Social Inclusion as Innovation.pdf

8th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development and 4th Eastern European ESD Conference: Building Resilient Economy, Zagreb, Croatia 241 SOCIAL INCLUSION AS INNOVATION Alessandra Morgado Ramiro de Lima Federal University of Rio de janeiro, Business Administration, Brazil alessandramrlima@hotmail. com Gabriella Morgado Ramiro de Lima Federal University of State of therio de Janeiro, Public Administration, Brazil gabi. ramiro@hotmail . com Angelo Maia Cister Federal University of Rio de janeiro, Business Administration, Brazil cister@facc. ufrj. br ABSTRACT The construction of this paper part of some reflections on the role and the power transformer and innovative that information associated with social and digital networks configuration feature and who are developing in setting this new society. Allied to these reflections the insight to the wire came to watch a video of the closing party of the 2010 Brazilian Championship, promoted by the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol-CBF, which contained the tribute paid to one of the great players of the recent past, the athlete Marcos Evangelista de Morais, consecrated under the name of Cafu and assigned captain of the Brazilian team penta-champion of the 2002 FIFA World cup in Japan and South korea. During the tribute, was passed an institutional video that showed that he regarded his Magnum opus Cafu Foundation to support children in need with the motto"there is no price in this world that can pay the smile on a child's face. Every child has the right to dream, and you can help make that dream come true.""On presentation of your project, Cafu defined a Social inclusion project. The aim of this study is to analyze the Social innovation in the perspective of social inclusion. This article is an exploratory study, conducted through a descriptive research that purport to discuss the proposed topic with the analytical support both texts quoted above. The first work of André and Abreu, when dealing with the role of social innovation in territorial development, develops a series of concepts and dimensions, in addition to bringing to our consideration, indicators for our study, involving the dimensions of social inclusion and the plasticity of the medium where it acts. The second Mulgan, a vision of The english subject based on the author's experience. Keywords: Brazil, Descritive Research, Exploratory Study, Social Inclusion, Social Innovation. 1. INTRODUCTION The construction of this paper stems from thoughts on the role and the transformative and innovative power that information , associated with the development of social and digital networks, has, and is developing in building this new society we have been living in. Along with such thoughts, the insight to this line of thinking manifested while watching a video of the closing ceremony of the Brazilian Football Championship in 2010, promoted by the Brazilian Football Confederation-CBF, which paid an homage to one of the greatest players of recent time, athlete Marcos Evangelista de Morais, known as Cafu and as an outstanding captain of the five-time-champion Brazilian football team-winner of the 2002 World cup held in Japan and South korea. During the homage, an institutional video was played showing what he considers to be his greatest achievement-the Cafu Foundation, aimed at supporting 8th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development and 4th Eastern European ESD Conference: Building Resilient Economy, Zagreb, Croatia 242 children in need, with the motto"No money in the world can afford the smile on a child's face. Every child has the right to dream, and you can help make this dream come true.""In his presentation, Cafu defined his project as a Social Inclusion Project. The aim of this study is to analyze Social Innovation within the perspective of social inclusion from the points of view of the two following papers:""Dimensões e Espaços da Inovação Social, written by the Portuguese professors from Lisbon University-Isabel André and Alexandre Abreu in 2006 and"The Process of Social Innovation",by Geoff Mulgan-Visiting professor at the London School of economics, also in 2006. This analysis has in its backdrop Project"Ação Cidadã"-Cafu Foundation, "with the aim of designating the features that define it as such. It should be noted that similar social inclusion projects were analyzed also: one of the Gol de Letra Foundation, recognized by UNESCO and toward Integral Education of children and youth, and the other, called"Pracatum",toward community development involving music. This is an exploratory study conducted by means of a descriptive research aimed at discussing the proposed subject using the two texts mentioned above for analytical support. The first paper, by André and Abreu, by addressing the role of social innovation in the development of the territory, develops a series of concepts and dimensions, and brings indicators for our study to our consideration, involving the dimensions of social inclusion and the plasticity of the medium in which it operates. The second paper by Mulgan, a British view of the subject based on the author's experience as a member of The british government, where he addresses topics that complement the first study, since it regards social innovation, discussing the development of this process, including issues associated with success and failure. 