6.1 | The power of example can be an effective means for the transition to more sustainable practices
The idea that effective knowledge transfer and behavioral changes are most likely to occur when one can actually see and experience their results leads to what we have called the power of example.
Another assentado expressed that “we are doing this [agroecological practice] so other people in the assentamento can get to know about it and see that what we are doing and become interested. Being interested, then we are there to help”. [31]“It is with our pedagogy of example that we convince people. For instance, in the beginning [after a crisis] no one else wanted to grow cocoa here anymore; when we started we were just 4, 5 people. Today you have 20 or 30 people with [a collective] area better than ours, and it wasn't necessary to impose that on them. They started to look and say 'oh, I also want to have a crop like that'. Just like they copy the beautiful crop of the big farmer, when they see a collective area that works, they also want to be part of that” [23:79].
The “power of example” appears to be a powerful tool for promoting sustainability know-how and improving cooperative collective dynamics in the particular context of assentamentos, where—as we have seen—direct material incentives for these purposes are either lacking or ill-designed. Individual assentados and collective initiatives within assentamentos would need to be provided with means and materials to effectively diffuse their example (e.g. in agroecology) to others in their assentamento and beyond. [31:ax]
This diffusion could be partially based in communication technologies (interestingly, access to the internet was reported or observed in all cases of visited assentamentos), but as indicated by interviewees in both assentamentos and ecovillages, actual hands-on witnessing or experiencing of know-how in practice seems crucial for its eventual implementation. Hence, the relevance of “offline exchanges”, such as those indicated in the first insight of this section, should not be underestimated.
>>> 6.2 | Building a common vision among assentados can support the maintenance of cooperative collective dynamics