Inovação social ou compensação?: Reflexões acerca das práticas corporativas

Abstract

Fractures in the wage-base society and the increasedprecariousness of the living conditions across the globe have made different sectorsto get involved in social action. The article examines the role of corporations infacing social problems on the basis of a debate about the rationality underlying themodel of globalized development (guided by the lazy reason of Boaventura deSousa Santos) and of the analysis of the overlapping of economy in the socialstructure (through economic sociology). The results demonstrate that practices thatare considered innovative by corporations hardly go beyond the level ofcompensation, which is due to the permanence of the principles of market rationality.The genuine social innovation must consider a perspective of development basedon the substantive freedoms of human beings and be able to establish the effectiveparticipation of subjects in the production process of innovation and in theappropriation of its results.