Social Management Study Program
Coordinator: Prof. Fernando Guilherme Tenório
Presentation
During the round-table discussion on 'Management of Social Services', held in Denmark in 1991, a suggestions were made to the effect that Schools of Administration should make management technologies available to social movements for them to improve their negotiating capacities.
In order to guarantee the development and consolidation of this concept, the Iberian-American Social Management Network was established during the Iberian-American Seminar on Training Professors in Social Management held the following year in Bolivia.
Under the influence of this proposal, some teaching and research institutions involved in public management have directed their activities to the training and qualification of managers in social policy, both in the scope of government and in that of non-governmental and community organizations.
From this new international interest in management and the preoccupation with redirecting its activities to adapt to the context of democratic maturity which Brazil is experiencing, PEGS (Social Management Study Program) was created under the aegis of Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas- EBAPE, and its is one of the pioneering academic experiments dedicated to this topic in Brazil.
The qualification of managers specialized in social management, both in the area of government and non-government or community organizations, is essential for ensuring efficient action in the context involved. Without such qualification, it would be impossible to conduct the required technology transfer for guidance in the elaboration and management of community projects and in the management of public policy, while always emphasizing the importance of the participation of the citizens in general in the various stages of the decision-making processes.
It is therefore necessary to create frameworks of theoretical and practical references elaborated pursuant to social management studies, placing the results at the disposal of organized civil society such that it may acquire the management technology to guarantee quality in its participation. Learning the technical terminology through the democratization of management information permits greater emphasis on the quest for redefining citizenship in the current context, where participation has assumed new meaning and relevance.
Research is seen as an activity for critical production of knowledge and one of the social purposes of the academic world. By breaking down the dichotomies of theory/practice and education/research, all persons involved become masters and apprentices in the process of the critical production and usage of knowledge. As the implementation strategy of the Program takes into consideration the principle of integration of education/research/extension courses, these activities rely on the intensive participation of the students on the Courses promoted by EBAPE, also upon the attribution of certain projects to specific subjects.
PEGS also gives direct counseling to the tertiary sector by discussing themes like strategic management and planning which can generate interesting results. Technical cooperation creates opportunities for joint discussion, which enhance the process of interaction and mutual learning between the agents directly linked to social movements, to community work and to the academic milieu.
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