racial diversity, affirmative action and social responsibility in brazilian enterp

189 Pages·2007·0.49 MB·English

by  Kriszta 2

GLOBAL POLICY IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE: RACIAL
DIVERSITY, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN
BRAZILIAN ENTERPRISES

A Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School
of Cornell University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

by
Rocío Alonso Lorenzo
August 2007
© 2007 Rocío Alonso Lorenzo
GLOBAL POLICY IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE: RACIAL
DIVERSITY, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN
BRAZILIAN ENTERPRISES

Rocío Alonso Lorenzo, Ph.D.
Cornell University 2007

The goal of this dissertation is to examine the possibility that diversity and affirmative
action policies serve to open up the private sector to the Afro-Brazilian population. The
dissertation approaches global diversity and affirmative action policies from an
anthropological perspective that takes into account the U.S.-Brazil exceptionalisms in
race relations—the idea that Brazil is no longer a “racial paradise,” in contrast the U.S.
“racial hell,” and that therefore Brazilian institutions should learn from the U.S. racial
experience—on the one hand, and how transnational corporations, mainly U.S. based,
export their diversity and affirmative action policies to their Brazilian subsidiaries, on the
other hand. A combination of global ethnography and interpretive policy analysis is used
to document how managers, consultants, and activists implement these policies in a
network of private enterprises located in São Paulo. Global ethnography is concerned
with the study of global forces as contingent and not assumed forces, “embedded
themselves in a multi-sited context” (Marcus 1995; Burawoy 2000) and with how the
“transnational social”—private social spheres that are less structured than the public
institutionalized spheres and that, as such, offer more opportunities, albeit limited, to
excluded “subaltern publics”—gets articulated. Interpretive policy analysis (Yanow
2000) is a situation-grounded approach that explores the contrasts between the policy
meanings as intended by different “policy-relevant groups.” The ethnographic research
based on participant observation, documentary research, and the study of group dynamics
and in-site interviews with managers, consultants, and activists across a network of
business enterprises over a period of two years, from July 2003 through July 2005. The
study concludes that the voluntary nature and fragmented character of the actions and the
limited authority that the managers implementing the policies have, particularly when the
policies are disseminated as mimetic practices or management fads, very much limit the
possibilities that diversity and affirmative action policies will result in significant socio-
economic openings for black people in Brazil.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Rocío Alonso Lorenzo received a SM in Anthropology from Cornell
University in 2002 after having received a BA in 1996 in Spain in Geography and
History from Seville University with a specialty in Social Anthropology. Since then,
her participation in subsequent ethnographic projects has given her ample experience
in developing relationships and using participatory methodologies for social research.
From 1996 to 1997, she conducted multi-sited research in seven small communities in
Minas de Rio Tinto, southwest Spain, with the goal of observing the organizational
and cultural changes from within a mining company, including its shift from a
multinational company to a cooperative one. She has also worked as a local
development agent in Spain and as a workshop coordinator in business and social
responsibility in Brazil. In 1998, she spent one year as a graduate student in the
Department of Anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
As a Ph.D. student at Cornell University, she has received several grants and
fellowships. She carried out her dissertation field research in São Paulo, Brazil
between 2003 and 2005. Rocio’s research interests include race and gender relations,
action research and applied anthropology, interpretive policy analysis and
organizational culture, qualitative research methodologies, global diversity-
management, and business and social responsibility. Currently, she is settled in São
Paulo.
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To my parents, Enrique and Emilia, both gave me support and encouragement
To my husband, André, who always inspires me
To my son, Henrique, who was born during the time in which I wrote my dissertation
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My greatest thanks go to Davydd Greenwood, my dissertation committee chair
for his intellectual and personal support, inspiration, and friendship throughout the
whole Ph.D. program and the writing of this thesis. His broad knowledge on the
history of the social sciences and his accurate and careful way of linking theory with
methodology according to the action research philosophy have been invaluable gifts in
my trajectory as both graduate student and social researcher. In the writing of the
thesis, I have particularly benefited from his constructive criticism that he has always
demonstrated by providing perspective and insightful comments as well as his
capacity to see the dissertation project beyond the writing stages.
I must thank, too, Professor Javier Escalera Reyes from Seville University in
Spain for first encouraging me to do graduate coursework at Cornell University. At
Cornell, Professors Vilma Santiago-Irizarry and John Forester offered guidance and
support as thesis committee members. Vilma Santiago, in particular, introduced me to
the literature on race theory in the United States and Latin America. Thanks to John
Forester, I got acquainted with the intellectual debate on interpretive policy analysis.
At Cornell, Mary Roldan’s profound knowledge on the history of Latin
America proved an invaluable guide to my understanding of Brazilian particularities.
Maria Cook encouraged my interest in Brazilian workplaces. Several encounters with
William Goldsmith contributed to deepening my knowledge of Brazilian politics.
Discussions of and comments on various sections of the manuscript by Jan Katz from
the Johnson Graduate School of Management helped me to sharpen my perception of
global business and the corporate world. I must also thank John Burdick for his
kindness in receiving me in the Department of Anthropology at Syracuse University.
My encounter with him, though short, was of great value, especially relevant to having
a critical eye for my research proposal.
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In São Paulo, I owe thanks to Kabengele Munanga for assisting me in getting a
research visa and for allowing me to attend his course on race relations at the
University of São Paulo. Guillermo Ruben invited me to be a part of the research team
he coordinates at Unicamp University. The group provided an intellectual community
within which to discuss theoretical ideas on the anthropology of organizations.
Most importantly, I would like to thank the Ethos Institute for Business and
Social Responsibility for giving me the opportunity to work with them as a volunteer
during the field research. Their generosity in providing innumerable contacts with a
wide range of enterprises in São Paulo and their professional support were invaluable
contributions to my ethnographic research project. I certainly cannot leave out the
people, mostly managers, consultants, and activists, that contributed to the field
research by sharing with me their experiences working with diversity and affirmative
action programs in the Brazilian corporate world. There are too many to be named
here. Very specially, Helio Santos, a tireless professor and activist, really inspired me
with his enormous courage in pushing the racial discrimination issue in Brazilian
enterprises.
Several institutions supplied funding at various stages of my Ph.D. The
Department of Anthropology at Cornell awarded a Sage Fellowship which covered
two years on campus. My field research would have been impossible without the
generous financial support of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological
Research, enabling me to spend two years in Brazil. A first visit to Brazil was possible
thanks to a Cornell Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies Travel Grant.
Last, but certainly not least, I am very thankful for the moral support of my
parents in Spain. Particularly, I am in debt to my husband, André, for accompanying
and encouraging me during the entire Ph.D. program.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biographical Sketch iii
Dedications iv
Acknowledgements v
List of Figures viii
List of Tables ix
List of Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
PART ONE: Tracking the Legacies of Slavery
Chapter 1: Second Abolition 20
Chapter 2: Racial Inequality versus Racial Democracy 35
Chapter 3: The Brazilian Public Policy Debate on Diversity and
Affirmative Action 61
PART TWO: Ethnographizing Policy and Management Systems
Chapter 4: Understanding Business and Social Responsibility Networks 79
Chapter 5: Global Diversity-Management 98
Chapter 6: Geração XXI 126
Chapter 7: Integrare 139
PART THREE: Conclusions
Chapter 8: Assessing as Global Policy Diversity and Affirmative Action
Policies 149
Bibliography 165
vii
LIST OF FIGURES

4.3. Diagram: The transnational corporation / the multinational corporation 94
4.4. The Ethos Institute Indicators auditing process 116
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