Brief Paper 4/1999: A emergência da identidade “Raça” no contexto das empresas europeias em África

Abstract:

Transnational Connections” is the significant title of a book by the Swedish anthropologist Ulf Hannerz (1996), whose analysis focuses on the problem of the multiple intercultural encounters which globalisation provides, namely at the business level. The internationalisation of the Portuguese economy suffered a significant delay and “missed the opportunity” to follow the classic rules which governed the internationalisation of the North American economy, from the post-war period, and of the European economy in the 60s and 70s. At that time, a company internationalised by choice, as soon as it had a solid base in its home country, and it was mainly important for it to obtain economic, financial and legal information on the target investment country. The globalisation of markets, a process that had already begun at the end of the 1960s, but which has greatly accelerated in the last decade, especially since the fall of the so-called World Socialist System, has also introduced innovations at this level. Nowadays, companies are often obliged to internationalise themselves or risk disappearing and the value of information and knowledge has grown exponentially (Santos, 1997; Costa; 1997). It is no longer enough to obtain general data on the various eligible markets, it is necessary to have in-depth knowledge of variables that go far beyond the cost of factors or the rules of repatriation of capital, because today, in the face of the standardisation of technologies and the ease of reproduction of processes, competitiveness is ensured by originality and this depends heavily on the human factor, especially in contexts where capital is not abundant. A emergência da identidade “Raça” no contexto das empresas europeias em África (The emergence of the “Race” identity in the context of European companies in Africa) was prepared for a paper on race at the CEsA 1999 Seminar: The problematic of development – history and current contributions from a transdisciplinary perspective, Conference on Strategic Identities for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: gender and race, 23rd June 1999.

Quotation:

Calapez, Ana Célia. 1999. “A emergência da identidade “Raça” no contexto das empresas europeias em África”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA Brief papers nº 4-1999