Eryka Galindo and Marco Antonio Teixeira take part in the Rural Studies Network meeting in Brazil

Marco Antonio Teixeira and Eryka Galindo took part in the Rural Studies Network Meeting at the Federal University of São Carlos, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between 27 and 31 August. Both presented their work “Desigualdades alimentares multidimensionais no Brasil: contribuições da Marcha das Margaridas” (Multidimensional food inequalities in Brazil: contributions from the March of the Daisies) in the Working Group “Re-existences and emergencies: the solidarity and transformative practices of rural, forest and water women in a world of crises”. Eryka Galindo presented her work “Água, nosso primeiro alimento: o caso da Articulação Do Semiárido Brasileiro (ASA)” (Water, our first food: the case of the Articulation of the Brazilian Semi-Arid (ASA)) in the Working Group Social movements and territorial and environmental disputes in contemporary Brazil.

Eryka Galindo and Marco Antonio Teixeira also organised a self-organised session entitled “Sindicalismo Rural no Brasil e os 60 anos da Contag” (Rural Trade Unionism in Brazil and 60 years of Contag). This activity was organised in partnership with Marleide Sousa Rios, a popular educator and advisor to Contag’s National Training School (ENFOC) and a doctoral researcher at the University of Brasilia (UnB). Each of them presented their work on rural trade unionism in Brazil. The presentations were then commented on by Professor Dr Leonilde Medeiros, from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ) and Professor Dr Arilson Favareto, from the Federal University of ABC (UFABC). Finally, there was a wide-ranging debate with the audience.

Marco Antonio Teixeira also launched his recently published book “Contag: 1963-2023: ações de reprodução social e formas de ações coletivas” on the first day of the event, the result of his doctoral thesis which won the 3rd edition of the Maria de Nazareth Baudel Wanderley prize for best doctoral thesis awarded by the Brazilian Rural Studies Network at the 2021 edition of the meeting.

The Rural Studies Network aims to give visibility to intellectual production, analysis and systematisation of ongoing trends in the Brazilian countryside. The Network is interdisciplinary and inter-institutional in nature, and seeks to involve professionals from a wide range of disciplines (Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, History, Agronomy, Geography, Social Communication, Social Work, etc.) and institutional backgrounds (universities, research centres, government sectors that formulate public policies, social movements, non-governmental organisations, trade union institutions, cooperatives and associations).