Non-capitalist organizations in Latin America: lessons from the Brazilian Faxinal grassroot community
Abstract
This essay reveals the foundations of an unconventional form of social organization observed in Brazil's South region, the Faxinal. Methodologically, from the perspective that the Faxinal community embodies a traditional form of organization that has decreased dramatically in recent decades and that many of its original features have changed, we decided to adopt a historical approach. This was a means used to grasp traits and characteristics that, although lost or abandoned, may be instructive regarding the study objectives. Historically, capitalism has taken a position of higher order, by disseminating ideological principles and rationality as possibilities of evolution and better life when compared to the traditional foundations of social organization. The hegemonic view of the dominant model, with determinations imposed by instrumental rationality, pose limits to the richness deriving from the multiplicity of beliefs, traditions, particular customs and practices of the Faxinais, as it supports the generation of ideas and thoughts aimed at maintaining the rationale of development and progress. Thus, substantive organizational phenomena, such as the Faxinais, are situated in a historical process of construction, subject to the local social context of Brazilian regions marginalized by the urbanization and rationalization process of the capitalist economy, which has led their members to devise ways of organizing the social, economic, and political life based on principles different from those that support ideologically the capitalist organizational model. Therefore, the characteristics of the Faxinais point out Unconventional Form of Organization that break with the assumptions of the Organizational Studies.
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