The study of participation in the interface of the actors in the arena of construction of agroecological knowledge

Abstract

This thesis examines the interfaces that occurred within the arena of building agroecological knowledge among stakeholders and farmers articulators using the participatory method in the construction of individual and social projects. The main objective of the study is to assess the process of interface between the actors using the participatory method. This goal is dismembered through the delimitation of the arena construction of agroecological knowledge, examining the changes occurring with the actors inside the arena by using the participatory method and the identification and analysis of the dynamics of individual projects and social projects. The empirical space chosen was the Dom Feliciano-RS, local featured as the hegemonic social project of tobacco, where for more than a decade is taking place a process of participatory planning and construction of social projects. The theoretical approach transversely the entire thesis was Oriented Perspective by Actor who owns exponents with authors Norman Long and Van der Ploeg. Was used in a complementary contribution of the receipt of communication studies as methodological elements for analysis through the notion of mediation communication developed by Martin Barbedo and Orozco. The research method used was to discourse analysis from semi-structured interviews with farmers and planners. In empirical space in Dom Feliciano, we observed a strong hegemony of the social project of tobacco tends to homogenize the individual projects of farmers. But even within that environment was possible to visualize transitional elements within projects of the actors. In the arena of building agroecological knowledge, resigned from the Regional Participatory Planning process, the actors involved seeking information and experience. They sued this knowledge through mediation communication within the family allowing the alternative conformation of individual projects. Also within this arena are social actors constituting the social projects of diversification, replacement and pluriactivity pointing to the exit of the social project of tobacco. On the other side were verified the existence of the social project of strengthening the hegemonic project and the design of social dislocation that takes actors of agriculture. The participation of farmers in the Regional Participatory Planning process, using the participatory method, has been identified as the key element which increased the possibility of formatting individual projects and social output of tobacco and increase the autonomy of farmers.