CONCIENCIA AND DEVELOPMENT: TRICICLEROS' GRASSROOTS LABOR ORGANIZATION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (MICROBUSINESS, SOLIDARITY GROUP, CREDIT, POPULAR EDUCATION, MICROENTERPRISE, CONSCIENTIZATION, STREET VENDORS)

This ethnographic study describes a street vendors' association in Santo Domingo and its relations with a local development foundation between 1983 and 1985.; During the fieldwork, conciencia ('consciousness'; 'conscience') emerged as a concept central to the organization's mobilizing values and identity. Twenty-eight informants' definitions of conciencia were analyzed, using a "snowball" sampling procedure and phenomenological meaning analysis.; Conciencia was defined by 53% of the informants as identification with or responsibility to others in the community; conciencia was described in most of these cases in the context of "organizing" the triciclero (street vendor) class.; Association members are all urban migrants. In this study, urban migration is viewed as a transitional experience in which migrants learn values governing the scarcity-based urban economy conditionally. The thesis proposes a model of constructive cognition in which migrants adapt to urban systems while maintaining their distinct identity.; Applying Langer's theory of Mindful mental activity, conciencia is viewed as a value constructed by the street vendors through their behavior and ideology. Conciencia embodies their synergistic approach to social and economic resources, an approach that has developed within a mutual aid tradition in the Dominican Republic.; The Association of Tricicleros San Jose Obrero was a result of a development foundation's credit program designed to enhance vendors' participation in the economy. In the thesis, economic development models and theories of marginals' organization are critiqued in light of the field data. Paradoxically since they are self-employed, tricicleros advocate "organization" of their class while they also aspire to class mobility.; The thesis concludes that the Association was built upon values and interests that were distinct from the institution's values and interests. If institutional and marginal groups are to be integrated in the developing world, resources like conciencia--which dictate popular values and interests--will be mobilized.; This perspective on marginals' integration challenges traditional paradigms for both cognitive and social development because it doesn't measure marginals' adaptation to established systems. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)...