoretical contributions of Milton Santos on territories and his contributions to the theme. The study highlights the potential of the discussions held to assist in the planning of public policies aimed at the development of creative territories that integrate social inclusion, sustainability, innovation and cultural diversity.
The political discourse on the professional qualification of disadvantaged women: emancipation or hegemony?, the authors Luiz Gustavo Alves de Lara, Elisabete Corcetti and Maria das Dores Saraiva de Loreto analyzes the logic, assumptions and beliefs present in the context of the Thousand Women Program, verifying its contribution to the social construction of the professional roles assigned to disadvantaged women. The results showed that the political discourse and the elements of the policy design of the Thousand Women Program, based on social constructions and institutional cultures, promote qualifications in traditionally female areas with limited emancipation of women. The article concludes that there is a contradiction between the program’s discourse and its actual practice, because it reiterates the logic that maintains hegemony and gender polarization.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
June 2017
