Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to present an experience of self-managed housing and work struggle led by an urban social movement, and to analyse the challenges that this movement has faced in the process of constructing and carrying out its project. The case study is a housing occupation on public land, named after Solano Trindade, organised by the Movimento Nacional de Luta pela Moradia (National Movement for Housing Rights in Brazil [MNLM]) in Duque de Caxias, a city on the periphery of the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. This project's main innovation is its development of a partnership between the social movement and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) for the collective construction of technical and political training associating housing to emancipated labour. This training is constructed through processes of building housing units, as well as through urbanisation, urban services and agro-ecological products developed with alternative technologies. We will try to highlight the tension between scientific and popular knowledge in the process of constructing this alternative city project. The partnerships between social movements and their technical advisers have shown themselves to be strategically advantageous for expanding innovative possibilities through horizontal exchanges of knowledge. In this relationship, distinct ideals of urban well-being and cultural values are constantly at play. Private versus collective property, fenced versus open lots, allotments versus condominiums, high versus low density, single family houses versus multifamily buildings, and private versus collective kitchens and laundries are some of the tensions present throughout the development of the project.

Our intention is to examine the transformative potential of certain collective practices carried out by social organisations under the banner of decommodifying the city. We will analyse an experience of low-income habitat production based on the material and symbolic necessities of those who use the city in their everyday lives. In this sense, we examine insurgent practices that confront the neoliberal project imposed through violence and ideology. These practices question the parameters of urban well-being created by a mercantile rationality, seeking to develop an alternative project for the city by means of technological experimentation and democratic management.