Rural communities and local organization to face socioenvironmental inequalities and COVID-19

• Grant number: 25/07934-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Rural Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Constante Martins
• Grantee: Henrique Almeida Forini
• Supervisor: Luke Thomas Wyn Parry
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Lancaster University, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/05330-0 - Citizenship practices, discourses of resilience: looking for a sociological interpretation of forest peoples in the context of COVID-19, BP.DR

Abstract

This project presents a proposal for an internship under the supervision of Professor Luke Parry from the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC, Lancaster, UK). The project aims to analyze and reflect on the literature from social and environmental sciences on the organization of traditional rural communities (or forest communities) to face the COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, we emphasize that this project contributes directly to the international research coordinated by Professors Rodrigo Martins and Luke Parry, "Forest citizenship for disaster resilience: learning from COVID-19" (FAPESP process: 21/07558-3). Thus, considering the historical invisibility of Amazonian rural communities, this research aims to bring advances that allow a broader critical understanding of the forms of social and political organization of these social groups, especially regarding citizenship in a context of social inequality. To this end, we propose to carry out an integrative literature review. We will conduct a bibliography survey focused on different case studies on rural and forest communities facing the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. After, we will build a comparative analytical framework of the studies to widen the reflection on these communities' forms of organization in the context of the pandemic. In addition, I will participate in seminars and research discussions promoted by the LEC and establish networks with other research groups and researchers working on citizenship, resistance and resilience in rural communities.