When organizing process collide: hybridisms in favela’s social space

Abstract In this paper we propose to answer the following question: how the meeting between the processes of organizing of state’s representatives and the processes of organizing of slum’s dwellers are reflected in the social space? For this purpose, a field research with ethnographic inspiration was conducted in two slums, lasting 1 year and 4 months, which included participant observation and 91 interviews with residents of slums and state’s representatives. Field notes and taped and transcribed interviews totaling more than 3,200 pages of data, which were analyzed based on grounded theory. It was noted that, while processes of organizing of state’s representatives follow the slowness and discontinuity patterns, processes of organizing of slum’s dwellers follow standards of speed and functionality. When processes of organizing with distinct patterns collide in the social space of slums, we can observe the hybrids expressed in space, which are listed, for example, in the form of occupation of constructions initiated by the state and finalized by the residents, in informal services with some formal rules, and even in hybrid organizational structures.