Isto e aquilo: agriculturas e produção do espaço na Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte (RMBH)

Abstract

This thesis starts from the perception of the contrast between the daily agricultural practices found in metropolitan regions and the gaps in the academic knowledge about them in Brazil. The methodology employed in this research integrated the author's experience, theoretical and conceptual approaches, and socio-spatial dynamics in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte (RMBH). The theoretical-methodological perspective addressed in this study allowed interpretations about the relationship between agricultures and the production of space under the Lefebvrian approach on the contemporary urban, articulated with concepts of political ecology and agroecology and the current debate on urban agriculture. The socio-spatial dialectic and the nondichotomous interpretations of the relationships between the urban space and city/countryside/nature are inspirations to address the urban agricultural spaces as outcomes of sociopolitical contexts in various temporal and spatial scales, as well as components of urban societies - the real and virtual urban. These are, then, contemporary, contradictory spaces for future interactions that may prevent the homogenization of spaces and lifestyles resulting from the capitalist logic of production, and may problematize the conceptions of agriculture and food systems in dispute today. The empirical framework of this research articulates the recent experience on territorial planning, mapping initiatives, and characterization of agricultural practices conducted by social spaces in RMBH. The analyses about RMBHs agricultural systems provided a general overview - based upon new and available data on 34 municipalities, and an interpretation of territorial conflicts and potential convergences in five metropolitan expansion vectors. They enabled further argue that the establishment of the urban agroecology field may not only favor new territorial structures in RMBH, but also strengthen and expand the daily practices that show that it is possible to cultivate the urban a space of interaction amongst people and amongst people and nature.