2. DEVELOPMENT 2. 1. Inclusion+Innovation=Social AWAKENING We begin with the concept of Social Inclusion. André and Abreu (2006, p. 124) state that"Social inclusion is a new and socially recognized response, which aims at and generates social change simultaneously connecting three attributes: the satisfaction of human needs unmet through the market; the promotion of social inclusion and training agents or actors subject, potentially or effectively, to processes of social exclusion and/or marginalization, triggering, that way, a more or less intense change of power relations.""The Cafu Foundation Project does not seek profit, therefore it is connected not to the market, and was installed in Jardim Irene, a poor community on the outskirts of the city of São paulo, Cafu's birthplace, who had humble beginnings and struggled to get ahead and become the reference he is today. This is his retribution to what he received from society in order to socially rise. It has public recognition, since it was inserted in an event of national and international impact-the national Football Championship award, now considered the largest in the world. In respect of the training to carry out change in agents or actors subject to exclusion processes the District where Vila Irene is located had a 242,368 inhabitant population, according to the 2002 census, and whose social vulnerability map includes situations of high deprivation for youth and adults. The Cafu Foundation has a Library, Playroom, Visual Arts Room and Workshop, Computer Rooms, Dental care Office, Cafeteria, Kitchen and Pantry, in addition to a Multipurpose Sports Court within its facilities. Its portfolio states that its mission is to conduct and maintain in place programs that encourage social inclusion in the community, guiding peers to pursue their rights, becoming agents of their own reality. 8th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development and 4th Eastern European ESD Conference: Building Resilient Economy, Zagreb, Croatia 243 The consolidation of these ideas is reinforced by the analysis of the other two examples mentioned in the introduction. The Gol de Letra Foundation is very similar to the Cafu Foundation. Also created by other two world-champion football players, internationally recognized for their successful careers, Leonardo in Italy and Raí in France, has dignity, fraternity, solidarity and perseverance as main values. As a nonprofit organization of public character, recognized by UNESCO, it develops integral education programs for over 1, 200 children and adolescents in the range of 7 to 24 years of age, with a pedagogical proposal associated with social assistance, while also promoting service to families and community strengthening. The other example differs from the previous ones and is quite unique. It regards the Pracatum Social action Association. Created in Candeal neighborhood in Salvador, Bahia, by singer Carlinhos Brown, who was born there, it seeks to consolidate music as a lifestyle alternative, creating employment opportunities for young people of that community, who are mostly black, training them for a music career. The Pracatum website reports that the process of partnership with public and private institutions with the involvement of the population provides social change in national underserved communities highlighting, for instance, the transformation of Candeal neighborhood, which gained national and international recognition as a model of community development to be followed. As well as Cafu, Carlinhos Brown retributes his social rise to society, driving his popularity, leadership and role model toward the community he was born in. His Association aims to develop work reasoned on the tripod of education and culture, social mobilization and urbanization that characterize his concern with issues of social responsibility and the integration of young people from his community in the labor market and the world. The view of Geoff Mulgan (2006 p. 146) on Social Innovation is that it"refers to innovative activities and services motivated to meet a social need, predominantly disseminated through an organization with social goals.""This definition characterizes the three cases presented, since they are clearly innovative services characteristic of nonprofit Non-governmental organizations. Regarding André and Abreu (2006, p. 125), when they ask"what is social innovation?","we can note their theory affirms it concerns"institutions whose conception focuses on employment, qualification, social security, and since it has different focuses, it has convergent intentions, "as is the case with Pracatum compared to the other two. All of them have"noncommercial nature, collective character and intention toward the transformation of social relations";"""they all seek a qualitative change establishing a break with traditional processes, showing the desire assumed by an avant-garde minority. The note of these authors is also pertinent when they point out the crucial role for the regional development of local networks of cooperation, as facilitators of balance between cooperation/competition, allowing the optimization of resources and continuous learning with the reduction of information exchange costs. In this sense, it is observed that these local networks are represented by favored communities that cooperate with the projects, which in turn, favor the development of the regions. 