Abstract

CARDENAS GRAJALES, Gloria Inés. PARTICIPATIVE RESEARCH WITH FARMERS: A SOCIAL PEASANT ORGANIZATION OPTION FOR THE CONSOLIDATION OF AGROECOLOGICAL PROCESSES. Luna Azul [online]. 2009, n.29, pp.95-102. ISSN 1909-2474.

Participation is a research method that lets communities adopt tools and procedures for control and autonomy in workers’ self-management processes oriented towards agroecology. This implies going beyond the productive and technical management of agroecosystems, in order to build peasant organization forms. However, in relation to the diverse manners in which peasants participate in researches, different participation levels are reached, some of which do not represent methodological options or alternatives for the construction of local power and the configuration of social and political actors; instead their participation is circumscribed to manual and functional activities that partially involve the producers. From this point of view, it is necessary to identify the real participation levels that configure the research methods, starting from the institutional interests and purposes proposed, the role of peasant researchers and external agents active in the research process, and up to what point is it possible to achieve community organization and workers’ self-management that don’t necessarily respond to this purpose.

Keywords : Participative research; agroecology; social peasant organization; workers’ self-management; local power; autonomy; decision making.

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