Drawing resistance: counter-hegemony and aesthetic expressions of the agro-ecological movement in Brazil

Abstract

This theoretical and empirical article contributes to Organizational Studies by debating social movements, especially the agroecological movement, which has been established as a resistance to the hegemony of agribusiness in Brazil. In addition, the study provides a non-conventional theoretical and empirical “bridge” in this field, including studies in aesthetics and the Neo-Gramscian theory of discourse developed by Laclau and Mouffe. In this context, considering the concepts of aesthetics and a Neo-Gramscian discourse analysis on hegemony and antagonism, the aim of this article is to investigate how the aesthetic expressions influence the Brazilian agroecological movement in building a counter-hegemony in the country’s agriculture practices. The research adopts a qualitative methodological approach from the analysis of drawings produced by farmers in the III National Meeting of Agroecology (III ENA), in graphic facilitation panels. It is possible to observe that the aesthetics in the panels of the III ENA allowed farmers to re-design their worldviews, to disclose their concerns, realities and local agricultural alternatives. The panels helped to provide practical guidance, design proposals and build legitimacy for the movement, elements that became central to the counter-hegemonic values and to build the common enemy. The complexity expressed in the relationships built in the panels also stressed that aesthetics can bring an effective, affordable and sensitive perspective in the construction of worldviews of subaltern groups. Thus, the Brazilian agroecological movement, also built through the aesthetic perspective, is revealed as an important resistance to the hegemony of agribusiness and the capitalist model..

Keywords:
Agroecological Movement; Aesthetics; Discourse; Identity; Resistance