Corpos germinando territórios: práticas de resistência por mulheres do campo para sustentação da vida e permanência na terra pela agroecologia

Abstract

In this dissertation, we analyze the protagonism of rural women, settled in the municipalities of Sidrolândia and Terenos (MS), who work on the front lines of agroecology, territorial resistance, and the construction of economic alternatives to remain in the countryside and defend their ways of life. The research uses a qualitative approach, grounded in narrative research and perspectives from Southern epistemology, focusing on analyzing the life trajectories, agroecological practices, and forms of community organization led by these women. To this end, narrative interviews (Larrosa, 2014) were conducted with five women who live and produce in the countryside, complemented by participant observation and systematic field notebook recording. The analysis was guided by in-depth hermeneutics (Thompson, 1995), seeking to understand the meanings attributed by the participants to everyday resistance in the countryside and in the external spaces they use to market their produce, such as local and urban markets, emphasizing collective articulation based on agroecology, food sovereignty, and permanence on the land. The concept of body-territories is central to this study, understood as a political space of knowledge, affection, and struggles, where these women's bodies and the territory intertwine in the construction of sustainable ways of life. In this research, we critically engage with the dichotomy between the countryside as a business and the countryside as a way of life, problematizing the impacts of intensive agriculture on food security, water resources, and biodiversity, as well as on popular life and culture. In this context, we investigated the access and effectiveness of rural incentive policies among these settled women's communities, highlighting the urgency of overcoming gender inequalities in agrifood systems. We hope that the results will contribute to the strengthening of public policies and collective actions committed to gender justice, agroecology, and the valorization of peasant knowledge, as well as the very process of knowledge production and socialization. The videos collected during the interviews served as the basis for the production of a video documentary, which was published on YouTube to popularize access and contribute to the struggle and dissemination of their experiences.