The Ecovillage Niche in Brazil: Isolated communities or in dialogue with society?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21664/2238-8869.2017v6i3.p99-121Keywords:
Grassroots Niches, Diffusion of Innovations, Social Network AnalysisAbstract
Ecovillages develop practices related to the ecological, social/communitarian, and cultural/spiritual dimensions of sustainability. Associated with the hippie movement from the 1970’s, they are seen as communities that are isolated from society. This article questions this assumption and investigates if the ecovillage niche in Brazil is a set of isolated communities or if they stablish relations among themselves and with other actors of society to exchange information about socio-ecological practices and sustainable development. Based on a survey of the ecovillages in the Brazilian territory and on the analysis of their social networks, we found that Brazilian ecovillages exchange information with varied sectors of society. These results demonstrate that even though the ecovillage niche in Brazil creates “protected spacesâ€, it is not isolated from political and social processes of regimes, being important actors to be included in the debates about the routes to sustainable development.
References
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Seyfang G, Longhurst N. 2013. Desperately Seeking Niches: Grassroots Innovations and Niche Development in the Community Currency Field. Global Environmental Change 23(5):881–91.
Seyfang G, Smith A. 2007. Grassroots Innovations for Sustainable Development: Towards a New Research and Policy Agenda. Environmental Politics 16(4):584–603.
Shimbo JZ, Jiménez-Rueda JR, Silva JM. 2007. Zoneamento Geoambiental Como Instrumento de Planejamento de Uso E Ocupação de Ecovilas. Estudo de Caso: Ecovila Tibá, Município de São Carlos, SP. Anais Do IV Encontro Nacional E II Encontro Latino-Americano Sobre Edificações E Comunidades Sustentáveis.
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Smith A. 2007. Translating Sustainabilities between Green Niches and Socio-Technical Regimes. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 19(4):427–50.
Smith A, Fressoli M, Thomas H. 2014. Grassroots Innovation Movements: Challenges and Contributions. Journal of Cleaner Production 63:114–24.
Smith A, Stirling A, Berkhout F. 2005. The Governance of Sustainable Socio-Technical Transitions. Research Policy 34(10):1491–1510.
Smith A, Voß JP, Grin J. 2010. Innovation Studies and Sustainability Transitions: The Allure of the Multi-Level Perspective and Its Challenges. Research Policy 39(4):435–48.
Tindall D, Harshaw H, Taylor J. 2011. The Effects of Social Network Ties on the Public’s Satisfaction with Forest Management in British Columbia, Canada. In Ö. Bodin and C. Prell. Social Networks and Natural Resource Management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 147–79.
Veteto JR., Lockyer J. 2008. Environmental Anthropology Engaging Permaculture : Moving Theory and Practice Toward Sustainability. Agriculture 30(1–2):47–58.
Vries GWD, Boon WPC, Peine A. 2016. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions User-Led Innovation in Civic Energy Communities. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 19:51–65.
Woolcock M, Narayan D. 2000. Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy. The World Bank Research Observer 15(2):225–49.
Belleze G, Bernardes MEC, Pimenta CAM, Nunes Júnior PC. 2017. Ecovilas Brasileiras E Indicadores de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Do IBGE: Uma Análise Comparativa. Ambiente & Sociedade XX(1):227–44.
Bodin Ö and Crona BI. 2009. The Role of Social Networks in Natural Resource Governance: What Relational Patterns Make a Difference? Global Environmental Change 19(3):366–74.
Borgatti SP, Everett MG, Freeman LC. 2002. Ucinet 6 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis.
Boyer R. 2015. Grassroots Innovation for Urban Sustainability: Comparing the Diffusion Pathways of Three Ecovillage Projects. Environment and Planning A 47(2):320–37.
Boyer R. 2016. Achieving One-Planet Living through Transitions in Social Practice: A Case Study of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Sustainability: Science, Practice & Policy 12(1):1–6.
Bulkeley H. 2005. Reconfiguring Environmental Governance: Towards a Politics of Scales and Networks. Political Geography 24(8):875–902.
Capello G. 2013. Meio Ambiente E Ecovilas. São Paulo: Senac.
Caporal F and Petersen P. 2011. Agroecologia E Políticas Públicas Na América Latina: O Caso Do Brasil. Agroecología 6:63–74.
