Women ‘strategies of housing movements in face of Covid-19 in Brazil and Argentina

stratégies spatiales des mouvements sociaux face au covid-19 au Brésil et en Argentine

Abstract

The strategies of women in social movements fighting for housing in Latin America in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic will be investigated through semi-structured interviews with participants from the Movimento Sem Terra Leste 1 (MST-Leste1) in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos (MOI) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Reproductive and care work, and its gender, class and race biases were a topic of debate during the pandemic, and the inability of the state to resolve demands and the growing situation of social vulnerability led to the emergence of numerous forms of mutual aid in popular territories. In the housing estates produced by the population organised on the basis of self-management, solidarity networks structured by women, who were also protagonists in the design and production of these spaces, functioned systematically. The interviews demonstrate the protagonism of women in the face of reproductive demands, highlighting that the political dimension of collectivised care, the organisational praxis based on self-management of popular movements, and the availability of common spaces were essential to face the pandemic.