Cooperativism among seamstresses in the Casa Verde neighborhood, São Paulo:

opportunities and challenges of a local development initiative

Abstract

Among the various ways to enable and accelerate economic activity, the focus on local and regional development remains little explored. However, in addition to the tangible economic benefit that local articulations bring about, it also enables a sense of belonging and community among the actors that shares the territory, strengthening intangible social assets. One of the initiatives to boost local economic and social potential was developed by a group of development agents in the São Paulo neighborhood of Casa Verde, which trained a collective of seamstresses, several of them in socially vulnerable conditions. One of these agents was the initiative Nosso Núcleo Casa Verde, which worked to transform the collective into a cooperative, identified opportunities in the community and sought partnerships with the Municipal Secretary of Education of São Paulo. Its guiding idea was to integrate the various economic agents into local production and consumption chains. Based on the experience of Nosso Núcleo Casa Verde, this article analyzes the impacts, challenges and opportunities seen by the cooperative and the beneficiary community.