The double dimension of self-management: Organization and work in waste pickers´ cooperatives of Buenos Aires

Abstract

This article aims to provide conceptual tools for the understanding of the organizational modalities of associated work experiences in Argentina, from the self-management practices analysis in the Buenos Aires City cartoneros´ cooperatives. To this end, it is proposed an analytical scheme that considers self-management in two dimensions. An economic-organizational dimension, which refers to the management of the resources mobilized by organizations, to the construction of links with the actors that guarantee their access and inflow, the delimitation of forms of work organization and the development of strategies to consolidate the collectives associates. And a political dimension, which includes the forms of decision-making, the construction of meeting and negotiation spaces and the promotion of the participation and commitment of the associates. Under this scheme, this article focus on the strategies, obstacles and tensions that cross the development of Recuperando Futuro Cooperative, in the context of the city's environmental policy changes. The results presented arise from a research carried out in cartoneros´ cooperatives of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) in the period 2007-2016, from a qualitative methodological design based on a case study. Triangulation of data and sources was used for the construction and analysis of the information collected.