Jesus, Grayceane Bomfim Santos de; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3239-5425; https://lattes.cnpq.br/3876318815902355
Resumo:
Social innovation has been gaining prominence in academic, managerial, and political
discussions due to its potential to generate positive social impact and help solve complex
societal problems. Although the term has gained relevance in recent years, there is still room
for new contributions, so Social innovation has been considered an innovative method that
produces goods and services in a participatory way, in order to reduce social inequalities.
Because it encompasses complex problems, it has commonly been developed in interaction
with various social actors (individuals, organizations, government, universities, among
others), organized under different legal types (cooperatives, social organizations, non-profit
organizations, private companies, social enterprises, hybrid organizations, among others).
These interactions with various actors, within the SI environment, have been studied in the
literature as intersectoral partnerships, considered actions, agreements, or networks of
collaboration and support between actors from different segments (government, private sector,
and third sector). However, despite the literature reporting that social innovation is the result
of partnerships between various segments, its internal dynamics and interactions still require
further study. This descriptive and exploratory thesis, employing a qualitative analysis
approach, discusses how the characteristics, motivations, values, and actions that constitute
intersectoral partnerships are articulated in the production of social innovation within the
experiences of the Lagoa Mundaú Social Innovation Ecosystem and the Sergipe Women's
Solidarity Network. To this end, two social innovation initiatives established in Northeast
Brazil (Alagoas and Sergipe) were selected for analysis of the intersectoral partnerships
involved. Data collection instruments included documents and semi-structured interviews
with managers, partners of the initiatives, and their respective members/beneficiaries. Data
processing was carried out through content analysis. This sought elements in the sources of
evidence that allowed verification of whether the presented records and discourses are in
accordance with the theoretical postulates. The study found that the production of democratic
social innovation occurs through the articulation of converging motivations, complementary
values and characteristics, and structured actions of intersectoral partners. From this
perspective, it is understood that the articulation of these elements does not occur
independently, but rather they influence and guide each other, allowing divergences to be
transformed into convergences, which, in turn, favors the production of social innovation and
the construction of more effective responses to existing demands. It was also possible to infer
new constitutive elements of partnerships between various sectors within the scope of social
innovation, enabling the construction of future models to be applied within the scope of
democratic social innovation. The research advances theoretically by positioning itself within
the radical or democratic aspect of social innovation, a still incipient field that diverges from
the instrumental/entrepreneurial aspect, predominant in Brazilian literature, and presents
empirical relevance by investigating the relationship between intersectoral partnerships and
democratic social innovation in initiatives of a local context and in an emerging country
(Global South), filling a gap in studies that are mostly concentrated in the Global North.