Gestão social e esfera pública: aproximações teórico-conceituais

Abstract

This paper discusses the theoretical and conceptual approaches of social management and public sphere in the context of Brazilian society to propose a discussion on the concept of social management. Understanding that social management has been presented as a promising possibility of a field of study and that there is a move forward to consolidate this understanding, it starts with the theoretical principles of the public sphere Habermas to promote an effort to put the concept into a theory. Within the proposed objective can be stated that the roads are still long, both concerning the expansion of the concept of social management and the one involving the choice of references to support this construction. However, the visible growth of research and the practice of corporate management in the country, even without settling the field’s theory, shows us that society is participating in the resolution of its problems, albeit as a beginner or partially. Brazilian society has (re) created public spaces where public action becomes possible. By hinting that public spaces are one of the bases to understand and consolidate the concept of social management, a way is opened for this area of scientific knowledge. As a result, this work indicates that even if social management is not the correct terminology, and other forms emerge, and that despite the several shortcomings in the construction of the concept, the features listed for social management converge with the practices expected in public spaces. The paper is organized into five sections, as follows. In addition to the introduction, the second section presents the theoretical propositions about the Habermasian public sphere. The third section presents the concepts of social management that move through the theoretical propositions of the public sphere. In the fourth section, we attempt to perform the theoretical approaches between the public sphere and social management. The last section presents the final considerations.