Substantive rationality in communal ecovillage management

We approach elements of substantive rationality in administrative practice, in productive organizations, through attributesof communal management in agricultural production activities and care for natural and human life in ecovillages. Inspiredby ethnography, we visited four ecovillages for 49 days, following daily life and working relationships. The results show thatmanagement routines emphasize social reproduction under principles of self-sufficiency. The sharing of land and the means ofproduction and the orientation to collective care comprise an environment of social and economic security based on voluntarycommunity bonds. Prevail management processes with a bias of substantive rationality that interconnect demands andecological activism with actions to mitigate ecological degradation and enhance the diversity of life, characterizing traces ofhuman emancipatory administrative practices in the productive sphere in private organizations.