Moving toward a decolonial and intersectional notion of justice for socio-ecological problems: the urban agroecology of the Buckets Revolution

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyses the Buckets Revolution, an urban agroecological movement in a Brazilian favela that emerged to address waste management issues. We aim to explore the movement’s achievements in promoting socio—cological justice in a vulnerable community of the Global South through agroecology, investigating: i) what socio-ecological problems and intersected demands for justice boosted the emergence of the Buckets Revolution? and ii) what demands for justice the BR has been dealing with to overcome the socio-ecological injustices borne by the Chico Mendes community? We apply the socio-ecological justice model as our theoretical framework, with a decolonial and feminist intersectional approach to embrace the complexity of the case study. The research methods focus on embracing the local reality and the community views, encompassing bibliographical research, a focus group, and semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that this agroecological movement has effectively addressed organic waste management, food insecurity, and other socio-ecological issues, contributing to socio-ecological justice in the Chico Mendes community. The study emphasizes the importance of considering the a) interconnections of social and ecological problems, b) intersected dimensions of justice, and c) needs and views of the community when developing environmental urban policies to achieve social justice and ecological sustainability.