3.6 | Synthesis: assentamentos and ecovillages side-by-side
The descriptions provided in the previous sections reveal that assentamentos and ecovillages are similar in some respects and markedly different in others. This is one of the main reasons why we chose ecovillages as contrast cases. We intended to explore whether they could be a source of insights to better frame sustainability challenges faced in assentamentos and to discover potentially promising tools, dynamics or general principles that could serve as reference to improve life in assentamentos and enhance their prospects for sustainability.
We can summarize the main commonalities as follows. Assentamentos and ecovillages are
- rural communities that
- exhibit a certain resistance to urban life and its dominant values (albeit in different ways), and that are
- concerned with sustainability as a broad concept, in different degrees.
The main differences between them concern (a) inhabitants’ profiles, (b) sources of income and (c) processes of creation:
- Inhabitants profiles: Assentados usually come from the most underprivileged segments of society, while ecovillagers come from segments that have moderate to high levels of income. Therefore, most assentados have experienced extremely low levels of access to education and are frequently illiterate. On the other hand, ecovillagers often hold university degrees or professional titles, or are investing time as volunteers after high school.
- Sources of income: While in assentamentos the main source of income is the production and commercialization of agrarian goods (raw crops, not so often processed), in ecovillages it is the provision of knowledge-based (seminars, workshops, courses) and hospitality services (guests and visitors who pay to stay).
- Process of creation: In assentamentos, an organized social movement (MST) rallies potential inhabitants to occupy and camp on land that could be redistributed for agrarian reform purposes. Individuals choose to join the movement, but have limited chances to choose the other inhabitants of the settlement they will live in—although some (self)selection processes occur in the encampment as mentioned above. On the other hand, in ecovillages, individual founding members (the “pioneers”) choose to become part of a tight-knit group that finds and acquires the land, frequently with strong shared beliefs or identities—they are intentional communities—and new members are admitted only by consensus of all preexisting members.