BREAKING FENCES, BUILDING KNOWLEDGE: AGROECOLOGICAL WORK, EXPERIENCES AND
(RES)SIGINIFICATIONS IN A RURAL SETTLEMENT
Agroecology; Rural Context; Relationship with the Place; Environmental Psychology; Relationship
Person-Environment.
In recent decades, the indiscriminate use of pesticides in food production has been causing growing
concern in many parts of the world. In contrast to the hegemonic development based on chemical-
dependent monoculture, agroecology stimulates the cultivation without the use of chemical
substances and based on the principles of sustainability, aiming at an environmentally correct,
socially just and economically viable production. Thus, the productive pattern can define significant
modifications in the environmental context, and can influence the farmer's relationship with the land
and the natural environment, both in terms of the elaboration of its history, as well as in the
construction of identity bonds and the production of subjectivities. In this perspective, the
relationship with the place can play an important role in the way the rural producer can be
emotionally connected to his land and the community to which he belongs, serving as an important
means of understanding the practices of care and preservation of nature. In view of this, the general
objective of this research was to investigate the nature of the relationship with the place, based on
the experiences of agroecological producers of a rural community located in the interior of the State
of Rio Grande do Norte. For this, a qualitative, ethnographic-inspired approach was adopted, whose
data were constructed through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The
constructed corpus was analyzed based on the analysis of thematic content, of interpretative logic,
using the aid of the software ATLAS.ti. The results of the study are still under analysis, but it has
already been possible to verify, in a preliminary way, different aspects of the farmers' relationship
with the place, revealing a multidimensional link formed by various forms of significance of the
investigated participants. These, in turn, began to be characterized by particular types of
relationship with the place, which depended on the life trajectories, the changes in the environment
and the socioeconomic and environmental relations established. Appropriation of space, sense of
belonging, genealogical connection and the identity and dependence of the place were some of the
elements detected. It was also observed different positions in the ways of being, working and living,
impelling new forms of relation and (re)signification of the place, materialized in liking to live and in
the desire to remain living in the place. The research should address the theme beyond the
disciplinary boundaries, presenting the contribution of Environmental Psychology so that new
perspectives are thrown into the discussion about the rural context and new reflections are raised
towards a more sustainable agricultural development.