The Role of Universities in Promoting Solidarity Economy Public Policies in the State of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The Solidarity Economy, as a mitigating alternative to the current mode of production, makes use of cooperativism and self-management, so that consumption and social relations can take place in a more humane, solidary and sustainable way. This movement starts to involve universities, through public policies, whose objectives are the formation and dissemination of solidary economic activity. Thus, the purpose of this work is to verify how universities in the state of Rio de Janeiro have contributed to the consolidation of the solidarity economy movement in the region of Rio de Janeiro, identifying which actions have been carried out for this purpose and what can be done so that these institutions of teaching are more active for the growth of the solidary economy. For this research, of a qualitative nature, an exploratory and descriptive investigation was carried out on university websites and repositories that identified the actions of the main public and private higher education institutions in Rio de Janeiro. The results show the predominance of public universities in the dissemination of the solidarity economy theme in the state, through extension, teaching and research actions and a silence on the subject on the part of private universities. In this way, possibilities for growth of academic participation in university strategies involving universities, solidary economy and communities were observed, with a view to more sustainable forms of production.