The values and the value of money: hypothesis to commensurate the impact of social projects
Eloisa Helena De Souza Cabral, Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP); Paulo de Tarso Muzy, Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP)
Among the consequences of marketization, subject matter approached at this Conference, is the demand for the impact evaluation of the Third Sector organizations (TSO) projects in partnership with public and private organizations. The transposition of methodologies from public or private areas are not enough to be applied to Third Sector projects. Cabral and Muzy (2009) developed a specific impact evaluation methodology, which reflects the singular nature of this sector, considering explicitly the human values transmitted as fundamental impact components.
This methodology associates the outcomes expressed by facts’ indicators and achieved goals (for example: income improvement; learning; environmental preservation) with a set of values (for example: participation; respect; use of time; confidence) expressed by attitude change indicators and value perception. The quantification of the monetary impact, or monetarization, can show the link between facts and values if we admit hypotheses about the assessment of these measures and the meanings of their monetary expression. It is this article’s intention to contribute to clarify the hypotheses that have an effect on the problem related to the monetarization impact of the TSO projects.
According to Zelizer (ZELIZER, 1994) and Carruthers and Espeland ( CARRUTHERS and ESPELAND, 1998), the value of money is not dissociated from non-monetary relationships, for it transmits, itself, a socially accorded value and acquires various meanings throughout these relationships. The experience of monetarizing impacts allows the examining of the meanings that characterize the money circulation, expressing its social value. The monetary expression summarizes manifestations, condenses information and allows comparisons, although it requires caution in order to avoid simplifications that are strange to the TSO hybrid nature. Therefore, the monetarization becomes an instrument of evaluation, along with others, useful for interpretation and communication of benefits. Clarifying the hypotheses leads to overcome the fungibility and the uniformity of money, establishing a dialogue with economic sociology studies (SMELSER and SWEDBERG, 2005) and shows the meanings of the value of money that should be investigated in circuits of exchange, where the money appears associated with values attributed to goods, and its social ties.
We present the results of the evaluation and impact monetarization of an underage protection project, that promotes after school activities to children at social risk, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The hypotheses of monetarization can be classified in two groups: experimental hypotheses, dealing with social cost investigation, discount taxes and reference standards for the impact; and interpretation hypotheses, dealing with the measurement of the fact and value indicators and the social meaning of the value attributed to goods. The monetarization consists of three factors: the impact index that associates fact and value indicators, the monetary reference value of the impact and the standard number to be achieved. We identify three circuits of exchange of the monetarized value: within the organization, where it circulates as currency, but reflects the hybrid nature of TSO, associating facts and values; within the society, where it circulates as currency and expectancy, meaning the field of fulfillment possibilities, donation, social responsibility; and among the users, where it circulates as values and attitudes, only. The interpretation of the monetarized results confirms Espeland’s and Stevens’ observations (ESPELAND and STEVENS, 1998) that monetarization is not a mere technique, but an exercise of important meaning in the social life of public constituencies which allows the explanation of intangible results, the comparison of alternatives and the attribution to new symbolic meanings that make the objectives of the project valuable.
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