The Unaccounted-for Materiality of the Faxinais of Paraná: Invisible Costs, Socioterritorial Sustainability, and the Limits of Economic-accounting Rationality
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the limitations of economic-accounting rationality in understanding the faxinais of Paraná, conceived as socioterritorial systems organized around the common use of land and collective forms of production and social reproduction. The study was conducted through a theoretical-analytical review of the literature on faxinais, the commons, substantive economy, Latin American political ecology, and critical and social-environmental accounting. The literature reviewed indicates that conventional criteria of cost, efficiency, and economic performance fail to capture important conditions that sustain these territories. Collective work, reciprocity, local knowledge, forest conservation, community infrastructure, and other non-monetized practices remain largely invisible, despite being essential to the continuity of the system. Based on this discussion, the article develops the categories of unaccounted-for materialities, invisible socioterritorial costs, territorial reproduction costs, and territorially invisible economies. These categories make it possible to recognize ecological, social, and productive losses that are not captured by metrics centered on the individual economic unit. The article therefore proposes a broader understanding of accounting materiality, linked to the conditions of territorial reproduction and the socioterritorial sustainability of the faxinais.
Source: Artefactum
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7208741130