Caravita R. 2012. ‘Somos Todos Um’: Vida E Imanência No Movimento Comunitário Alternativo. MS Dissertation, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 232 pp.
Carruba C. 2007. Politics as Spirituality. In K Anja, R. Alfred. Beyond you and me: inspirations and wisdom for building community,Permanent Publications, Hampshire, p. 221–27.
Chabot S. 2000. Transnational Diffusion and the African American Reinvention of Gandhian Repertoire. Mobilization: An International Journal 5(2):201–16.
Crona BI, Prell C, Reed M, Hubacek K. 2011. Combining Social Network Approaches with Social Theories to Improve Understanding of Natural Resource Governance. In Ö. Bodin and C. Prell. Social Networks and Natural Resource Management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 44–72.
Crossley N. 2008. Pretty Connected: The Social Network of the Early UK Punk Movement. Theory, Culture & Society 25(6):89–116.
Diani M. 1992. The Concept of Social Movement.The Sociological Review 40(1):1–25.
Diani M. 1995. Green Networks: A Structural Analysis of the Italian Environmental Movement. Cambridge: Edinburgh University Press.
Diani M. 2009. Introduction: Social Movements, Contentious Actions, and Social Networks: ‘From Metaphor to Substance’? In M. Diani and D. McAdam.Social Movements and Networks: relational approaches to collective action, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 1–20.
Ernstson H, Sörlin S, and Elmqvist T. 2007. Social Movements and Ecosystem Services - the Role of Social Network Structure in Protecting and Managing Urban Green Areas in Stockholm. Landscape and Urban Planning 81(2):46–55.
Ford LH. 2003. Challenging Global Environmental Governance: Social Movement Agency and Global Civil Society. Global Environmental Politics 3(2):120–34.
Geels FW, Deuten JJ. 2006. Local and Global Dynamics in Technological Development: A Socio-Cognitive Perspective on Knowledge Flows and Lessons from Reinforced Concrete. Science and Public Policy 33(4):276–275..
Geels FW. 2002. Technological Transitions as Evolutionary Reconfiguration Processes: A Multi-Level Perspective and a Case-Study. Research Policy 31:1257–74.
Geels FW. 2010. Ontologies, Socio-Technical Transitions (to Sustainability), and the Multi-Level Perspective. Research Policy 39(4):495–510.
Geels FW, Schot J. 2007. Typology of Sociotechnical Transition Pathways. Research Policy 36(3):399–417.
Hossain M. 2016. Grassroots Innovation: A Systematic Review of Two Decades of Research. Journal of Cleaner Production 137(September 2015):973–81.
Januário F. 2014. Diretrizes Para O Desenvolvimento de Ecovilas Urbanas. PhD Thesis, Universidade de São Paulo, 107 pp.
Kasper DVS. 2008. Redefining Community in the Ecovillage. Human Ecology Review 15(1):12–24.
Kemp R et al. 2015. Doing Things Differently: Exploring Transformative Social Innovation and Its Practical Challanges. Retrieved (http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/content/original/TRANSIT brief final_no bleed.pdf).
Komoch A. 2007. Alliances at the Edge: A Roadmap for Social Change. In K. A. Joubert and R. Alfred. Beyond you and me: inspirations and wisdom for building community, Permanent Publications, Hampshire, p. 228–34.
Kunze I. 2015. Ecovillages: Isolated Islands or Multipliers of Social Innovations? TRANSIT Website. Retrieved November 10, 2015 (http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/blog/ecovillages-isolated-islands-or-multipliers-of-social-innovations?utm_source=subscribers&utm_campaign=640b37d940-TRANSIT_Newsletter_November_201511_2_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d7f7bd8502-640b37d940-2644933).
Leite FBVM. 2011. Avaliação Da Eficiência Na Conservação de Recursos Hídricos Em Comunidades Sustentáveis, MS Dissertation, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 100 pp.
Marques FC. 2009. Produção Ecológica de Plantas Medicinais: Considerações Sobre a Produção de Novidades Para a Agricultura. Rev. Bras. de Agroecologia 4(2):3192–95.
Morone P, Lopolito A. 2010. Socio-Technical Transition Pathways and Social Networks: A Toolkit for Empirical Innovation Studies. Economics Bulletin 30(4):2720–31.
Neske MZ, Marques FC, Borba MFS. 2014. A Emergência Da Produção de Novidades Em Territórios ‘marginalizados ’: Uma Análise a Partir Do Território Alto Camaquã, Rio Grande Do Sul. Desenvolvimento E Meio Ambiente 31:43–59.
