Privatization of education and political legitimization strategies via corporate social responsibility

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to identify political legitimacy strategies via corporate social responsibility of firms, adopted by corporate foundations in Brazil’s educational sector. Furthermore, we analyze how the neoliberal ideology is embedded in these FCs’ narratives. We adopted an interpretative approach and a qualitative methodology for the analysis of documents through Nvivo software. The strategies were identified according to Zhao’s (2012) typology and adapted by the authors. FCs exercise political legitimacy via CSR through two main strategies: “Policy change” and “Innovate State’s Operational and Decision-Making Capacity.” The two processes are related. To change public policies, firms need to partner with the state and show how the new arrangement meets its demands. We question the limits to the participation of CFs in education and in democratic process, the transparency of their strategic goals and emphasize the need for balanced inclusion of other civil society actors.