Learning through and with urban agriculture led by peripheral women

Abstract

Latin America has been marked by various attempts to homogenise interpretations of the
world, based on a dominant logic that reinforces structures of oppression in society. In the city of São Paulo, the popular periphery has consolidated into a complex reality, as urban
planning has failed to meet its demands at different historical moments. This context is part of the reality of the “Mulheres do GAU (Grupo de Agricultura Urbana)” collective, with
which this research promotes investigations and dialogues. In various Latin American contexts, Popular Education has consolidated itself as an educational praxis, asserting itself in
the struggle for social justice. From this perspective, the research aims to understand and
problematise the educational processes revealed by the social practice of urban agriculture
carried out by “Mulheres do GAU”, seeking to understand the contributions of these
educational processes and how women interpret the urban space in which they operate. The research is qualitative in nature and the methodology adopted is participatory research, in
which dialogical coexistence with the collective was fundamental. Data was produced through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and conversation circles. The information was compiled and interpreted through content analysis. The results show how the
collective “Mulheres do GAU”, through urban agriculture, address extreme and dehumanising situations, such as gender and racial discrimination, urban exclusion, and the
challenges of being a female farmer in the city. And so, they announce various educational processes, such as the recognition of their voices; the broadening of their worldviews; acceptance; cooperation; knowledge exchange; understanding how to deal with conflicts; a sense of belonging; respect and love for nature, which includes humans and non-humans;
recognition of their work; and how their life experiences shape their ways of being urban
farmers. They also teach and learn to be hopeful, in the sense of pointing out ways to do things differently, demanding possibilities for humanisation at work. With the conclusion of this research, we hope to have contributed to the understanding of the universe of urban agriculture in the city of São Paulo, practised by women, mostly black, deepening the
discussions about resistance and the struggles for quality of life in the popular peripheries.