Cidadania e desenvolvimento social: contradições e limites na atuação do Instituto de Cidadania Empresarial do Maranhão (ICE – MA)

Abstract

This work investigated how notions of citizenship and social development in the universe of the so-called “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) based on the conceptions and practices of the Maranhão Business Citizenship Institute (ICE-MA). (ICE-MA). As data from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) point out, there is currently an expressive volume of organizations that make up the so-called “third sector” and that propose to act in what is commonly called “Social field”. An expression of this phenomenon is the ICE-MA, an entity founded in 2001 and still present in the context of Maranhão. In view of this, three main questions motivate this research: 1) What factors explain the range of civil society organizations, such as ICE-MA, which in recent decades have been placing themselves as actors in the design and execution of social projects/interventions in the Brazil? 2) What are the concepts of citizenship and social development carried by ICE-MA? 3) By acting in the so-called “social field”, do ICE-MA's practices contribute to building a framework of expanded citizenship and effective social development? From addressing these issues, it will be possible to understand the meanings that the notions of citizenship and social development assume in the CSR discourse through the actions of ICE-MA. The investigation brings as a theoretical-methodological perspective dialectical materialism, relevant for understanding history as a conflictive process, for articulating economics, politics and culture in explaining reality and for allowing the association of particular phenomena to the social totality. As specific procedures, the work was constituted from a case study that uses a theoretical and documentary framework for the analysis of the research object. It also uses field observations and interviews. It was possible to conclude that the decade of 1990, period of introduction of neoliberal politics in Brazil, presents itself as a mark of entry of civil society organizations in the field of social action, from the retreat of the State in this sphere of action. Furthermore, that the ICE-MA, as it moves away from the questioning of the structural causes of economic, political and social inequalities - fundamentally related to class exploitation and the logic of capital accumulation -, contributes more to the management-maintenance of the than for structurally overcoming the precarious social situation in which it operates.