Bread for advancing the right to the city: academia, grassroots groups and the first cooperative bakery in a Chilean informal settlement

Abstract

This article describes the creation of a cooperative bakery whose significance is fourfold: (1) it is the first located inside a Chilean campamento (informal settlement); (2) it was organized and managed by inhabitants, mostly Latin American immigrant women; (3) its implementation faced diverse conflicts that serve as lessons for similar experiences; and (4) it provides evidence from the field about strategies for advancing the right to the city agenda. The bakery was conceived by the community as a strategy to control the means of production. The study used a critical research approach, whereby researchers assumed an active role in the community processes around the formation of the cooperative. The article discusses the potential of cooperative socioeconomic organization as a path to developing community autonomy. It presents the Rayito de Sol bakery with its highs and lows, and reflects on the results of the project as a spatial, social and political approach to the relationship between academic communities and public institutions.