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Abstract
This research report emerged within the context of a larger research project, analysing the changes over two decades in popular political activism in four neighbourhoods (bairros) on the northern periphery of Sào Paulo. During the late 1980s, rising unemployment levels and especially youth unemployment prompted local activists to embark on employment generating projects. They established popular cooperatives - cooperatives that, unlike the elite cooperatives frequently formed within the Brazilian economy, were supposed to create communities in which the Brazilian poor could live, work, and earn together without replicating the exploitative relationships commonly found within a market economy.Footnote1 In this endeavour, local activists have received strong support from the progressive Catholic Church and Catholic ‘radicals’ of the Left. While emerging out of a concern for local unemployment, popular cooperatives constituted very much a political project. They represent an attempt to create a new basis for a more dignified survival of Brazil's popular classes, turning them from mere survivors into fully participating political and economic citizens.
This was the working definition for “popular cooperatives” given by Adriana, the main character in this story.
This was the working definition for “popular cooperatives” given by Adriana, the main character in this story.
Notes
This was the working definition for “popular cooperatives” given by Adriana, the main character in this story.