NGO Organizing for Environmental Sustainability in Brazil: Meaningful Work, Commonality, and Contradiction

Abstract

Brazilian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with missions centered on the sustainable preservation of land, water, forests, and other environmental factors have garnered much attention because of rapid deforestation in the Amazon, global concerns about the ozone layer, water and energy issues, and effects on indigenous ways of life and knowledge as well as the Brazilian economy (Correia, 2016). With publicity and events surrounding the 2016 Olympics, reports celebrated the human and bio-diversity in Brazil but also displayed the poverty, political instabilities, and crime in Brazil, as well as consequences of the Brazilian Zika virus (Cugola et al., 2016). With such broad and deep opportunities and needs in Brazil, NGOs feel pressures from diverse sectors and challenges inherent in the meanings and conduct of sustainability work itself.Specifically, Brazilian NGO and global professionals engaging in sustainability efforts, find that they must manage tensions in their political positions, social practices, and daily activities (Fátima do Carmo Guerra, dos Santos de Sousa Teodosio, & Mswaka, 2016;Mackin, 2016; see Mitra & Buzzanell, 2017). These tensions are symbolic as they enact work that they perceive to be meaningful but frustrating, and material as they seek impact through short-term deliverables but struggle with long-term solutions within complex interdependent human and material systems (Fátima do Carmo Guerra et al., 2016;Mitra & Buzzanell, 2017). Tensions also emerge in their internal and external ethical responsibilities, including their communicative labor.According to Mumby (2016; see also Carlone, 2008), communicative labor refers to processes of mutuality, authenticity, and affect through which people share experiences. Applied to branding, communicative labor is key to the creation of value in work, production and consumption, and erosion of personal life through emphasis on labor (Mumby, 2016; see also communicative labor affirming hard work as virtuous, in Dempsey & Sanders, 2010). Applied to NGOs, Dempsey (2009) explores how grassroots organizations, particularly environmental justice and sustainability NGOs, engage in communication labor, defined here as the creation of distinctive organizational identities 709325S GOXXX10.

Struggling with Meaningfulness when Context Shifts: Volunteer Work in a German Refugee Shelter

“…Furthermore, our study promises to develop when and how a state of ‘overflow’ is likely, which helps to understand the nature of contextual shifts more generally. A limited number of studies has explored how contextual shifts challenge individuals’ constructions of meaningfulness (Barrett and Dailey, ; Cohen et al, ; Long et al, ; Marchiori and Buzzanell, ). However, they mostly study how long‐term cultural shifts affect meaningfulness, e.g., generational shifts (Long et al, ).…”

“…However, they mostly study how long‐term cultural shifts affect meaningfulness, e.g., generational shifts (Long et al, ). This long‐term perspective makes it difficult to theorise how contextual shifts and experiences of meaningfulness are intertwined in everyday practice, as contextual shifts are typically seen as a given (Barrett and Dailey, ; Long et al, ) or primarily studied through interview accounts (Marchiori and Buzzanell, ). Drawing on observational, interview and documentary data enables us to study more closely how contextual shifts flow into subjective experiences of meaningfulness.…”

“…Socio‐historical discourses provide shared meanings of work (Alvesson and Kärreman, ) maintained not primarily by individuals or organisations but by culture and society. These discourses are resources for constructing work as meaningful (Broadfoot et al, , see also Kuhn et al, ; Lair et al, ; Marchiori and Buzzanell, ). Carton (), for instance, shows how President Kennedy provided discursive resources for NASA employees to frame their work as meaningful.…”

Resistant Transparency and Nonprofit Labor: Challenging Precarity in the Art + Museum Wage Transparency Campaign

“…As such, their practices supply a practical example of strategies aimed at building solidarity and refusing the increasing individuation of workers (Friedman, 2014). Building on previous research challenging discourses of meaningfulness (Dempsey & Sanders, 2010; Marchiori & Buzzanell, 2017) and volunteerism within the nonprofit sector (Ganesh & McAllum, 2009, 2012; Kramer et al, 2015; McNamee et al, 2015), we highlight how nonprofit workers are actively contesting the increasing demand that they engage in unpaid labor. AMT forwards a critique of volunteerism, detailing its impacts on wage discrepancies, unequal access to resources and employability, and housing and food insecurity.…”

“…This feminized reproductive labor, particularly work associated with caring for others, is poorly compensated within a capitalist system prizing profit-making (Federici, 2012). Because the nonprofit sector is tied to meaningfulness, its assumed intrinsic value provides justification for unpaid labor and low wages (Dempsey & Sanders, 2010; Hinton & Maclurcan, 2017; Marchiori & Buzzanell, 2017). Discourses of meaningfulness function as a compensatory move within conditions of generalized precarity.…”