Subaltern critical biographies: accounts of managing and navigating marginality and scarcity in Carolina Maria de Jesus’s diaries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to produce a critical biography of Carolina Marcia de Jesus, illustrating how marginalised groups – specifically Black Brazilian women – can challenge management and accounting as a social practice to resist and navigate oppressive systems. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a critical biographical approach to analyse the book Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus (Quarto de Despejo: Diário de uma Favelada). The book reveals the rise of favelas and the widespread social exclusion of the time (re)produced by Management and Accounting Practices. Findings The findings illustrate how a black Brazilian woman critiques marginalisation processes through the lens of surviving the favela’s problematic context. To survive in this “garbage dump” context, Carolina Maria de Jesus develops forms to manage and account for hunger, resource scarcity and emotional toll, as well as manage and account for subsistence as a critical view on marginality. Originality/value This critical biography contributes to the existing literature by illustrating how the experiences of a black, impoverished Latin American woman contest capitalist ideological discourses and practices through subalternised Management and Accounting Practices. The authors also present an alternative Management and Accounting framework that illuminates the dynamics of scarcity and inequality, moving beyond financialised notions of wealth accumulation.