Instituições, dinâmicas territoriais e os pequenos negócios no enfrentamento das crises socioeconômicas : o caso de Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, Brasil.

Abstract

Territorial dynamics are the conditions and reflection of the actions and relationships of and between actors and institutions that occur in the economic and territorial development of society. Institutions, for their part, help to reduce the uncertainties present in all human interactions, especially in market exchanges. For this reason, interaction and cooperation between institutions and organizations creates the opportunities that arise in the territories. So, this thesis discusses theoretical and analytical elements based on institutionalism and territorial dynamics, in order to support the understanding of regional economic development. In this study, we start from an understanding of public and private institutions and organizations based on the New Institutional Economics (NEI), which helps to elucidate the main territorial dynamics established in the municipality of Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais - Brazil, which contributed to small businesses facing the cycles of socioeconomic crises in the period from 2008 to 2021.This study is justified by the importance of the territory of Sete Lagoas, which integrates, centralizes and polarizes the immediate region of the same name, with an important industrial center. In methodological terms, the support came from the use of a qualitative approach, through a review of bibliographical references and documentary analysis, in order to elucidate the empirical data obtained through field collection, using content analysis. For obtaining field data, interviews were conducted with fifteen small business owners, as well as with five representatives of public and private organizations: Associação Comercial de Sete Lagoas - ACI; Centro Educacional Monsenhor Messias - UNIFEMM; Prefeitura Municipal de Sete Lagoas - PMSL; Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas - Sebrae and Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias Metalúrgicas, Mecânicas e Material Elétrico de Sete Lagoas - STIMMMESL. Therefore, in order to analyze the trajectory of Sete Lagoas' economic development, we used the analytical framework of path dependence, using the five steps in Mahoney's methodology (2001). The results showed that public and private organizations are responsible for establishing a pattern of dependency. However, they cannot produce the results just by their own activities. Therefore, the territory's economic performance is based on the actions of local players. Thus, a set of interconnected factors, such as the territory's privileged location, its proximity to the capital Belo Horizonte and the links between local public and private organizations and federal and state public policies, have motivated investments in infrastructure and made it possible to move the steel industry to the municipality, as well as diversifying the industrial park. As a result of these transformations, investments in higher and technical education were favored, increasingly qualifying and specializing in the municipality's workforce.