In the last two decades the intervention mechanisms of the private sector in social issues have been intensified, ranging across multiple areas such as education. The text discusses aspects concerning this relationship through two approaches: the first deals with the historical moment of transition from economic individualism to the programmatic economy with emphasis on the social practices of capitalist management, vested in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It subsequently reviews projects and proposals for education in the current Brazilian context from different segments of the business sector. The analysis reveals similarities between the policies and practices of the private sector regarding social issues in different contexts and emphasizes the intensification of the processes of institutionalization of the "company with a soul" at the present time by the increment in the manner and method of business participation in schools.
Public and private sectors partnerships; Capitalist philanthropy; Social issues