Extensão rural, agroecologia, diálogo e invenção técnica: observação participante da implantação de 4 unidades de pesquisa participativa (UPPS)

Abstract

This thesis was proposed from the consideration of the current scenario of radicalization of neoliberal policies that have particularly affected rural populations through the reduction of resources and conservative reframing of policies directed to this segment. Seeking to foster the debate around the policies of rural extension, agroecology and family farming, the thesis deals with the experiences and various methodologies of construction of agroecological knowledge, exercising criticism of conventional practices of rural extension. The proposed objective was the investigation of an ongoing extensionist practice linked to agroecology, seeking to understand its theoretical-empirical basis, describing and analyzing this experience from the conception of technical act and dialogue. The main theoretical foundations were built from the reading and study of Álvaro Vieira Pinto (2005) and Paulo Freire (1977, 1978a, 1978b, 1979, 1992, 2011). The first proposes a philosophical reflection on technique and affirms it as necessary mediation for human emancipation, while clarifying the role played by technology converted into an instrument of imperialist domination (VIEIRA PINTO, 2005). The second makes it possible to understand the character of the extensionist intervention when supported by the theory of dialogical or anti-dialogical action, evidencing dialogue as a fundamental method for the emancipatory search (FREIRE, 1978b, 2011). The Political Ecology has connected the theoretical references of the research with the issues relevant to rural extension and agroecology, considering mainly the challenges imposed by the context of imminent environmental collapse that the capitalist mode of production and consumption impose on humanity. The field research was carried out by participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the members of a project that proposes the implementation of 4 Participatory Research Units (UPPs) in municipalities located in Espírito Santo. Experience has shown that agroecology is a fertile ground for the development of techniques that oppose the current dominant way of doing agriculture. During the research, it was possible to identify and analyze significant moments of this transdisciplinary experience that point to the radicalization of the participation of farming families achieved through the dialogue between research and extension, as well as between the different subjects participating in the project. The research also revealed challenges to the proposed participatory process and evidenced the appropriation of the technical act by the subjects as a condition for their humanization in the utopian sense brought by Paulo Freire (1979).