The Renewal of Arts, Lives, and a Community through Social Enterprise: The Case of Oficina de Agosto

Luciana Walther and Carlos Eduardo Félix da Costa
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Luciana Walther: Department of Business and Accounting Sciences, Federal University of São João del-Rei, Sao Joao Del Rei 36325-000, Brazil
Carlos Eduardo Félix da Costa: Department of Arts and Design, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 22541-041, Brazil

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-27

Abstract: The present work investigates, with a cultural approach, the emergence of an art-based social enterprise and an art-entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southeastern semi-rural Brazil, shedding light on how local private initiatives may build stronger communities and vice-versa, in a mutually transformative relationship. The focus lies on Oficina de Agosto, a folk-art studio, school, and shop. Fieldwork design combined ethnography and art-based research. The thick description of the phenomenon is organized under the acronym P.L.A.C.E., a conceptual framework describing five principles of community development. The contributions of this study are three-fold: (1) it illustrates how social enterprise may work as an alternative market model that could support community building; (2) it raises awareness to the possibility that social enterprises’ initial social focus may not be perennial or unshakeable, in an undesirable change that might require a both/and mindset and a patient management of paradoxes; and (3) it offers practical managerial recommendations to the SE under focus, which might be extended to other local businesses, or to SEs in other semi-rural Brazilian towns, or even in international settings that might bear economic and social resemblance to our researched context.

Keywords: social enterprise; paradox management; place; rural; community; tourism; arts and crafts; art-based research; ethnography; global South (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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