Campesinado, agricultura familiar y un Trabajo Social agroecológico

Abstract

This article shows the results of the research project titled ‘Family Farming, Peasantry and its impact on the construction of Agroecological Social Work’. This project demonstrates the importance of Family Farming as a way of life for the small farmer, contributing to the construction of an Agro-ecological Social Work, in other words, a Social Work focused on the study of the rural sector, rurality, conservation of the environment, the landscapes, and the transformations of the peasant populations close to the central cities, consolidating the conservation of their practices and the ancestral culture. For this work, we used a hermeneutical, qualitative method and its focus was ethnography. In order to collect information, life stories, participant observation and written documents were used. Results demonstrate that Family Farming is part of the effective alternative strategies to resist the dominant economic system. This alternative not only focuses on the production of agricultural goods and services, but also on the importance of establishing relationships of trust, demonstrating that the conservation of ancestral knowledge has the possibility of resisting and of being shared with those who wish to learn about it. Furthermore, Social Work could complement Family Farming by perpetuating the Agro-Ecologic framework within its practices and the alternative lifestyles that rural populations have to offer in relation to taking care of the Earth and the environment, as well as conserving any type of habitat, without forgetting about the importance of social relations between farmers, which are included within these new agricultural practices.