“We are supposed to be in the Vienna ballrooms.but I don’t want to learn the waltz”: reflections on the international insertion of Brazilian scholars

One of the most common discussions in Brazilian academia is the pressure to publish, especially in high-impact journals - usually international and published in English. Against this backdrop, it is worth asking where are the Brazilian high-impact journals in our field? How do we publish internationally if we do not have the time or the necessary funds to translate our work? How do we deal with the colonial arrogance of European and American editors?

When searching Brazilian authors who have published in high-impact journals in our area over the last five years (journals classified as A1 in the Brazilian scientific production classification system), we observe that almost all of them have completed their doctorate (sandwich) or postdoctoral research abroad. They have a network of contacts at major conferences such as the Academy of Management (AoM) and the European Group of Organizational Studies (EGOS) and belong to institutions that guarantee research funding. They have even written articles with international co-authors.

Some defend that we should not strive to be part of this “Paris Club” but rather build a south-south network with other countries in Latin America and Africa. Academics from India and China have already perfectly integrated the Anglo-Saxon arena, not least because of the many students who study at US, Canadian, European, and Australian universities.

Others reflect on the hardships of belonging to the global periphery, cultivating the illusion that we should be in the Vienna ballrooms, but we do not work hard enough to learn the waltz - an academic version of the Brazilian mongrel complex.

The fact is that we must be aware, on the one hand, of the risk of incarcerating ourselves in parochialism and, on the other hand, of striving for an international inclusion that can be exclusive. There is a dilemma between being the ostrich or Don Quixote. International congresses are very expensive, and when we look at the editorial boards of the main journals in the area, we see that the presence of Latin Americans is negligible. It is important to update the research carried out by Murphy and Zhu (2012) on authors and editors of the five main journals in the area, in which it is clear that the presence of scholars from South America and Africa is minimal. We must bear this in mind when entering the Vienna ballrooms so as not to delude ourselves that we are welcome - when paying the registration fee - and thus, our place is secured.

International inclusion requires collective work to occupy these places of power in the leading congresses and journals in the area. Of course, everything depends on the individual effort to participate in events and the construction of international networks. However, without collective coordination, we will be limited to a few Don Quixotes fighting worldwide but soon getting tired and running out of money. While we burn our academic budget and desire, we strengthen the (neo)colonization of the field (Murphy & Zhu, 2012).

In our experience in contact with an association of European publishers, it is not rare to hear that our submissions are rejected for three main reasons. Firstly, by form (often not grammatical or spelling errors, but the text does not sound native); secondly, because the theoretical framework does not reflect the current stream of research topics and, finally, due to the lack of implications of the study - the fact that we narrate something that happened in Brazil does not contribute to the advancement of the discussion in the field. In a second moment, when the article goes through the desk review and goes for evaluation, and a revision is requested, these editors complain that the Brazilian authors make vague response letters and, sometimes, disqualify the opinions.

It is crucial to reflect on this feedback and take it seriously, because the same pattern occurs in research submitted to national journals. It is not the rule, but we receive studies where the literature review is limited to name-dropping, does not promote a debate among the authors, and authors do not clearly state the study’s implications and contributions for academia, society, organizations, workers, or government. Furthermore, the fact that we address a phenomenon in a specific region of the country does not guarantee the originality of the research. Also, unfortunately, we observe at the national level the same behavior toward the desk review process and the referees’ opinions as mentioned by international publications: authors respond to disagreements with aggressive emails or vague statements.

Regarding the issue of language, we must recognize that if, on the one hand, it is easier to produce a grammatically correct text, thinking within Anglo-Saxon logic is more difficult. Thus, it is pertinent that we reflect on how languages are socially unequal despite being linguistically equal, given that some, such as English, are considered of “greater value” than others.

The criticisms we receive from editors and referees from “the first world” about how we use language are not built on an ideological void. Our linguistic choices reflect our Weltanschauung, and we perpetuate or contest ideologies that correspond to the “market value” of a language, the power associated with its speakers, and how it manifests in local contexts (Gaibrois & Nentwich, 2020).

Language ideologies are directly related to “[…] political and economic interests, and by relations of domination and subordination” (Philips, 2015, p. 557) since they impact how languages are used and speakers are evaluated in situ. Thus, when faced with theoretical frameworks constructed with peripheral studies, referees and editors disqualify them - except those of critical and decolonial studies. By analyzing this phenomenon through critical discursive psychology, we identify the effect of the privilege of English language proficiency and its status within academia and organizations. In these environments, social positions are unveiled in statements about the language(s) and the ideological basis of proficiency assessments (Tenzer & Pudelko, 2017). Therefore, we argue that language and power have a strong correlation, given that the former is a structuring factor in power dynamics in the sociopolitical arena (Angouri, 2013, p. 574).

