Peter Spink

O lugar do lugar na análise organizacional

In Brazil, the process of building an effective local level of governance has been taking place for a long time. More recently, stimulated by the 1988 constitution, terms such as participative budgeting, priority inversions and democratic governance are increasingly being used in technical debates and statements by political leaders. They reflect the viability of a different administrative practice, focussed on individual and collective rights. Local, however, is not necessarily synonymous with municipal. In a series of meetings that took place on the topic of povertry reduction, the term that seemed to better describe what was happening was place, a horizon of links, of meaning production and conflicts that could be submunicipal, municipal or intermunicipal in form. For organizational theory, the focus on place as a space for action throw light on a series of questions not normally focussed and may allow a different approach to the study of the organization as a social phenomenon.

The rights approach to local public management: experiences from Brazil

The Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Sao Paulo, Public Management and Citizenship Program was set up in 1996 with Ford Foundation support to identify and disseminate Brazilian subnational government initiatives in service provision that have a direct effect on citizenship. Already, the program has 2,500 different experiences in its data bank, the results of four annual cycles. The article draws some initial conclusions about the possibilities of a rights-based approach to public management and about the engagement of other agencies and civil society organizations.

A perda, redescoberta e transformação de uma tradição de trabalho: a teoria sociotécnica nos dias de hoje

The socio-technical theory of work organization was developed in the 1950’s as a result of a series of studies in the british coal industry. In it, work organization was considered to be a product of two groups of factors, social and technical, which could be combined in various ways, each with its own psychological, social and economic implications. Key to the development of the theory were the specific studies carried out in the Chopwell mine in the north of England where new methods of collective organization had been introduced by the miners after negotiation with local management. The objective of this paper is to re-examine these earlier studies and experiences in the light of current concerns in the area of work and employment generation and local social and economic development.

¿Qué pasó con el trabajo? : de la centralidad de los zapatos, barcos y lacre a los problemas planteados por los cerdos volando

Resumen During their entire disciplinary lives, psychology and social psychology have treated work as a naturalized fact and an inevitable part of human existence. Whilst themes such as working conditions, decent work, work and subjectivity, work and vocation, guidance and careers may be discussed in a critical manner, the overall centrality of the work discourse is left untouched. In this essay it is argued that the multiple forms, possibilities, contradictions and restrictions present in contemporary economic relations are pointing to the weakening, or even fragmentation, of the articulating role of work and in third world countries like Brazil, where the western model of salaried wage employment was never extensive to more than a part of the population, this process becomes doubly complicated. In these circumstances it is important to seek a different starting point for the social psychological discussion of economic activity, which can give greater visibility to the multiple ways in which people “get by” in order to keep their homes together, sustain households and develop family collectives. Durante toda su vida disciplinaria, la psicología y la psicología social han tratado el trabajo como un hecho naturalizado y una parte inevitable de la existencia humana. Mientras que temas como las condiciones de trabajo, trabajo digno, trabajo y la subjetividad, trabajo y vocación, orientación vocacional pueden ser discutidos de una manera crítica, la centralidad general del discurso del trabajo ha permanecido intacta. En este ensayo se argumenta que las múltiples formas, posibilidades, contradicciones y restricciones presentes en las relaciones económicas actuales apuntan al debilitamiento, o incluso fragmentación, de la función articulatoria del trabajo y en los países del tercer mundo como Brasil, donde el modelo occidental del empleo asalariado nunca fue extensiva más que a una parte de la población, este proceso se vuelve doblemente complicado. En estas circunstancias, es importante buscar otro punto de partida para la discusión de la psicología social sobre la actividad económica, que pueda dar mayor visibilidad a las múltiples formas en que las personas “salen del paso” con el fin de mantener sus hogares y el desarrollar colectivos familiares.

Governança metropolitana nas Américas

O trabalho apresenta os resultados de um estudo transnacional e comparativo sobre arranjos e desafios metropolitanos em Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Mexico, EUA e Venezuela. Sao descritas as principais caracteristicas institucionais e organizacionais das iniciativas encontradas e identificados os fatores que moldam seu surgimento e sua dinâmica atual. Perguntamos – mesmo com poucos exemplos de sucesso – se essas iniciativas estao adquirindo legitimidade politica e oferecendo oportunidades para governanca democratica. Concluimos que: 1) sao os governos estados que oferecem a melhor base para iniciar a construcao de uma governanca metropolitana capaz de eficientemente prestar servicos urbanos, mas que nao ha um unico caminho direto. 2) algum nivel de estrutura de governanca participativa para as areas metropolitanas e necessario para desenvolver politicas adequadas para melhorar a vida das pessoas de maneira equitativa.

Inovação na perspectiva dos inovadores: a experiência do Programa Gestão Pública e Cidadania

The Public Management and Citizenship Program was set up in 1996 as a joint initiative of the Ford Foundation and the Getulio Vargas Foundation with the added support of the BNDES. Its objective is to identify and disseminate information about innovative practices in sub national governments in Brazil that improve the quality of public services and produce a positive impact on the construction of citizenship. In the program’s eight years to date, some 6,200 different experiences have been identified coming from state and local governments and the governments of the indigenous peoples. In this paper the theme of innovation is discussed using as a basis the answers of the different programs, projects activities to the same question. The result offers a new perspective of the discussion of the differences between innovations and “best practices”.

A sustentabilidade e a continuidade de redes de articulação: o caso do Iluminar Campinas

This paper discusses the trajectory of a municipal public health policy that organized and sustained a complex and intersectorial network of support for victims of sexual violence in the city of Campinas. From the perspective that using the existing public services is appropriate to take care of victims of sexual violence, the network was articulated involving various segments, such as health, public safety, education, social welfare, civil society organizations and universities. This paper presents and discusses some of the key moments of the program during 2001-2014, from the inclusion of the issue on the local government agenda to the transference to other municipalities. We aim to analyze the key strategies that ensured network connectivity and sustainability over time and to demonstrate the local capability in the design and development of health policies.

O pesquisador conversador no cotidiano

This paper examines the implications for social psychology of the proposal that the day-to-day is all we have, that there are only places and micro-places understood as small sequences of events and nothing more and goes on to look at the implications for the researcher in everyday life seen as simply yet another competent member of a moral community.

The conversing researcher in everyday life

This paper examines the implications for social psychology of the proposal that the day-to-day is all we have, that there are only places and micro-places understood as small sequences of events and nothing more and goes on to look at the implications for the researcher in everyday life seen as simply yet another competent member of a moral community.