Os caminhos e rumos do programa de economia solidária em desenvolvimento no Município de Niterói

Abstract

This research arises from the belief that the solidarity economy has been established as another possible economy to establish a new relational dynamic in society, helping to reflect on alternative ways of reproducing life and educating for conscious consumption. In the municipality of Niterói, its Solidarity Economy Forum has been in operation since 2009 and, through the Federal Agreement (2016) between the Ministry of Labor/SENAES and the Municipal Government, has sought to co-manage the Public Reference Center in Solidarity Economy and promote public policies of solidarity economy, facing the great challenge of understanding and maintaining its self-management principles, in order to enable social, economic and political integration of entrepreneurs and popular groups in promoting a more sustainable and solidarity-based development. One of the issues raised by the dissertation was to reflect on the management models, revising this idea of co-management proposed in this partnership, thinking about the degree of autonomy of the Forum to guide the actions of the Center and other public policies of solidarity economy in the municipality. The idea is to systematize the experience and reflect on the praxis of the solidarity economy movement in the municipality of Niterói, based on the trajectory of the Forum, with all its potential, thinking about its strengths and opportunities for action. This should not overlook its internal contradictions and its partnership with public management, in an attempt to put into practice the proposal for co-management of the Center, with the potential to be a space of resistance to the hegemonic development model. This strategy constitutes a seed to germinate in the medium term. It can become essential in the face of the growing exclusionary hegemonic project, through the involvement of popular classes and segments of the solidarity economy in discussions about the promotion of job and income generation. It would be important to rethink work and income based on another matrix, shifting attention from large corporations, as well as the benefits granted to them. Local initiatives – which emerge from collectives and popular organizations that aim to address the demands of their territories – should receive more support. Despite the impasses and uncertainties, another economy happens. The idea is to measure its impacts and projections, making visible the actions of determined people who dare to tread alternative paths of inclusion and solidarity.