Nolte W. 2007. From Local Communities to the World Community: More than a Dream? In K Anja, R. Alfred. Beyond you and me: inspirations and wisdom for building community,Permanent Publications, Hampshire, p. 271–277.
Reagan R, McEvily B. 2003. Network Structure and Knowledge Transfer: The Effects of Cohesion and Range. Administrative Science Quarterly (48):240–67.
Roysen R. 2013. Ecovilas E a Construção de Uma Cultura Alternativa. MS Dissertation, Universidade de São Paulo, 245 pp.
Roysen R, Mertens F. 2016. Difusão de Práticas Sociais Sustentáveis Em Nichos de Inovação Social de Base: O Caso Do Movimento Das Ecovilas. Desenvolvimento E Meio Ambiente 39:275–95.
Salazar CAP. 2013. Participación Y Acción Colectiva En Los Movimientos Globales de Ecoaldeas Y Permacultura. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicologia 45(3):401–13.
Santos-Júnior SJ. 2015. Zelosamente Habitando a Terra: Ecovilas Genuínas, Espaço Geográfico E a Construção de Lugares Zelosos Em Contextos Contemporâneos de Fronteiras Paradigmáticas. PhD Thesis, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 413 pp.
Seyfang G. 2010. Community Action for Sustainable Housing: Building a Low-Carbon Future. Energy Policy 38(12):7624–33.
Seyfang G, Longhurst N. 2013. Desperately Seeking Niches: Grassroots Innovations and Niche Development in the Community Currency Field. Global Environmental Change 23(5):881–91.
Seyfang G, Smith A. 2007. Grassroots Innovations for Sustainable Development: Towards a New Research and Policy Agenda. Environmental Politics 16(4):584–603.
Shimbo JZ, Jiménez-Rueda JR, Silva JM. 2007. Zoneamento Geoambiental Como Instrumento de Planejamento de Uso E Ocupação de Ecovilas. Estudo de Caso: Ecovila Tibá, Município de São Carlos, SP. Anais Do IV Encontro Nacional E II Encontro Latino-Americano Sobre Edificações E Comunidades Sustentáveis.
Siqueira GMV. 2012. Tensão Entre as Racionalidades Substantiva E Instrumental Na Gestão de Ecovilas: Novas Fronteiras Do Campo de Estudos. MS Dissertation, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 237 pp.
Smith A. 2007. Translating Sustainabilities between Green Niches and Socio-Technical Regimes. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 19(4):427–50.
Smith A, Fressoli M, Thomas H. 2014. Grassroots Innovation Movements: Challenges and Contributions. Journal of Cleaner Production 63:114–24.
Smith A, Stirling A, Berkhout F. 2005. The Governance of Sustainable Socio-Technical Transitions. Research Policy 34(10):1491–1510.
Smith A, Voß JP, Grin J. 2010. Innovation Studies and Sustainability Transitions: The Allure of the Multi-Level Perspective and Its Challenges. Research Policy 39(4):435–48.
Tindall D, Harshaw H, Taylor J. 2011. The Effects of Social Network Ties on the Public’s Satisfaction with Forest Management in British Columbia, Canada. In Ö. Bodin and C. Prell. Social Networks and Natural Resource Management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 147–79.
Veteto JR., Lockyer J. 2008. Environmental Anthropology Engaging Permaculture : Moving Theory and Practice Toward Sustainability. Agriculture 30(1–2):47–58.
Vries GWD, Boon WPC, Peine A. 2016. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions User-Led Innovation in Civic Energy Communities. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 19:51–65.
Woolcock M, Narayan D. 2000. Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy. The World Bank Research Observer 15(2):225–49.
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Published
2018-02-02
How to Cite
ROYSEN, Rebeca; MERTENS, Frédéric. The Ecovillage Niche in Brazil: Isolated communities or in dialogue with society?. Fronteiras - Journal of Social, Technological and Environmental Science, [S. l.], v. 6, n. 3, p. 99–121, 2018. DOI: 10.21664/2238-8869.2017v6i3.p99-121. Disponível em: https://periodicos.unievangelica.edu.br/index.php/fronteiras/article/view/2463. Acesso em: 22 dec. 2024.
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Dossier - Sustainable Development and Eco-Entrepreneurship
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