SOLIDARY ECONOMY: A COUNTER-HEGEMONIC WAY OF ORGANIZING WORK IN THE FIELD OF MENTAL HEALTH

Abstract

The study aims to: understand the impacts of the experience at work on the life trajectory of people in psychological distress who participate in a solidary economic enterprise; identify possibilities for confronting the capitalist context based on a solidary proposal; and reflect on inclusion at work in the light of the theoretical framework of the Ecology of Knowledge. This is a study with a qualitative approach, which makes use of the oral history of life, presenting the narrative of a member of Recriart (a solidary economic enterprise in the field of mental health), analyzed from the perspective of the sociologies of absences and emergencies and of the ecology of knowledge, a theoretical-philosophical framework developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos. The results point to the high transformative, emancipatory and emergency potential of work based on the solidary economy; Recriart plays a fundamental role in the narrator's life, since, in addition to being a workspace, it means valuing, belonging, exercising citizenship, expanding autonomy, (re)structuring routine and developing affectivity. We conclude by demarcating the great potential for the emergence of work based on the solidarity economy, which allows people in psychological distress to experience alternatives that fit within the horizon of concrete possibilities and confrontation with capitalism.