Lena Lavinas

Emprego Feminino: O que Há de Novo e o que se Repete

Based on Brazilian census data for 1985-95 (PNAD), the article offers evidence concerning recent changes in female employment. In doing so, it calls into question the current notion that when women become more economically active, male joblessness rates rise over the long run. If it is true that jobs are scarce at this moment of productive restructuring and that the market now favors women over men, it is also true that this has transpired without substantially shifting job standards that display sharp gender segregation. Nevertheless, there are promising signs that labor market inequalities between men and women are decreasing in terms of remuneration, particularly beyond the bounds of the wage relation. These changes, however, would appear to benefit a relatively limited group of women, that is, those with college degrees. These women are the only ones who wield any effective bargaining power on the labor market, although relative. Inequalities between women are thus increasing while differences between the genders have not yet been overcome

Gasto social no Brasil: programas de transferência de renda versus investimento social

This paper compares the dynamics of social spending in Brazil, with lower outlays on basic services and more direct monetary transfers through means-test programs, highlighting the fact that as Brazils social safety net concentrates on cash transfer programs without simultaneously increasing per capita outlays on education, basic sanitation and housing, it is not resolving the issue of inequality. This paper works with secondary data from the National Household Sampling Survey, together with Federal, State and Municipal budgets.

How Social Developmentalism Reframed Social Policy in Brazil

ABSTRACT This paper proposes to critically situate how social developmentalism reshaped social policy in Brazil in the 2000s, to stimulate access to credit and to financial markets, thereby fostering a transition towards a mass-consumption society. This structural move is radically distinct from the very framework which inspired the tenets of early Latin American structuralist thought in the post-war period. Whereas seminal structuralism neglected the role of social policy, Brazilian social developmentalism reframed it to broaden access to consumer credit and other financial services, such as insurances. In this new financialised framework, social policy has been used to underwrite a financial inclusion model that overturned classic tenets of social policy. As a result, not only household debt has abruptly escalated, but also social insurance and welfare benefits have been partially absorbed as financial rents, deepening economic insecurity and social vulnerability.

SOCIAL POLICY AND STRUCTURAL HETEROGENEITY IN LATIN AMERICA: THE TURNING POINT OF THE 21ST CENTURY

This article addresses the complementarity between social policy and pro-growth macroeconomic policies, which turned redistribution into a crucial issue to consolidate market societies through the expansion of demand. It focuses on the recent economic history of Latin America, marked by the emergence of new conceptual paradigms so as to grasp the singularities of the region´s development. Three questions are then raised: i) which social inclusion model distinguishes the new period of economic growth led by the so called social-developmentalist strategies? ii) what role is assigned to the social protection system and to social policies in general in this context? iii) which mechanisms enabled the transition towards a mass-consumption society? Brazil will serve as a case study.

Desafios do modelo brasileiro de inclusão digital pela escola

ABSTRACT This article discusses the directions taken by the public policy of scholastic digital inclusion, based on the results of an investigation into the impact of and process employed by Project UCA-Total (One Computer Per Student), implemented in five municipalities over the period 2010-2011. Evaluation of the program’s impact – conducted longitudinally – was carried out via a home survey, rolled out in two waves. The investigation of the program’s process used a number of qualitative methodologies, such as focus groups, interviews, and trips to the field. This paper focuses on the results derived from the panels, revealing the project to be underperforming, with operating standards that vary considerably from site to site. The program’s enormous potential has not yet been fully taken advantage of. BRAZIL’S ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD PROGRAM: IMPACT EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENT LENA LAVINASALINNE VEIGATRANSLATED BY Flora Thomson-DeVeaux A preliminary version of this article was presented at the 36Este artigo discute os rumos da politica publica de inclusao digital nas escolas com base nos resultados da pesquisa de avaliacao de impacto e de processo do Projeto UCA-Total (Um Computador por Aluno) realizada em cinco municipios onde foi implementado no decorrer de 2010 e 2011. A avaliacao de impacto, de carater longitudinal, foi feita atraves de um survey domiciliar aplicado em duas ondas. A pesquisa de processo associou diversas metodologias qualitativas, como grupos focais, entrevistas e visitas a campo. Limita-se aqui aos resultados derivados da pesquisa de painel, que revelam o baixo nivel de aproveitamento do Projeto e um padrao de funcionamento bastante divergente em razao de vantagens e debilidades locais. Seu enorme potencial nao foi ate hoje completamente aproveitado.

