Connecting Two Worlds: Family Farming and School Feeding Through the Theoretical Lenses of Structuration Theory
27 Oct 2020-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used Structuration Theory to understand the resistance of social structures to change even in a scenario of mandatory law enforcement in the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE).
Abstract: At one end, family farming is seen as important for incentivizing local development. At another end, the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is a social assistance policy that provides food and nutrition for students enrolled in public schools. In 2015, the program fed 41.5 million students across the country. In 2009, these two worlds – family farming and school feeding – were connected through a public policy implemented by law. This law defines that 30% of the financial resources for the acquisition of school feeding, transferred by the federal government to states and municipalities, must be spent on items produced by family farming. However, even considering the legal requirement and many of the changes it has brought, many municipalities still do not meet this minimum requirement. In 2015, more than half of the 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, about 54%, did not reach the 30% minimum; that is, over 3,000 municipalities failed to meet that legal threshold. This context raises some questions: Why is the law not effective? What are the social structures that hinder the implementation of this public policy as it was conceived? One of the theoretical frameworks that could sustain such questioning is Structuration Theory (ST; Giddens, 2003). It brings the concept of structure duality, stating that there is no prevalence between social structure and human action, but rather a reciprocity. In this theory, the structure can be distinguished into three dimensions (signification, domination, and legitimation) and the interaction of these dimensions can lead to either transformation or continuity. Using the lenses of ST, our aim is to identify, analyze, and understand the reverberations of this public policy on social practices and how these reverberations could explain this state of things. For this, we conducted a preliminary field research, based on interviews with key agents involved in the school feeding program in a municipality in the Midwest of Brazil. The preliminary results revealed that the change induced by the law reflected on those agents, altering social practices. New procedures were adopted that transformed social practices pertaining to the dimension of signification. Nevertheless, challenges related to logistics (transport and storage), trust, training, and bureaucracy are still hindering the effectiveness of the intended public policy. As a limitation, we were not under conditions to grasp the changes while they occurred because our point of attention is the scenario after the enforcement of the relevant Law. Beyond that, our study uses ST to deal with the resistance of social structures to change even in a scenario of mandatory law enforcement.
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26 Sep 2016
TL;DR: A pesquisa qualitativa com entrevistas semiestruturadas com agricultores familiares, gestores, extensao rural, membros do Conselho de Alimentacao Escolar em oito municipios, representando diferentes tamanhos populacionais e localizados in difdifferentes macrorregioes, foram avaliados por categorizacao tematica, para posterior analise de conteudo.
Abstract: A implementacao do Programa Nacional de Alimentacao Escolar (PNAE), brasileiro, notadamente no que se refere a aquisicao dos produtos da agricultura familiar (implantado pelo Artigo 14 da Lei 11947/2009), demanda uma engrenagem de acoes e atores que exige o redesenho das relacoes sociais, politicas e economicas no âmbito local e regional, nem sempre muito simples de serem efetivadas. O desinteresse ou o descaso de um ou mais dos atores envolvidos pode levar ao comprometimento dos objetivos da promocao da Seguranca Alimentar e Nutricional, desejados pelo Programa. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar as dificuldades e os fatores que condicionam a aquisicao de produtos da agricultura familiar para a alimentacao escolar pela otica dos atores sociais em municipios do Parana. Para tanto, foi utilizada pesquisa qualitativa com entrevistas semiestruturadas com agricultores familiares, gestores, extensao rural, membros do Conselho de Alimentacao Escolar em oito municipios, representando diferentes tamanhos populacionais e localizados em diferentes macrorregioes. Os dados foram avaliados por categorizacao tematica, para posterior analise de conteudo. Barreiras como disponibilidade, sazonalidade, organizacao da producao, burocracia do Programa, logistica, qualidade dos produtos, aceitacao, entre outras, foram referenciadas diferentemente pelos grupos de atores, como dificuldades no cumprimento da legislacao. Nos municipios onde existe maior participacao, dialogo e parcerias entre gestores, agricultores, conselheiros e extensao rural ha um melhor aproveitamento dos recursos que o Programa oferece e esse entrosamento e mais evidente em municipios de medio e pequeno porte. Diante disso, nota-se que nos municipios onde as relacoes sao mais proximas, frequentes e interativas, ha maior comprometimento com a implementacao do PNAE, ja que as dificuldades sao mais partilhadas e compreendidas entre os diferentes atores. Nesse sentido, evidencia-se a importância da existencia de politicas publicas para a viabilizacao de mercados para a agricultura familiar, mas esta so se efetiva com a participacao dos atores sociais.
7 citations
TL;DR: A pesquisa qualitativa com 35 atores da alimentacao escolar in 8 municipios catarinenses was conducted in this article, with the aim of conhecer percepcoes de diferentes atores sociais sobre a Lei 11.947/2009 and its implementacao, nas questoes da agricultura familiar.
Abstract: O estudo objetivou conhecer percepcoes de diferentes atores sociais sobre a Lei 11.947/2009 e sua implementacao, nas questoes da agricultura familiar. Trata de pesquisa qualitativa com 35 atores da alimentacao escolar em 8 municipios catarinenses. A Lei foi percebida como vetor de alimentacao saudavel, fortalecimento da agricultura familiar, desenvolvimento local; sua implementacao foi iniciativa dos gestores tecnicos do programa. Recomenda-se incentivo a participacao e protagonismo dos demais atores envolvidos.
