Social representation of NGOs according to opinion formers in Rio de Janeiro

• Autor(a) principal: Vergara, Sylvia Constant
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Ferreira, Victor Cláudio Paradela
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/6582
• topic: social representations; opinion formers; free evocation of words; legitimacy.

The concept of non-governmental organization (NGO) is polysemic, not having yet been established a theoretical landmark of what should be considered an NGO. More than a mere semantic issue, this fact reveals the difficulty in understanding the different faces of those organizations. Even the concept of third sector, under which they are classified, is problematic. Nevertheless, this difficulty has not hindered their growth; on the contrary, NGOs have widely expanded during the last decades. In order to understand this phenomenon, this article used the social representation theory and tried to identify the social representation of NGOs according to opinion formers in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The evocation of words technique was chosen for data collection, after which the respondents should agree or disagree with the statements presented. The research reveals that the social representation of NGOs encompasses several ideas with a positive connotation, showing that society has legitimized this kind of organization, thus supporting its expansion.