Cooperativismo de consumo e apropriação do espaço geográfico: a atuação da Coop na região metropolitana de São Paulo

Abstract

This study investigates consumer cooperativism, focusing on the Coop that operates in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo and its dynamics that challenge capitalist accumulat io n. Although there is much academic research on cooperatives, consumer cooperativism lacks academic work, especially in Geography. The objective of the work produced is to bring the discussion of consumer cooperatives to the academic world, highlighting their character of appropriation of geographic space by the community to the detriment of other forms of privatizing appropriation. To this end, we used qualitative research with a series of documents provided by the Coop itself, as well as interviews carried out with members, Cooperative workers and their leaders, and also a bibliographical review focused on the history of English consumer cooperatives from the 18th to the 20th centuries. By analyzing Coop's practices, the thesis observes its ability to transform certain points of space where surplus value shifts from the direction it would typically go in a capitalist social form. From a reading of historic a l materialism, the thesis analyzes the paths to surplus value and Coop's ability to change these paths. Despite its transformative potential with anti-capitalist practices, the research carried out also pointed to the low degree of insurgency in engagement of people linked to the Coop, what we call alienated insurgency. The ideas of a libertarian municipalism in which the communit y appropriates economic means made the thesis analyze the Coop's ability to verticalize and showed that it is limited today. The interviews and documents also revealed a Governance that, despite having more than one million people with the right to vote, has very low participat io n, making Coop present a potential governance structure for the community, but currently little used. The thesis points to future investigations that can be carried out to increase the debate on consumer cooperativism as a tool for anti-capitalist transformation, even used by typically insurgent social movements.