The organic management of conflicts developed in enterprises formed by women in the solidarity economy: a post-colonialist analysis of a feminist practice of self-management

Abstract

This research arises from Martin’s (1993) studies of women’s management practices.However, it is articulated from the place of self-management within the scope of the Solidarity and Feminist Economy Network (SFEN). Therefore, a new construct to identify some practices that are performed in the Solidarity Economy (SE) was developed:feminist practices of self-management (Bauhardt, 2014; Faria, 2017; Vieta, 2015). The objective is to analyze one of the practices observed in the field: the organic management of conflicts. The main theoretical contributions used to mediate the discussion depart from Martin’s approach (1993), from the perspective of substantive rationality in Ramos (1989), from studies on conflicts in organizations in Guerardi (2009) and Putnam (2010), as well as the postcolonialistview that adheres to the context of women in higher education (Lugones, 2008; Mohanty, 2006). Data collection is based on semi-structured interviews with women from the SFEN and direct and indirect observation in the field between 2018 and 2021. The perspective adopted for data analysis is an oral history based on critical discourse analysis (Meihy, 2002; Wodak, 2004). The results point to the following findings: non-concealment of conflict in self-management processes, organically managed conflict based on intense communication, and conflict management as a learning process that prioritizes experiences and differences. For women, conflict is not a demerit. On the contrary, it is managed in such a way as to strengthen reciprocal ties between members of solidarity enterprises.

Keywords: Solidary economy; Networks of cooperation; Self-management; Feminist practices of self-management; Conflict management