Sedimentation in the field: the role of previous organizations as resource for social mobility.

The aim of this research is to understand how a small group of business people was able to change their social positions, leading to the creation of an organization, RNSP, which achieved a central position in the political sphere in São Paulo city. We draw on history and institutional theory constructs (historical institutionalism, rhetorical history, institutional remembering, and sedimentation) to understand how RNSP created a subject position that enables the organization's power, consequently achieving numerous results for the city. We conclude that the business group's trajectory allowed the sedimentation of new institutions that benefit these actors, changing their subject positions to centrality. Rhetorical history was used to show only the history and institutional changes that would be valued in RNSP's creation (an organization in the political sphere that proposes accountability and non-partisanship) and institutional memory permitted RNSP to engage many civil society organizations, both increasing the organization centrality in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]