Territorial dynamism and productive innovation: the experience of ecological agriculture of the autonomous community of Andalusia (Spain)

• Grant number: 14/02268-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 16, 2014
• End date: August 15, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Rural Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Luiz Sapia de Campos
• Grantee: Jéssica Aline Troiano
• Supervisor: Encarnacion Aguilar Criado
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Sevilla (US), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/20042-7 - The subjectivity of the new agent productive-consumer in organic production: the case of Instituto ANNONA de Agricultura Sustentável, BP.IC

Abstract

This project results from the research of scientific initiation conducted in the country (Process: 2012/20042-7) about an association of small and middle producers of ecological food established in the city of Itápolis, São Paulo, called the Instituto ANNONA de Agricultura Sustentável. The proposal of Bolsa Estágio de Pesquisa no Exterior - BEPE -, a scholarship research internship abroad, aims to map, understand, discuss and relate the ecological agriculture experience of the autonomous community of Andalusia in Spain to the study conducted in the countryside of the state of São Paulo - Brazil - in the Instituto ANNONA de Agricultura Sustentável. In order to do this, the project assumes that ecological agriculture translates the new subjectivities that are at stake in contemporary society. The productive-consumer agent, a producer and consumer of values, tastes and ideas related to ecological products features the emergence of an economy where symbolical and immaterial elements are privileged in defining the value. The study intends to understand the historical specificities of the Andalusian experience paying special attention to the social, economical, political and cultural conditions that allowed Andalusia to be the main autonomous community in terms of area devoted to ecological agriculture in Spain. The territorial dynamism and productive innovation based in the choice of a qualified and differentiated production will be considered key elements to understand the development, maintenance and expansion of an alternative that contributes to the diversification of markets, for the social development of local communities and the conservation of natural resources. (AU)