ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates, at least for Latin America, the possibilities of a development on a basis other than the subsumption of national economies to the logic of global capital. For most countries, the existing economic crisis is likely to become the normal situation. The new barrio movements represent a collective response to the deepening economic crisis in Latin America. Like the informal economy, the cooperative household sector produces for markets. Households, then, will be treated as fundamental units in the political economy of survival. The barrio economy is an expression of complex economic and social relations, involving formal, informal, and cooperative-household sectors. The latter requires social mobilization as a decisive step toward self-empowerment and raises a number of relevant questions for research, such as the role of external agents, contending ideologies, alternative leadership styles, and the choice of strategy.
