FROM SOLIDARITY TO ENTREPRENEURIAL VALUES: THE NEOLIBERAL SHIFT IN THE ‘CENTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUPPORT’

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic sociology, this paper presents the findings of a study conducted at the ‘Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship Support’ in São Paulo, Brazil. For over six months, several visits were made to this public institution in order to interview young workers. However, the word “Entrepreneurship” raised specific concerns: How does a public institution integrate São Paulo’s working class into the job market through entrepreneurial values? To address this issue, the study moves from the micro level of ethnographic observations to the macro level of external neoliberal forces that have shaped Brazil’s economic and political policies over the past decades. Furthermore, while the Center now promotes and even celebrates entrepreneurial values, the young workers' perceptions and experiences, as captured through qualitative interviews, reveal their reasons for seeking support from the institution and highlight how a reality shaped by informal labor challenges neoliberal approaches to public services.