2. 2. Inclusion+Innovation=Social-UNDERSTANDING Why is produced social innovation? When comparing the latter with technological innovation it is observed that the technological one is leveraged by the market and the social one by the need to overcome adversity. The structural changes that enable local development involve individual and collective training in order to find solutions to the problem. By analyzing the three examples presented, we can see that they can be frameworked both in the issue of territoriality, in the local meaning of the matter, as well as we can assume that 8th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development and 4th Eastern European ESD Conference: Building Resilient Economy, Zagreb, Croatia 244 each of these NGOS, participating in the Service Society that pervades our time, act with potentially innovative proposals, even considering the risks of alienation and manipulation. When questioning how social innovation is produced, one can deduce relational capital as a key resource. All those responsible have that quality, which facilitates their march toward established goals. The ways such capital presents itself, the existing ties within the community and the relations with the outside world and with other communities, where identical profligacy is also found. The question of the location chosen for the projects and the bonds of trust and interpersonal cooperation as important centrifugal forces facts equally featured in the examples. In the continuation of this dimensioning, the quest to identify those who produce, it is concluded that being a product of civil society, social innovation lies within the third sector. We have stated already that the foundations analyzed in this paper are NGOS, therefore, they lie within the vision presented by Mulgan and André and Abreu. And regarding such thought, we found that most of the capital used for its operations derives from civil society. The last dimension analyzed concerns the medium where the innovation is produced. André and Abreu (2006 p. 130-131) state that"the medium can be characterized a place by a community or territory, but it can also be a space-network, constituted by us or by flows, material or immaterial. In the studied cases, it more strongly emphasizes the community as a medium where innovation occurs, but depending on the relational capital of its entrepreneurs, the space-network is noted also, either by using the internet, either by us, that this relationship enables production, especially in the media, and are both material, and immaterial. For Mulgan (2006, p. 148), the definition of those responsible for social innovation"is made by a small number of heroic individuals who remake the world convincing and persuading the timid and lazy majority, "whereas, our innovators fit this description. It further emphasizes that"individuals are carriers of ideas and not their authors";"""the movements resulting from these ideas grow in light of discontent"."It may be noted that, particularly, the experiences abroad were the breeding ground for the implementation of these ideas, whose comparison with experiences in developed communities resulted in the discontent that gave rise to their entrepreneurial activities. 3. CONSLUSION The three models presented are relatively new and will depend on positive factors to reach their goals, become independent from their entrepreneurs and take on a life of their own. The large parameter is formed by vectors combining courage and determination, detachment from profit with a social vision toward a fraternal attitude with those excluded, the perception of a relational capital to be employed not for its own benefit, stripped of vanities, used with intelligence and insight. Those responsible for this new idea are mostly people who emerged from the lower classes of society and reached a high level on their own merits. They are laying the foundations for a new Social welfare State, based on a service economy and sustained by civil society, which is being generated territorially in the small community, but will expand across networks toward the large global community. It is a new idea that needs to be studied further, better discussed, better understood. It is part of the New Age which is talked widely about and expected. The seeds of universal brotherhood lie in its origins, a utopia today, but a hope for tomorrow. 8th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development and 4th Eastern European ESD Conference: Building Resilient Economy, Zagreb, Croatia 245 LITERATURE 1. André I, Abreu A. Dimensões e espaços da inovação social. Finisterra: Revista portuguesa de geografia, 2006,41 (81): 121-141.2. Associação Pracatum. Retrieved 20.06.2013 from http://www. pracatum. org. br/./3. Fundação Cafu. Retrieved 10.06.2013 from http://fundacaocafu. org. br/novo/index. php? n=1. 4. Fundação Gol de Letra. Retrieved 19.06.2013 from http://www. goldeletra. org. br. 5. Michel MH. Metodologia e pesquisa científica em ciências sociais. 2. ed. São paulo: Atlas, 2009.6. Mulgan G. The process of social innovation. Innovations. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. 2006, Spring, 1 (2): 145-162.*****Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission


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