The summarized article presents the results of a study in change in local communities-favelas in Sao Paulo through the lens of discussion of the changing distribution of functions between subnational actors, national state, and supranational agents. The author studies the individual labour strategies and the strategies of community associations in their interactions with municipal authorities. Ethnography is used as research methodology. The key conclusions of the author are that the local communities are in a situation of losing their influence, growing instability, disintegration of the mechanisms of interaction with local authorities, and the individuals are wholly dependent on the global economic processes in their employment strategies.