02.2 W H AT I S A U T O G E S TÃ O ?
INTRODUCTION Autogestão, or self management, is based on principles of democratic participation, mutual aid (mutirão), solidarity, collective action, and capacity building. It is distinct from other models of housing production in that future residents have complete agency over each stage of the project. As it is in many countries, the production of housing for low-income housing in Brazil is typically led by a collaboration of government, private developers, and construction companies. The households that eventually live in these projects have no say over their design or management, while developers construct them in an effort to minimize costs and maximize profits. This means that units are just large enough to comply with government standards, public spaces are haphazardly designed, and there is little concern for resident needs. Autogestão is a compelling and viable alternative to this arrangement. In keeping with democratic principles, it is the process through which families collectively manage the planning, design, and construction processes via popular participation. In autogestão, communities develop the technical capacity and political understanding necessary to realize their own housing and fight for their rights. All participants contribute their labor to the production of housing and engage in mutual aid, paying it forward to those still waiting for their own housing even after they have received their own. These contributions take several forms, including manual labor, decision making, and advocacy. Most of this labor is performed by women. 20 • INTRODUCTION
Put simply, autogestão is the construction and management of housing by and for the people that live in it. It is not a farfetched fantasy; the tens of thousands of housing units produced through self management in Brazil are wellconstructed, beautiful, and aligned with resident needs and desires. When necessary, technical experts are brought in to work on projects for large-scale electrical needs, elevator installations, and plumbing. However, this is most typical with very large projects. For smaller housing projects, housing is often produced exclusively by members of the movement with assistance from technical advisory firms. Furthermore, self-managed housing developments will remain affordable, providing security and peace of mind to their residents by removing threats of eviction or gentrification. In order to determine how to distribute available autogestão units, the movements have developed a sophisticated participation-based point system. Under this system, members are selected based on their contributions to the movement: the more sweat equity volunteered by a member, the sooner housing will be made available to them. The movement ensures this point system is as equitable as possible, accounting for differences in ability and the time members are able to contribute. In order to do so, members are allowed to send family members or close friends as proxies to volunteer their time or labor and thereby receive participation points that will assist them in being granted an autogestão unit. Each housing project is managed by a series of commissions. Members must join at least one commission, in which tasks vary. For instance, environmental commissions investigate the conditions of the project and to ensure adherence to legally binding environmental standards and often consider landscape architecture, pollution mitigation, and stormwater management, depending on the preferences of residents. Financial commissions seek to secure funding for the project and budget for renovations. Additional commissions vary, but can include accounting, women’s empowerment, logistics coordination for meetings, labor and accident prevention,
