The hidden face of social movements: Institutional transit and state-movement intersection - an analysis of the movement of solidarity economy in Rio Grande do sul

Abstract

The relations between social movements, political parties and the State has become, during the last decades, one of the central subjects of both theoretical inquiring and empirical research in the field of social movements studies. Inserted in this debate, the present paper offers an analytical perspective that allows apprehending distinct patterns of relation between institutionalized and non-institutionalized politics and, particularly, the way in which such patterns enable distinct processes of organization and action by social movements. In order to explore the analytical possibilities of such perspective, we take the trajectory of members of the so called movement of solidarity economy in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Through these trajectories, it is possible to identify a process of organization which does not occur only out of the State's ambit, but is rather largely encouraged by governmental policies and agents. Instead of approaching and criticizing such process as a case of cooptation, manipulation or colonization of the movement Sociologias, Porto Alegre, ano 13, no 28, set./dez. 2011, p. 86-124 120 SOCIOLOGIAS of solidarity economy by the State, we seek to demonstrate it is the outcome of a complex pattern of relations between the civil society and the State mediated by political parties (and particularly by the Workers Party - PT) that has emerged and consolidated in Brazil during the last 25 years.