Brazil's one laptop per child program: impact evaluation and implementation assessment

ABSTRACT This article discusses the directions taken by the public policy of scholastic digital inclusion, based on the results of an investigation into the impact of and process employed by Project UCA-Total (One Computer Per Student), implemented in five municipalities over the period 2010-2011. Evaluation of the program’s impact – conducted longitudinally – was carried out via a home survey, rolled out in two waves. The investigation of the program’s process used a number of qualitative methodologies, such as focus groups, interviews, and trips to the field. This paper focuses on the results derived from the panels, revealing the project to be underperforming, with operating standards that vary considerably from site to site. The program’s enormous potential has not yet been fully taken advantage of. BRAZIL’S ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD PROGRAM: IMPACT EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENT LENA LAVINASALINNE VEIGATRANSLATED BY Flora Thomson-DeVeaux A preliminary version of this article was presented at the 36Este artigo discute os rumos da politica publica de inclusao digital nas escolas com base nos resultados da pesquisa de avaliacao de impacto e de processo do Projeto UCA-Total (Um Computador por Aluno) realizada em cinco municipios onde foi implementado no decorrer de 2010 e 2011. A avaliacao de impacto, de carater longitudinal, foi feita atraves de um survey domiciliar aplicado em duas ondas. A pesquisa de processo associou diversas metodologias qualitativas, como grupos focais, entrevistas e visitas a campo. Limita-se aqui aos resultados derivados da pesquisa de painel, que revelam o baixo nivel de aproveitamento do Projeto e um padrao de funcionamento bastante divergente em razao de vantagens e debilidades locais. Seu enorme potencial nao foi ate hoje completamente aproveitado.

Transformações dos sistemas de saúde na era da financeirização. Lições da França e do Brasil

Resumo Desde a segunda metade do seculo XX, reformas tornaram-se continuas no âmbito dos sistemas de protecao social, ampliando ou, com mais frequencia, restringindo o escopo e a escala da provisao publica. Neste artigo, cotejamos a evolucao recente dos sistemas de saude na Franca e no Brasil, de modo a apreender os mecanismos atraves dos quais a “financeirizacao” vem reformatando a provisao publica. Essa abordagem comparada tem por finalidade explicitar dinâmicas diferenciadas de penetracao do capital financeiro em sistemas de saude que se pautaram por principios universalistas. Apos caracterizar brevemente ambos os sistemas de saude, destacando o alcance da provisao privada seja complementar, seja suplementar, o artigo mostra como o setor financeiro vem ampliando sua participacao na oferta de servicos de saude. Em seguida, analisa como se da o processo de internacionalizacao/centralizacao do setor, e, finalmente, sintetiza o papel regulatorio do Estado no fortalecimento da provisao privada. Os resultados indicam que, a despeito de trajetorias institucionais radicalmente opostas, a marcha da financeirizacao avanca no setor de saude.

Social Developmentalism as a Growth Model in Times of Financialization

This chapter systematizes the data on the recent evolution of the Brazilian economy from the turn of the century through 2015—the point at which its trajectory was interrupted by a variety of crises, toppling a growth strategy that was proving successful. The crucial, and paradoxical, role reserved for consumer credit in this strategy is addressed. Moreover, it contextualizes the way that finance-dominated capitalism is reshaping market societies and social protection schemes and how it hampers redistribution through the privatization of public provision and growing debt.

Connections Between the Social Protection System, Taxation, and Financialization

This chapter scrutinizes the process of the subjection of social policy to the logic of financialization as led by the social-developmentalist State, providing an empirical characterization of how financialization impacts social policy and the threat it poses to the social protection system of the 1988 Constitution. The various dynamics of the financialization process are compared, across key sectors of social policy such as healthcare, pensions, and higher education.

Financial Inclusion in the New Covenant for Growth

This chapter examines how financial inclusion served as a powerful strategy to boost the potential consumption of the “new middle classes,” nurturing the transition toward a mass consumption society in Brazil. The move to mass consumption, in the absence of an underlying structural shift (since social heterogeneity was not overcome), facilitated the turn to a modern consumer market society by way of inclusion of those once on the margins. Special attention is given to the prominent role played by consumer credit in collateralizing social schemes under the rule of the Workers’ Party.