In the sociolinguistic tradition, discourse is generally defined as language in action or language in use (Gee, 1999; Hanks, 1996). So, if we want to make ourselves heard, if we want to contribute with new perspectives to management studies, how can we stay out of Vienna ballrooms?

Perhaps we are not that good at the waltz. Maybe we can innovate by adding some samba and funk steps to the classical dance, or even, who knows, our contribution will be a critical view of how these European dances are seen from the sidelines (Mignolo, 2017). Metaphorically, a similar movement occurred in Brazil at the beginning of the nineteenth-century with the arrival of the French artistic mission, whose origins are uncertain. Some historians claim that this mission resulted from the foresight of an enlightened government led by Dom João VI, who was concerned with modernizing the country and sought to give it a good structure for teaching arts and crafts. Others argue that this project was idealized and organized by Joachim Lebreton, who, together with former supporters of Napoleon, would have fallen out of favor with the Bourbon Restoration and engaged in an undertaking in the New World. Only when they arrived here would they have been recognized and embraced by the government of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves.

In any case, the French artistic mission was exalted as a decisive milestone in nineteenth-century Brazilian art and remained the guideline of historiography until the mid-twentieth century. It introduced neoclassicism, the Europeanization of Rio de Janeiro, and at the limit, the civilizing process of the colony. This Eurocentric view negatively affects a correct appreciation of national art since it results in the depreciation of colonial production, primarily baroque. According to Squeff (2005), when we recognize French artists as continuing the civilizing process in America — initiated by the Portuguese, we disqualify national artistic manifestations. Like the emergence of the modernists, this hegemonic position was revised in the first decades of the twentieth century, and the Baroque was recovered as part of a nationalist movement and understood as the nation’s “true soul.” This historical reflection understands the French influence as a “consented invasion” - a violent and repressive intervention in the natural Brazilian cultural development, which had recently matured in Baroque artists such as Mestre Ataíde and Aleijadinho. However, with official support for neoclassical artists, the transition to the new aesthetic was accelerated and troublesome.

To what extent do we not overestimate the new cultural missions, this time American, Canadian, and European? What happened to our academic Baroque?

Taking part in the Vienna ballrooms does not mean, as Castro and Danowski (2014) advocates, assuming a ‘univocity’ when we encounter the other, but rather a ‘controlled misunderstanding,’ which must be done from a reflective shift to the position of the other.

We cannot forget that language is used in loco to enact activities, perspectives, and identities (Gee, 1999). It allows us to go beyond “talking” to analyze its effects and the role it plays in the social construction of the world, in negotiations in the intra-place and non-connection, in the resistance born from the asymmetries of power and flourishes within the inclusion/exclusion dichotomy.

As we reflect on these challenges and opportunities, I invite you to enjoy this new edition of Cadernos EBAPE.BR.

In the article “Horizons of decolonization in marketing: a proposal based on the critique of coloniality of the globalization of markets theory,” Míriam de Souza Ferreira and Marcus Wilcox Hemais, analyze how coloniality is present in the theory of globalization of markets developed by Theodore Levitt, according to the decolonial perspective, with particular attention to the concept of coloniality of power - and its derivations, the coloniality of knowledge and the coloniality of being.

In “Entrepreneurship Education in the Arts: perspectives and challenges,” Alexandre Leite de Ávila and Eduardo Paes Barreto Davel integrate, consolidate, contextualize, and discuss academic production on Entrepreneurial Education in the Arts, which is essential to the development of artistic entrepreneurship, a phenomenon essential to the creative economy, given that artists can learn how to generate value through such entrepreneurship and turn their creations into something more tangible.

In “Critical modernity, creative thinking, and innovation: startups in Brazil,” Isabella Francisca Freitas Gouveia de Vasconcelos, Frédéric Lefrere, Elias Cury Houaiss, and Almir Rogério da Silva Souza discuss the criteria that influence a venture capital fund in its decision-making process when selecting the best startups in innovation. The study seeks to understand the view of investors, venture capital fund professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Ana Maria Jerônimo Soares, Felipe Luiz Neves Bezerra de Melo, and Luciano Menezes Bezerra Sampaio discuss whether having entrepreneurial parents affects their children’s propensity to be entrepreneurs. They analyze the main factors/transmission channels and whether gender homophily plays a moderating role in this effect in “Influence of parental support on entrepreneurial intention of university students: empirical evidence in Brazil.”

