Managerialism at the bottom of the pyramid

: a case study in Brasil

Abstract

In the last decades, the Base of the Pyramid has been increasingly debated within western leaders as the new land of opportunity. With the advent of neoliberalism in the field of development during the 1990s, the role of Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations in particular started to be emphasized as being central in western strategies in the “South” of the world. Development actors however often approached these issues using traditional perspectives, which were usually out of context. The thesis focuses on the controversy surrounding the use of managerial techniques in backgrounds that differ from those in which these tools have been developed. In particular, it seeks to understand to what extent managerialism – the ideology of management – is influencing the activities of a Brazilian Non-Governmental Organization, Galpão Aplauso. The study, using a theoretical framework, analyzes the relationship between the NGO and its partners, underlining the results of ideological conflicts. Overall, it has been found how the encounter of Northern and Southern perspectives originated some debates that led in part to the acceptance of managerialistic ideas such as replicability and systematization of processes, while in some cases they escalated to resistance from the NGO towards concepts such as financial sustainability and transformation into a social business.

Date of Award	22 Jul 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Alexandre de Almeida Faria (Supervisor)