Jeffrey Rubin and Vivienne Bennett's edited volume on the reactions of businesspeople to progressive, civil society-based reforms is a welcome addition to the literature on social innovation in Latin America and an opportune recognition of the influence of the private sector in shaping social and political life in the region.
Informing the book is a premise that the historical hostility of business toward progressive reform has become less automatic in the context of globalization, democratization, and new understandings of poverty and race. Businesspeople now express a more diverse set of reactions to civil society initiatives. Also central to this change has been the shift of progressive activism away from revolutionary, anti-capitalist strategies toward initiatives aimed at broadening access to material goods and giving voice and recognition to otherwise excluded people, without challenging the boundaries of the state and capitalist markets.
In her background study on the economic history of Latin America, Ann Helwege argues that the succession of crises and the economic impacts of repressive, pro-business policy regimes have led businesspeople both to accept that moderate economic policies offer a more secure framework for growth and to value the political stability that comes from finding common ground with their fellow citizens. At the same time, Wendy Wolford, in her chapter on social movements, tells us that Latin American social movements have become more willing to engage with the state, democratic policies, and markets, and many have developed eclectic mixtures of ideological perspectives, diverse platforms from which to organize, and new repertoires of mobilization.
The book's five case studies discuss Mayan indigenous networks in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico; participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil; recuperated factories in Buenos Aires; remittances that finance public works in Zacatecas, Mexico; and Afro-Reggae performance in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre stands out as a form of social innovation that has been utterly rejected by businesspeople. Jeffrey Rubin and Sergio Gregorio Baierle explain that the democratization of budgetary decisions poses a threat for businesspeople unwilling to accept ordinary people having a say in the allocation of resources. Instead, they favor programs to address exclusion inspired by the model of corporate social responsibility, which allow them to influence the decision-making process. A different situation is presented in Rubin's chapter on the Afro-Reggae Cultural Group in Rio, which has given favela children a space to develop an “awareness of their own self worth” (205) through performance. Afro-Reggae has been praised by business, receiving corporate sponsorship and favorable media depictions, but it has failed to unveil the complex dynamics of exclusion and violence in the favelas and how both the state and business are implicated in these dynamics.
Some authors discuss the role crises have played in shaping elites’ views of social innovation. For instance, Jan Rus and Gaspar Morquecho Escamilla show that the 1994 Zapatista uprising generated concern and led local elites to search for forms of accommodation with their Mayan neighbors in San Cristóbal de las Casas. In contrast, Rubin and Baierle argue that businesspeople's “perceived absence of crisis facilitated their dismissal of participatory budgeting” (139).
Everyday interactions are central for building trust, as Carlos Forment shows in his chapter on recuperated factories in Argentina. Workers in worker-run factories and the small-scale private entrepreneurs who establish business relations with them have undergone processes of mutual learning through which they have both influenced and made sense of each other's practices. Nonetheless, their relation is fraught with contradictory views about the need to incorporate managerial forms of efficiency and the sustainability of democratic management.
Even though the case studies highlight the tensions and limitations in the relationship between progressive civil society initiatives and businesspeople's view of them, the tone of the book is one of optimism about the future of this relationship. However, as all the authors show, businesspeople's willingness to accept progressive reform has developed in very specific historical conditions. Time will tell whether this willingness will endure changing conditions. This is especially relevant in the current context of the decline of the Pink Tide of progressive governments and the region's bleak economic prospects.
Overall, questions arise about the extent to which these experiences of progressive reform signal a path for a more ambitious and encompassing democratization of social life. Equally important, it remains unclear to what extent businesspeople will be willing to accept, or at least coexist with, reforms that, without being revolutionary, may pose more threats to their material interests, entail meaningful reforms in the distribution of wealth, or expand the space for public scrutiny over fundamental policy decisions.
