Resistance in the metropolitan countryside - The case of the Engenho Novo Farm Settlement

Abstract

This study analyzes the Engenho Novo Farm Settlement, in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro, as a territory of resistance and reinvention of rurality in a metropolitan context. The result of collective struggles against land grabbing and real estate speculation, the settlement faces challenges such as the invisibility of rural areas by public authorities, water scarcity, and urban pressure. The research, which uses qualitative methods (interviews, participant observation), highlights the multifunctionality of family farming, which combines agroecological production, environmental preservation, and collective strategies such as cooperatives and fairs. The work of the Rural Workers' Union and the Residents' Association was crucial to territorialization, strengthening identities and resistance. The work highlights the hybridization of the metropolitan rural area, where traditional and urban practices intertwine, challenging dichotomies and proposing socio-environmental alternatives to exclusionary metropolitanization.