Anais
Resumo do trabalho
Estudos Organizacionais · Organizações Alternativas
Título
The care among the chaos: The Liminal ESEFID Shelter
Palavras-chave
liminarity
immediatism
Climate emergency
Autores
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Lucas CasagrandeUNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL (UFRGS)
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Martín Andrés Moreira ZamoraUNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL (UFRGS)
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Guillermo CruzUNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL (UFRGS)
Resumo
Introdução
In May 2024, catastrophic floods in Rio Grande do Sul displaced over 600,000 people. Amidst the chaos, a wave of solidarity emerged. University students organized a shelter at the ESEFID gymnasium, eventually housing 690 people and 80 pets. This paper analyzes this event as an alternative form of organization, moving beyond traditional structures toward the liminal and immediate, to give voice to those on the margins of society.
Problema de Pesquisa e Objetivo
The paper aims to analyze the nature of the ESEFID shelter as an "immediatist organization". The objective is to understand how this shelter, organized by volunteers on the margins of formal structures, operated effectively during the climate emergency. The study explores how liminality enabled a community-based organization founded on care, contrasting it with the bureaucratic and often inadequate response from the State.
Fundamentação Teórica
The paper draws on the concepts of liminality, communitas, and immediatism. Liminality describes a state on the margins of structured systems where formal roles are blurred. In these liminal spaces, communitas can emerge—a spontaneous, egalitarian social bond based on solidarity that transcends hierarchy. This is linked to immediatism, an organizational form focused on direct experience and the avoidance of mediation by formal rules or structures.
Metodologia
This qualitative study conducted nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ESEFID shelter volunteers (students and professors). Participants were recruited using the "Snowball" sampling technique. The interviews, conducted between August and November 2024, were analyzed using Content Analysis to interpret messages and their context, while maintaining participant anonymity for ethical reasons.
Análise dos Resultados
The analysis reveals the shelter's chaotic start, with students taking a primary organizational role due to their knowledge of the campus and experience with student movements. The guiding principle was an "ethics of care," where the well-being of the sheltered was prioritized above all else. This clashed with the State's response, which was perceived as providing a heavy police presence instead of care, while the City Hall's management was described as absent and unhelpful.
Conclusão
The ESEFID shelter's success existed despite, not because of, formal state structures. The organization flourished in a liminal space where volunteers subverted traditional hierarchies, with students becoming managers and professors becoming laborers. This experience "re-signified" the University, allowing it to reclaim a more plural and substantive spirit beyond bureaucratic constraints.
Contribuição / Impacto
This study contributes to the theory of alternative organizations by analyzing the shelter as a liminal, immediatist organization.
Referências Bibliográficas
Bey, H. (1994). Immediatism. AK Press.
Meira, F. B. (2014). Liminal organization: Organizational emergence within solidary economy in Brazil. Organization, 21(5), 713-729.
Turner, V. W. (1974) ‘Passages, Margins and Poverty: Religious Symbols of Communitas’, in V. W. Turner (ed.) Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, pp. 231–71. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Turner, V. W. (2011). The Ritual Process. New Jersey: Aldine Transaction.
Tragtenberg, M. (2002). A delinquência acadêmica. verve. revista semestral autogestionária do Nu-Sol., (2).
Meira, F. B. (2014). Liminal organization: Organizational emergence within solidary economy in Brazil. Organization, 21(5), 713-729.
Turner, V. W. (1974) ‘Passages, Margins and Poverty: Religious Symbols of Communitas’, in V. W. Turner (ed.) Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, pp. 231–71. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Turner, V. W. (2011). The Ritual Process. New Jersey: Aldine Transaction.
Tragtenberg, M. (2002). A delinquência acadêmica. verve. revista semestral autogestionária do Nu-Sol., (2).