Gerson de Lima Oliveira

Os movimentos sociais configuram um tema clássico de discussão nas ciências sociais. Entretanto, boa parte da literatura dá maior ênfase à análise dos elementos “materiais” da mobilização ou os analisa separadamente de seus elementos “simbólicos”, não raro dando menor ênfase a estes. Quando a análise das duas dimensões se faz presente, é comum a apresentação de descrições importantes sobre a história e características dos movimentos sociais, mas com pouca atenção aos elementos explicativos de como a mobilização e a organização se estruturam. Com o objetivo de realizar uma pesquisa cujo foco esteja nas causas da sustentação e ampliação da mobilização, valemo-nos do conceito de mudança de escala para explorar o que aqui denominamos expansão organizativa e amplificação simbólica como mecanismos causais que possibilitam a um movimento social sustentar-se e ampliar sua mobilização. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa sobre a mudança de escala na mobilização dos atingidos por barragens na bacia do rio Uruguai, que culminou na fundação do Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB). Ancorada na noção de causalidade preconizada pelo realismo crítico, procuramos responder à seguinte questão de pesquisa: como se dá a transformação de um determinado movimento social envolvido em conflitos pontuais em um ator de maior alcance, imbuído de objetivos, pautas e bandeiras políticas diversas? Para tanto, exploramos os mecanismos da expansão organizacional e, sobretudo, da amplificação simbólica para explicar como os atingidos por barragens enquadram o problema social que os atinge e produzem sensos de justiça e justificações para sua mobilização.
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The social movements are a classic debate in the field of social sciences. However, much of its literature places greater emphasis on the analysis of “material” elements of the mobilization or instead analyze its “symbolic” elements separately, not infrequently conceding only minor emphasis to the latter. When the analysis of both dimensions takes place, we usualy have the rendition of relevant descriptions on the history and characteristics of the social movements, nevertheless with scarce consideration to the explicative elements on how the mobilization and the organization are structured. Aiming to conduct research which focuses ont he causes of the sustaining and enlargement of the mobilization, we had recourse to the concept of scale shift to explore what we name organizational expansion and symbolic amplification as a causal mechanism swhich enables a social movement to sustain itself and to enlarge its mobilization. To do so, we carried out a research study on the scale shift in the mobilization of the population affected by dams on the Uruguay River basin its expansion on the founding of the Movimento dos atingidos por Barragens – MAB – (Movement of People Affected by Dams). Anchored in the notion of causality professed by critical realism, we sought to answer the following research question: how does a given social movement concerned with specific conflicts transforms itself into a player of greater reach, imbued with dissimilar objectives, agendas and policies? Therefore, we inquired into the mechanisms of the organizational expansion and especially of the symbolic amplification to explain how those affected by dams frame the social problem that impacts them and develop senses of justice and justifications for their mobilization.

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 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 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.