Comments: Pedro Hespanha (FEUC/CES)


About

The political institutionality of solidarity economy in Brazil has gained national and international relevance over the years, since Brazil was a pioneer in consolidating public policies on the subject and guaranteeing rights for associated workers.  Thus, State and society relations based on the political action of the solidarity economy in Brazil have long been on Aline Mendonça's research agenda.  The changes that have occurred in the Brazilian State and in society since the Political Pact began with the first term of Lula's government in 2003, passing through a significant period of governments led by the Workers' Party and its coalitions, considered to be more progressive in nature, and ending with the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and the interim government of Michel Temer (2016) were expressed in the book entitled “Sob o Fio da Navalha: Relações Estado e sociedade a partir da ação política da Economia Solidária no Brasil” [Under the Razor's Edge: State-society relations based on the political action of the Solidarity Economy in Brazil].

In the current context, with the election of President Lula and the return of the Solidarity Economy to the public policy agenda, political institutionality moves towards a new scenario, more transversal than before, and demands new challenges - above all in the relations between State and society. It is these challenges, which unfold both in the new public management and in the constant vigilance of the social movement towards the fulfillment of its campaign goals, which are the subject of the reflections of the conference proposed here.

This conference takes place within the framework of the events commemorating 15 years of the ECOSOL-CES

Bio note

Aline Mendonça has a degree in Social Work (UCPEL -2000), Master in Applied Social Sciences (UNISINOS 2004) and PhD in the concentration area of Labour and Social Policy (UERJ 2010). During the European university year 2008, she held a doctoral internship with the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra (CES - UC) where she later worked (2012 - 2015) within the ALICE Project - strange mirrors and unsuspected lessons coordinated by Boaventura de Sousa Santos.

She is an associate researcher of the CES Solidarity Economy Study Group (ECOSOL CES), a member of the UNISINOS Solidarity Economy Research Group (ECOSOL UNISINOS) and a researcher of the Public Policies Laboratory (LPP/UERJ). She has experience in the areas of Sociology and Social Service, working mainly on State and Society, Social Movements and Solidarity Economy.