Dynamics of organizational identity in an urban quilombo in the Global South: memory, forgetting, silence

Abstract

This article analyzes the dynamics of organizational identity in an urban quilombo in the Global South. Moving beyond hegemonic perspectives, we examine the quilombo through an organizational lens, incorporating identity via a narrative approach grounded in storytelling. This was achieved through a qualitative study based on the life histories of older women residing in an urban quilombo in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The main findings reveal organizational identity dynamics operating across three interrelated processes: memory (identity construction), forgetting (organizational disputes), and silence (regarding the organizational future), exposing an underlying logic of violence and racism. The enduring question remains: who benefits from a city shaped by the erasure of those who fall outside its urban planning paradigms?