Social Spaces of Agroecological Production by Indigenous Women in Mexico and Ecuador: Claims For Rooted Ways Of Life

Abstract

 Citizen initiatives for production and consumption of sustainable products, with qualitative integrity, constitute spaces for the construction of alternative ways of satisfying needs, and areas for the reconfiguration of social relations based on solidarity. This is the case of the indigenous women movement, Mujeres del Pueblo Kayambi, in Ecuador, and Mujeres Cosechando, in Mexico. The purpose of this work is to show the spatial deployment of the work carried out by these groups of women who develop a dignifying life process, both in their living spaces and in the urban areas where they exchange their products. These processes are read under the dialogue of critical geography and critical epidemiology around use-value-centered productive process, its approach points to the contribution of a civilization for life. The exposition of the cases is based on the qualitative analysis of interviews and participatory action research, as well as analysis of socio-spatial information. From multiple perspectives, it is thought that the productive organization of women has generated urban-rural movements that contribute to the construction of protective spaces in the scales of daily, local and regional family life. In this sense, the case studies constitute solid examples that prove that productive-collective work is useful for the essential reestablishment of the metabolic society-nature relationship and the genesis of spaces where respect for life is paramount.