Social movements, agroecology and circuits in capitalism

Abstract

This paper discusses the paradox in which social movements are caught when they start acting not only in their traditional arenas, like political wrangle (demand for rights, cooperative organization, etc.), but also when engaging at other arenas as markets, once both arenas are commonly understood as fields with irreconcilable values. The discussion is based on the argument of Viviana Zelizer (2005, 2009) to whom such contradiction does not correspond to the way people act neither in the field of markets nor in the family care. This argument is developed from fieldwork with ecological farmers and experts in São Joaquim, municipality of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, whom engaging on cooperatives to organize production and saling in local and regional fairs, reached also major supermarket chains.