Deus criou o mundo e nós construímos o Conjunto Palmeiras: a constituição da idéia de um bairro solidário

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to understand how the neighbourhood Conjunto Palmeiras, located in the suburbs of Fortaleza, has built throughout time the image of a supportive neighbourhood. It is understood that this image is the result of movements related to social demands, such as the development of experiences considered to be innovative in the field of the supportive economy. Those movements, therefore, made Conjunto Palmeiras a target of an uncountable amount of academic studies, many of them awarded, which turned it into an internationally known and acknowledged neighbourhood, especially in the late 90’s. In the mid-2000s, those initiatives have been expanded as a Government policy by the National Secretary of Supportive Economy - SENAES (Brazilian initials). Hence, the main point of this work is to understand which ways those initiatives were widespread and gained legitimacy before the State and the civil society as well as which are the implications of this process, that connects two apparently contradictory rationales. Therefore, guided by a qualitative methodological perspective, the thesis focuses on: Who are the social actors who take part in the process of building this image? How do they work? What is the extent of the so-called supportive initiatives? What perceptions of solidarity permeate the correlation of partnership between the social actors involved? Which implications tend to occur with the institutionalisation of those initiatives before the supportive character that originally particularised? As a result, we conclude that, currently, Conjunto Palmeiras’s supportive initiatives, from an institutional point of view, develop themselves into a field not yet specified. If on one hand, it is sought applicable instruments to its legal autonomy, on the other hand, by institutionalising such experiences, a new path is open in order to allow other references to demarcate those initiatives, probably different from those ones in its genesis.