Body-territories and peripheral territories: the emergence of the unprecedented viable from MTST’s territorialization

Paulo Freire's thought brings the concept of 'unprecedented viable' to indicate the belief in the possible dream, the unprecedented dream that becomes reality from the liberatory praxis. From this concept, this article aims to identify the unprecedented viable through the territorialization of the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) in São Paulo City and women’s and LGBTQIAP+’s experiences in this movement. Due to the centrality of the peripheral territory for this movement 's existence, MTST is defined as a socio-territorial movement. Furthermore, the category of ‘body-territory' has been used to identify the transformations experienced by feminized bodies through MTST territorialization. The article is based in qualitative methodology, in which there have been used bibliography research, empirical analysis of documents and semi structured interviews with some of the movement 's activists. The results point out that feminized bodies’ experiences in MTST enable a deep process of humanization, in which both their bodies and the periphery are simultaneously appropriated as territories. The unprecedented viable emerges, therefore, as a collective power that announces ways of being in the world that oppose themselves to the neoliberal dominant rationality.

Keywords:
Gender; Homeless Workers Movement; MTST; socio-territorial movements; territorialization; territory.