Dilemmas of Co-production: How Street Waste Pickers Became Excluded from Inclusive Recycling in São Paulo

Abstract

Under what conditions do collaborations between informal workers and the state in public service provision lead to socially beneficial synergies, and when might they intensify inequalities? This article, based on 14 months of ethnographic research, addresses this question through a comparative case study of two attempts to co-produce recycling services in São Paulo. The first, a grassroots organizing effort in the 1980s and 1990s, improved the incomes and conditions of hundreds of waste pickers and inspired a national upsurge of waste picker organizing. The second, an ambitious overhaul of waste management in the early 2000s, generated about 1,500 jobs but functionally excluded the very population of street waste pickers it was designed to benefit. The findings suggest that co-production is most likely to lead to pro-poor outcomes if concerted efforts are made to level inequalities between poor constituents and more powerful stakeholders during processes of policy design and implementation.

The politics of coproduction during Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’: Water, housing, and waste in comparative perspective

“…The recycling plant, by contrast, was a hygienic, policed space, complete with a security guard, who initially sought to ensure that workers did not make off with anything from the conveyer belt. In each case, opportunities for the organized citizens involved in coproduction to influence the laws and policies that impacted them were limited, echoing problems reported elsewhere in the coproduction literature (see, for example, Mitlin & Bartlett, 2018;Ojeda et al, 2018;Moretto et al, 2018;Li et al, 2019;Rosaldo, 2022). The problems of translation that we have discussed in each case illustrate this (see also, Dinerstein, 2017Dinerstein, , 2020.…”

“…Social collectives can therefore build collective autonomous control of infrastructure and services through coproduction. Mitlin acknowledges, however, that this is not always the case, and organized citizens involved in coproduction often lack the collective unity and external support to build collective autonomy, which results in low-income families and communities being marginalized or excluded from public service provisioning, a particularly important feature of our Uruguayan case study (see also Meagher, 2013;Watson, 2014;Rusca, 2015;Adams & Boateng, 2018;Rosaldo, 2022). Mitlin (2008) hints at the political subjectivities that emerge through these processes, arguing that coproduction creates space for organized citizens to develop relations and practices that strengthen collective consciousness and identities.…”

Top-Down and Bottom-Up Formalization: Waste Pickers’ Struggles for Labor Rights in São Paulo and Bogotá

“…The long-term success of worker-driven formalization hinges not only on workers’ capacity to contest state power, however, but to collaborate with it. Recent literature highlights how informal worker organizations and state agencies partner to co-produce public services such as education, transportation, home care work, construction, and waste management (Meagher 2013; Rosaldo 2022). Well-designed co-production processes may generate socially beneficial synergies by lowering the cost, expanding the breadth, and improving the design of public services—especially for underserved communities.…”

Care cooperatives in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile; a look at their hinderers and opportunities to achieve development

“…(ILO, 2018), It shows that, despite the labor markets' significant heterogeneity, there are some common and unique characteristics that are worth highlighting (Solís et al, 2019). The prevalence of self-employed, unskilled, and transitory employment, which account for two out of every five jobs in various Latin American nations, is one factor that would explain the predominance of the informal sector in the region (ECLAC, 2017), which is evident in a wealth of new scholarship that focuses on examining the circumstances of this type of workers today (Toledo 2022;Rosaldo 2022;Amarante et al 2021, Arroyo, 2020.…”

“…The economic instability and social vulnerability prevalent in Latin American countries (ILO, 2018;Sols et al, 2019) have created an environment conducive to the emergence of cooperatives as a form of collective organization. These cooperatives have positioned themselves as key supporters of the social economy in countries like Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile (Toledo 2022;Rosaldo 2022;Amarante et al 2021;Arroyo, 2020). Notably, a specific type of cooperative has arisen, with a focus on providing care services.…”