Organizações & Sociedade

Towards a new analyticalconceptual framework for the field of Social Technology

Felipe Addor — 2025-08-14

This article presents a theoretical framework for analyzing experiences in the field of Social Technology (ST). For that purpose, we used elements identified through a bibliographic review, reflections developed in academic exchange spaces on ST, and the experiences gained from implementing technological extension projects. We begin the article with an introduction highlighting the relevance of the topic. Next, demonstrating that the concept of ST is still under construction and that there is a dispute concerning its definition, we present a bibliographic review, quoting different authors and providing a synthesis of articles that sought to characterize the field, based on a review of the SciELO database. In the following section, we explain the methodological foundations that guided us in developing this article. We then present the core element of this paper: proposing nine parameters for analyzing experiences that aim to align with the principles of the ST field, clarifying the reasons for this proposal and its intended approach. We conclude the article with our final considerations, emphasizing the importance of building a qualified debate on the topic in our current times.

Reapplication or replication? transformations of technology and of the palmas social currency throughout the e-dinheiro platform

Ariádne Scalfoni Rigo — 2025-08-14

From the perspective that social technologies (ST) are built with community participation and are not simply solutions transferred from one reality to another, and given the transformations that the Palmas social currency has caused, and is still causing, in the field of solidarity finance in Brazil, we raise the following question in this article: taking the process of reapplication as a fundamental characteristic of ST, in the digital format of the Palmas social currency, is this process still possible and effective? To answer it, we take the case of Palmas, social currencies recognized as social technologies, presenting their history and their digitization process. To do this, we have drawn on the literature on ST and that relating to the case under analysis, as well as considering the information obtained during the authors' career within the solidarity finance movement. In addition, we have data from a national study that is still underway, of which the authors are an integral part. Our study indicates that the process of reapplication is possible, but that it is facing difficulties in maintaining its democratic and emancipatory character. We also identified that the platform, despite the significant benefits perceived by all and its potential for scaling up and serving local development public policies, may lose its ST character when it comes to the reapplication process. Our study is especially relevant at this time, given the recent draft law 4476/23 which aims to regulate social currencies in the country, in a clear lack of knowledge of the history, context and concept of social currency and social technologies.

Investigating a Tecnologia Social from the Perspective of ActorNetwork Theory and After

Bernardo Bignetti — 2025-08-14

The aim of this research is to identify and analyze the local socio-technical readjustments and the heterogeneous network involved in bringing a technology for the social closer to a tecnologia social (TS) as a social construct. Technologies as a social foundation, represented by tecnologias sociais, show a way to create, develop and implement technology aimed at solving social problems. In Latin America, especially in Brazil, two visions are used to characterize tecnologia social: (i) TS as a social construct, in which the technology is built and/or readapted through sociotechnical adjustments with the participation of the local community, and (ii) technology for the social, in which the technology is transferred via programs, artifacts, or methodologies that improve the lives of the assisted community. We studied a replication of an entrepreneurial education program for vulnerable young people, which is considered a technology for the social because the program has its own methodology and was not developed with the participation of the community involved. We adopted the theoretical-methodological basis of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), in its version Actor Network Theory and After (ANT and After), based on three elements: enactment, hinterland and political ontology. Our results show how a technology for the social for entrepreneurial education can be brought closer to a TS as a social construct, allowing us to elaborate two points of discussion. These points constitute a contribution both to theory, thinking about future research agendas, and to the practice of technology for the social programs, offering opportunities for socio-technical adaptations that take into account local knowledge, thus promoting social transformation. In addition, another theoretical contribution is to illustrate the use of ANT and After concepts for TS studies, meeting the need to avoid using ANT in a simplistic way, as a mere tool to study an artifact.