“Translating management ideas: consultants as language artificers” by Jéssica Monteiro Valverde and Samir Adamoglu de Oliveira, aims to understand how organizational consultants use linguistic elements to circulate management ideas.

In the sixth article, “Dimensions of the use of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Recruitment and Selection (R&S): benefits, trends, and Resistance,” Daniel Blumen and Vanessa Martines Cepellos investigate the dimensions of the use of technological devices, among them artificial intelligence in recruitment and selection processes from the perspective of recruiters from companies in the pharmaceutical sector established in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Luís Fernando Silva Andrade and Ana Flávia Rezende propose developments between socio-spatial formation as a manifestation of structural racism, with mass incarceration and violence against the black population, in a geography of survival which can bring contributions to the turning space in organizational studies, in “City, incarceration, and violence: geography of Black survival for organizational studies.”

“Youth, dispositional heritage and situated learning: proposition of a theoretical model for research” by Jhony Pereira Moraes, Silas Dias Mendes Costa, and Diogo Henrique Helal is a theoretical essay that connects the discussion between popular media, dispositional heritage, and situated learning, proposing a theoretical model for future research. The authors suggest that the dispositional heritage of young people from popular backgrounds (inclinations, behaviors, and social practices) be forged in individual and contextual trajectories, implying the process of situated learning and socialization.

“Transfer of knowledge of retirement workers in a higher education institution” by Emanuele Canali Fossatti and Anelise Rebelato Mozzato discusses the importance and contribution of transferring workers’ knowledge in retirement in a higher education institution.

In the article “Frames of violence: a reading on the pressures for the inclusion of violence against women in Brazilian public policies,” Yohana Wihby Ventura, Patrícia Maria Emerenciano de Mendonça, and Jacqueline Isaac Machado Brigagão identify and analyze the frames mobilized by feminist movements to dealing with violence against women and discuss its influences on public policies.

This issue also presents a bibliographic review by Marcello Vinicius Doria Calvosa entitled “Is strategic planning still valid and effective for contemporary organizations?”.

In the section of case studies and teaching cases, Eduardo Russo and Ariane Roder Figueira present “The political risk of the Ukrainian war for the global fuel market: the case of British Petroleum in Russia,” which is an excellent learning tool in the disciplines that deal with oil geopolitics, business strategy, political risk, or international business.

We wish you a pleasant read.

REFERÊNCIAS

• Angouri, J. (2013). The multilingual reality of the multinational workplace: language policy and language use. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 34(6), 564-581. Recuperado de https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2013.807273
  » https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2013.807273
• Castro, E. V., & Danowski, D. (2014). Há mundo por vir? Ensaio sobre os medos e os fins Florianópolis, SC: Instituto SocioAmbiental.
• Gaibrois, C., & Nentwich, J. (2020). The dynamics of privilege: how employees of a multinational corporation construct and contest the privileging effects of English proficiency. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 37(4), 468-482. Recuperado dehttps://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1563
  » https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1563
• Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method London, UK: Routledge
• Hanks, W. F. (1996). Language form and communicative practices. In J. J. Gumperz, & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 232-270). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Mignolo, W. (2017). Colonidade: o lado mais escuro da modernidade. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 32(94), e329402. Recuperado de https://doi.org/10.17666/329402/2017
  » https://doi.org/10.17666/329402/2017
• Murphy, J., & Zhu, J. (2012). Neo-colonialism in the academy? Anglo-American domination in management journals. Organization, 19(6), 915-927. Recuperado dehttps://doi.org/10.1177/1350508412453097
  » https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508412453097
• Philips, S. (2015). Language ideologies. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton(Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (2a ed., pp. 557-575). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Squeff, L. (2005). Revendo a missão francesa: a missão artística de 1816, de Afonso d’Escragnolle Taunay. In Anais do 1º Encontro de História da Arte da Unicamp, São Paulo, SP.
• Tenzer, H., & Pudelko, M. (2017). The influence of language differences on power dynamics in multinational teams. Journal of World Business, 52(1) 45-61. Recuperado dehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2016.11.002
  » https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2016.11.002

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  15 May 2023
• Date of issue
  Mar-Apr 2023