PERMANENCIES AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE 'URBAN AREAS' OF JOÃO PESSOA AND NATAL/ BRAZIL

Abstract

The diffusion of new technologies and communication networks, as well as the homogenization of social and labour relations have given the territory a new complex multiscale structure. In this logic, it is in the interfaces that associate the urban and rural where the interactions between the elements that maintain the rural traditions and values and urban habits and styles, become more evident. This is a process of cultural and material hybridization that explains, for example, the presence of 'rurality islands' in areas that, although considered urban, resist the different mechanisms of real estate speculation and urbanization, as occurs in relation to byres in city of João Pessoa and the agricultural practices in the city of Natal, both located in the Brazilian Northeast coast, which leads us to reflect on the need to rethink new methodologies that can discern the rural from the urban ambit, evidence its real attributes and singularities.The objective is to analyze the presence of rural practices in the cities of João Pessoa-PB and Natal-RN, either from what is currently called “urban agriculture”, as well as the permanence of small-scale cattle breeding. The text results from fieldwork with observation, photographic records, application of questionnaires and informal conversations with the subjects; results of previous research and survey of data and information in government institutions.