Non-violent communication as a path to subversive rationalization: A social technology transforming public organizations

Mariana Mayumi Pereira de Souza — 2025-08-14

The aim of this article is to analyze the subversive potential of the technical codes of nonviolent communication (NVC), understood as a social technology, in the bureaucratic management system
of a public organization. A qualitative and exploratory study was carried out using the case study method, comparing the perceptions of civil servants who had systematic contact with NVC with those who were unaware of it. The material collected in 16 semi-structured interviews was analyzed using discourse analysis. As a result, we observed that the application of the technical codes of NVC favored self-confidence, self-reflection, and cooperation among individuals, emphasizing the subversive potential of NVC in favor of more dialogical and democratic contexts. NVC brings new technical repertoires on how to proceed in specific situations of interaction, deconstructing or rendering meaningless behavioral patterns rooted in alienating forms of communication. In this way, we believe it is possible to subvert the bureaucratic technical system by introducing new contexts for interaction. Therefore, the research contributes to detailing the application of NVC in organizations, as well as presenting a theoretical-methodological framework that can be used in other discursive analyses, especially in the application of social technologies.

Fervor and resistance in building the field of social technology in Brazil: the complex history of public policies in the two last decades

Felipe Addor — 2025-08-14

The aim of this work is to understand how social technology has developed from the programs, projects and plans of the Brazilian federal government over the last two decades (2003-2023) in interaction with its central actors, especially those located in universities and in social movements. In a markedly exploratory and qualitative approach, the Multiannual Plans (PPA), the National Science, Technology and Innovation Strategies (ENCTI), the Science, Technology and Innovation Action Plans (PACTI) and the Public Calls developed by federal institutions such as the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP) were analyzed. A periodization was constructed consisting of three phases (the Great Cycle, the Descent and the Resumption) of public policies to promote Social Technology that span the last seven (7) federal governments. Finally, we sought to assess the particularities and reciprocal links built up by the web of public policies in the field of social technology, as well as the possibilities for reconfiguring the area based on the reorganization around a renewed agenda for Social Technology in Brazil.

Public action and cooperative intelligence for the development of healthy and sustainable territories in the Anthropocene

Edward Maia — 2025-08-14

Social technologies have great transformative social power and can function as tools for empowering communities and as great allies in the territorial development strategy in the Anthropocene, in which the socio-natural relationship is inseparable, evidenced by the reflection of the environmental framework on social vulnerabilities. In this sense, we examined the application of the Territorial Future Intelligence Methodology (Territorial Ifuture) by the Territory Radar project in the territories of Sol Nascente and Pôr do Sol, communities with a high degree of inequality in the Brazilian Federal District, with the 2030 Agenda as a structuring element. Based on actor-network theory, we seek to answer how the social technologies produced could contribute to empowerment and territorial development as a way of facing the problems of the Anthropocene. Based on a collective construction, social technologies were appropriated by communities, forming transversal and participatory public action instruments that strengthen actors integration and articulation, in addition to guiding decision-making processes in a collective way, enhancing the search for solutions to problems in promoting the development of healthy and sustainable territories in an inclusive, fair and democratic way.

Tecnologia Social: an introduction to research, practice and another future

Marlei Pozzebon — 2025-08-14

Decolonizing our minds and bodies is a slow and arduous process. The Western paradigm, centered on Europe and North America, continues to present itself as universal and superior, relegating the rest of the world to a subordinate and peripheral position. In response, universities and social movements from the Global South have sought to decolonize knowledge production by valuing alternative forms of knowing that have often been rendered invisible. In this context, the concept of tecnologia social emerges as both a theoretical and practical lens, rooted in local cultural traditions and solidarity economy movements. It proposes initiatives that have played a fundamental role in addressing economic and social crises, particularly among vulnerable populations. Although contested, the concept of tecnologia social refers not only to physical artifacts but also to methodologies and ways of organizing. Still relatively unknown within Latin American academia and almost invisible internationally, this approach deserves greater recognition. This thematic call aims to strengthen the field by bringing together critical, theoretical, and practice-based articles committed to tecnologia social and social transformation.