A prática do fair trade em grupos de agricultores familiares: reflexões críticas sobre inovações sociais

Abstract

This research is the fruit of an intellectual effort intending to align the theoretical axes of interorganizational relations related to social innovations (market scenery and organizational processes) within the reality of small family farmers. Thus, this work aimed at identifying which are and how are discursively established the main interorganizational relations, social innovations and Just/Sustainable commerce initiatives, developed by small organic food cooperated farmers in southern Minas Gerais, Brazil. To make this a possibility, the main specific objectives were: identifying and characterizing the cooperative organizations of family farmers in southern Minas Gerais; characterizing the activities and forms of action of the main groups of small cooperated farmers and the organizations involved in the social innovation process; describing the inter and intragroup cooperation and competition processes as well as the main alliances established; and identifying and describing the symbolic and discursive conception of small cooperated farmer groups regarding the concepts of Fair Trade understood as social innovations. In order to subsidize this discussion and reach the objectives, the literature review highlighted the following themes: The Interorganizational Relations, the Social Innovations and the Critical Discourse Analysis. The methodological path used was a research of qualitative nature and a descriptive exploratory approach based on the Rapid Participatory Diagnostics which aggregated interviews, field journal and participant observation. The field work was developed between November of 2013 and January of 2014. Seventeen interviews were collected, transcribed and, later, analyzed in light of the Critical Discourse Analysis. The main results point to multiple formats of cooperation in intra and interorganizational sceneries in addition to low internal competition indexes. The analysis data evidenced dystonias between the classical concept of Fair Trade and the conception and materialization in the lives of the interviewed family farmers. The final reflections punctuated the general aspects of the research and detailed the main theoretical and managerial implications, investigation limitations and the agenda suggestions for future researches.