Ocas populares: uma interpretação propositiva sobre a gestão de organizações culturais populares

Abstract

This research focused on a specific set of organizational initiatives called, within this work, popular cultural organizations. The actors correspond to those groups and entities that develop cultural activities on a specific territory, community, and non-profitable way. The defined problem for this research process initiates on a theoretical and empirical observation: the invisibility of management in popular cultural organizations. These organizations are recurrently seen as little credible or rudimentary in terms of management since they operate from a divergent rationality on the secular paradigm of business management. From a practical point of view, this has led to impose a business vision upon them, as a model to be followed; the adoption of management metrics, which assess the practices of these organizations from an idea of efficiency and efficacy; the use of inadequate instruments to mediate the relationship between them and the State; the absence of management tools which are consistent with the rationality of these organizations, among other consequences related to the misunderstanding and invisibility of management in this type of organization. Therefore, this research had as general objective to produce applied knowledge related to the knowledge and management practices in popular cultural organizations. As the results of the methodological path that involved field research and development of products, the study generated a way of interpreting “management” in these organizations, understanding them through a metaphor: cultural organizations are huts in their territories, tracing a relationship with traditional indigenous dwellings. Besides this result of a more analytical nature, two technological products were created: the first of them was an e-book with a set of cases for teaching in management, pedagogical purpose material which can be used in teaching-learning processes, in or out of the university. Such material was built from practices, reports and situations of ten cultural organizations from the five regions of Brazil that work with different artistic-cultural expressions in their territories; the second product was a management tool, in toy format, aimed at mediation of dialogue and internal reflection in popular cultural organizations. The toy, called Carimboca, uses dimensions and question generation to create a playful moment of collective self-assessment among the members of the organization.