TEIA DOS POVOS AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: COSMOPOLITICS, AGROECOLOGY, AND PLURIVERSAL RESISTANCES IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Abstract

This research aims to understand how the Teia dos Povos Em Luta no Rio Grande do Sul builds agroecological practices and pluriversal networks of resistance in the face of the environmental crisis and the advance of agribusiness, analyzing how it destabilizes modern dichotomies such as nature and culture and reconfigures the territory as a relational and political space. To this end, it adopts a qualitative approach grounded in Actor-Network Theory and cosmopolitics, combining content analysis and mapping of socio-technical networks. The empirical corpus consisted of 1,754 public records from the Teia,including letters from Agroecology Journeys, social media posts, videos, and podcasts produced between 2021 and 2023, which allowed the identification of central categories such as territory, care, sovereignty, and spirituality, as well asthe role of human and more-than-human mediators. The results indicate that theTeia re-signifies agroecology as an ontological and political practice, going beyond a set of agricultural techniques by articulating spirituality, collective care,and reciprocity between humans and non-humans. Practices such as the exchange of creole seeds, the organization of collective work efforts (mutirões),and the experience of community rituals reveal an alternative to the homogenization imposed by agribusiness and colonial epistemologies,reinforcing community autonomy and food, territorial, and pedagogical sovereignty. Despite facing challenges related to the lack of state support, climate emergencies, and internal tensions, the Teia dos Povos demonstrates the powerof pluriversal resistances to confront the contemporary socio-environmental collapse and expands the analytical tools of the Social Sciences to interpret thee nvironmental crisis.