5 citations
02 Feb 2018
TL;DR: A revisao narrativa da literatura com busca na Biblioteca Virtual de Saude, no Google Academico and no Scientific Electronic Library Online, cruzando-se “alimentacao escolar” and “agricultura” as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Este texto objetiva reconhecer os desafios que tem sido relatados na literatura quanto a insercao da agricultura familiar no mercado institucional da alimentacao escolar e os mecanismos de enfrentamento e superacao desses desafios que tem sido construidos. Realizou-se revisao narrativa da literatura com busca na Biblioteca Virtual de Saude, no Google Academico e no Scientific Electronic Library Online, cruzando-se “alimentacao escolar” and “agricultura”. Foram incluidos os materiais localizados que atenderam aos seguintes criterios: artigos, livros, dissertacoes, anais de eventos; formato completo, gratuito e on-line; publicados a partir de 2009; com aderencia ao objetivo desta revisao. Entre os desafios que emergiram, destacam-se: logistica, falta de assistencia tecnica e interesse de agricultores e/ou prefeituras, burocracia para habilitacao dos agricultores e adequacao as normas sanitarias, fragilidades das chamadas publicas, dificuldades financeiras, estruturais e de organizacao dos atores envolvidos com o PNAE, sua compreensao sobre o Programa e resistencias as inovacoes. Quanto aos mecanismos de enfrentamento construidos, a literatura evidenciou: fortalecimento do dialogo, articulacao intersetorial, apoio de instituicoes de ensino/pesquisa, assistencia tecnica e extensao rural, organizacao dos agricultores em associacoes/cooperativas, planejamento dialogico das chamadas publicas, aproximacao entre gestores, Conselhos de Alimentacao Escolar, agricultores e liderancas locais, investimentos estruturais do poder publico e de agricultores/cooperativas e, sobretudo, vontade politica. Apesar dos avancos observados, ainda e necessaria maior aproximacao entre gestores e agricultores, alem de fortalecimento do Conselho de Alimentacao Escolar, o que pode contribuir para a sustentabilidade da insercao da agricultura familiar na alimentacao escolar.
2 citations
23 Oct 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the implicacoes da venda de generos alimenticios for o Programa de Alimentacao Escolar (PAE) no tocante aos aspectos de renda e organizacao dos agricultores familiares.
Abstract: O estudo pretende investigar as implicacoes da venda de generos alimenticios para o Programa de Alimentacao Escolar (PAE) no tocante aos aspectos de renda e organizacao dos agricultores familiares. Foi utilizado estudo de caso de analise qualitativa em dois municipios, um com mais de 100.000 habitantes e outro com menos. Verifica-se que mesmo que o PAE tenha incentivado a formacao de Cooperativas e Associacoes, muitas dificuldades ainda necessitam ser sanadas a partir de processos organizativos que se efetuam em relacoes com outros atores como o Estado, mediadores e espacos de discussao que extrapolam a cooperativa ou associacao. Tanto em grandes, quanto em pequenos municipios, estes processos organizativos as vezes dizem respeito a acoes consideradas “clandestinas” ou “ilegais”, mas que muitas vezes fazem a diferenca para a efetivacao da Lei no 11.947/2009. Por um lado asseguram renda estavel aos agricultores familiares, e por outro, possibilitam as prefeituras cumprirem o artigo 14 da lei supracitada.
2 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this article, Giddens' structuration theory is proposed as a valuable framework for management accounting research to expand its domain beyond a technical focus to include social and political phenomena; it describes the theory, discusses its limitations, and presents an analysis of a longitudinal case study.
Abstract: This article proposes Giddens' structuration theory as a valuable framework for management accounting research to expand its domain beyond a technical focus to include social and political phenomena; it describes the theory, discusses its limitations, and presents an analysis of a longitudinal case study. The authors conclude that structuration theory is a more focused, informative, integrative, yet efficient, way to analyse how accounting systems are implicated in the construction, maintenance, and changes of the social order of an organization, than many frameworks used in previous studies. This article also speculates that Giddens' structuration theory with its key concepts of “structuration” and the “duality of structure” can be read along with Foucault's “power/knowledge” and Derrida's “deconstruction” as a post-modern genre for critical accounting research.
450 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the positioning of qualitative research to date in the field of management accounting and offers a critical reflection and an appraisal of its profile relative to the dominant positivist quantitative accounting research literature.
298 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the consequences of regulation for management control and organisational change in privatised industries by means of a case study of the gas industry is investigated, focusing particularly on the implications for regulation of accounting systems and systems of accountability, as important management control systems.
122 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluated the highly efficient antioxidant activity of C. brasiliense using the biological relevant method of chemically induced lipid peroxidation and found that the half inhibition concentration did not exceed 0.8μg/ml −1.
84 citations
TL;DR: Giddens' theory of structuration has been used as a sensitizing device for researchers, which has been drawn upon in a selective way in thinking about research questions or interpreting findings.
Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to briefly review the pillars and the rationale of Giddens’ theory of structuration, and offer a snapshot of the impact of these ideas on research in management accounting. Conceptualised as a way of making sense of social life, structuration theory represents a sensitizing device for researchers, which has be drawn upon “in a selective way in thinking about research questions or interpreting findings” (Giddens, Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age, 1991). In the following pages the duality of structure, the modalities of structuration, the concept of double positioning, the theory of the subject as well as concepts such as ontological security, routines or trust will be reviewed as essential elements of a vocabulary originally framed within Giddens’ The constitution of society (1984). The essay ends sketching the work of Macintosh and Scapens (Management accounting and control systems—an organisational and behavioural approach, 1990), who broke new ground to interpret management accounting systems in light of structuration theory terms and concepts, as well as some of the more recent works in accounting that have built on Giddens’ latest ideas on the The Consequences of Modernity (1990).
73 citations