Identity and political purpose: An exploratory study of popular education in the Homeless Workers’ Movement^*1

The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem-Teto (MTST, Homeless Workers’ Movement) is a social movement that organizes the working class in their struggle for housing and other social rights, with the occupation of irregular or illegally held land on the urban peripheries of Brazil as its main tactic of political action. Some people who are homeless who take part in an occupation become activists, devoting part of their lives to the movement’s political project. This article begins by asking what kinds of experiences may contribute to bringing about this personal transformation. Situated at the intersection of psychology and education, it aims to describe the form of popular education carried out by the MTST and to explore its possible contributions to the construction of a political purpose. It also seeks to characterize the political purpose of activists in this social movement. Through participant research involving 52 field-observation sessions and a secondary analysis of interviews with 33 movement coordinators, the study suggests that the MTST constitutes a moral and political culture that acts as an agent of popular education. By engaging camp residents in a system of practices, symbols, norms, and material structures grounded in the values of social justice, solidarity, the common good, and political activism, the MTST forges its own mode of popular education, which may contribute to the construction of identities and purposes oriented toward social transformation.

Keywords:
Purpose; Popular education; Political identity; Social movements