Connections of the South Zone: participative mapping of actors, actions and solidary relations

Abstract

We report a field research that aimed to map actors and social relations that characterize the Solidarity Economy of the South Zone of the city of Sao Paulo. We conducted thirteen Participative Mapping workshops in which participants located 150 social actors on the map of the region, including informal collectives, civil associations and state entities. The methodology of Social Network Analysis made it possible to identify, among social actors, the presence of more than 200 connections and twenty social connectors who act as territorial protagonists, promoting solidary relations and developing public actions in the areas of culture, education, health, food security, social assistance and urban waste management. Finally, we carried out a collective interpretation of maps and diagrams that demonstrate how people and civil associations create networks of solidarity relations, organize collective actions with a social and economic character, and finally, how some social practices are propagated throughout the territory.