Agroecologia e política : ações coletivas e institucionalização da agroecologia no município de Belo Horizonte (1993-2020)

Abstract

The intersection between agroecology, urban space and politics is the central theme of this thesis, specifically the understanding about the agroecological urban agriculture networks of the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region (RMBH) and the agroecology institutionalization trajectory in the Belo Horizonte City Hall from 1993 to 2020. The question which guides this descriptive and exploratory study is: What are the institutional fit resulting from the interaction repertoires between the agroecology networks and the Belo Horizonte City Hall? In order to answer this question, it was made a review of the literature about social movements and some analytical tools from contemporary studies about the State-society interaction, connecting with research on the institutionalization of agroecology in Brazil and the emerging guidelines in latin american environmentalism. The research structuring methods were bibliography analysis, documents and official archives, observations made in meetings and forums, and semi-structured interviews with key policy-related actors. In total, it was possible to identify 26 institutional fit, witch incorporate and promote the agroecology theme in the Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) policy: programs, projects, public equipment, normative deliberations, spaces for participation, plans, laws, decrees, public agency, courses, protocols and instruments. The conclusion is (1) the agroecology networks actor acted both inside and outside the Belo Horizonte City Hall, everal repertoires of action in order to expand their influence on public policies and promote institutional fit that incorporated the agroecology theme in FNS policy; (2) the favorable political contexts in which some governments acted, the international articulations and the impacts of federal and state policies made possible to build and expand the repertoires of network interactions with the local government, configuring different types of public actions of urban agriculture in Belo Horizonte - "state" (1993 to 2001), "societal" (2002 to 2016) and "collaborative" (2017 to 2020). Finally, the theoretical and methodological approach chosen in this research allowed to elaborate a proposal for the interpretation of the agroecology political dimension and understand the concept of political agroecology in three categories: (1) everyday politics; (2) collective action; (3) institutionalization.