Abstract

PORTILHO, Mariana; RODRIGUES, Camila Gonçalves de Oliveira  and  FERNANDEZ, Annelise Caetano Fraga. Building communal ties in the Arranjo Local da Penha: Women’s mobilization through agricultural practices in the favela. CIDADES [online]. 2021, vol.42, pp.146-160.  Epub June 23, 2021. ISSN 2182-3030.  https://doi.org/10.15847/cct.21635.

This paper studies the development of Arranjo Local da Penha, a territorial community network created in 2016 in the favelas of Penha, rooted in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro. This network is led mostly by women practicing urban agriculture based on agroecology, who build and expand their project through local organization. Through field research and participant observation, the paper sheds new light on the practices and dynamics of this network. The paper describes the Arranjo’s trajectory, pointing out the limits and possibilities to the development of urban agriculture in the favelas of Penha. Overall, this research indicates an increase in women’s protagonistic role, in parallel to the building of strong emotional ties between Penha´s territory and them. These are outcomes of their effort to create access to “comida de verdade” (“real food”) in the favelas. The paper reinforces the importance of local food production as a path to promote not only health and well-being, but also the debates about memory and culture - leading to the strengthening of people´s social ties and their sense of belonging to the community.

Keywords : urban agriculture; Arranjo Local da Penha; women and agroecology.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )