Flores da terra: mulheres, poder e resistência no movimento agroecológico

Abstract

Work made outside the market – mostly care and domestic reproduction – often associated and task of women, is disregarded in the classical economy. This non-visualization of housework generates a certain contempt for it, as well as its non-interpretation as an essential activity for the reproduction of humanity. This impacts women’s non-visibility as vital to the community. To highlight this process, the “caderneta agroecológica” is created. Through the monetization of production carried out in agroecological yards, it seeks to give greater visibility to work, especially the unpaid (or low-paid) production – focused on selfconsumption, exchange, donation and sale. Through the testimonies of women participating in the project, it was realized that the “caderneta” is an instrument of empowerment, because they begin to feel necessary, in the foreground, of their communities and, later, of society as a whole, becoming subjects of their own history. The “cadernetas agroecológicas” incorporate part of the feminist economics discourse, which emphasizes the problems related to the devaluation of domestic work and emphasizes the sustainability of life as the guiding axis of the economy. And because it focuses on self-consumption, it plays a fundamental role in food sovereignty, ensuring the liberation of bodies in relation to external food dependence, as well as food security. The “cadernetas” signal that the mode of agroecological social organization is built breaking with hegemony, because there is less separation between the productive and reproductive spheres, as well as a greater visibility of domestic work. Based on a participant observation process and the combination of data and analysis, this work joins the struggle to transform domestic work not into monetization, but in the productive diagnosis itself from the social, spatial and political organization of women in their communities.