7 | Closing Remarks
How can we foster sustainability in assentamentos? In order to answer this question, we conducted a constructivist qualitative research project, designed as an instrumental collective case study. A large set of qualitative data was gathered in assentamentos and ecovillages with very distinct characteristics—different sizes, dates and modes of creation, geographical and economical context, member profiles, among others—and from the experience of bureaucrats and researchers in the field.
As far as we know, the attempt to link those two types of rural communities—assentamentos and ecovillages—had not been carried out in the past. Although our space and time constraints limited our analysis of ecovillage data, our intention in linking both types of communities was to bring fresh elements into the debate concerning sustainability in assentamentos. Other reserchers can profit from this efforts and build on it.
Furthermore, it should be once more emphasized that our main concern throughout the analysis was to collect and use in the first place elements from field interviews and observations (instead of relying on current literature and policy documents). This conscious methodological decision helped us have more freedom to explore the data, allowing the rise of insights in a more spontaneous fashion. Inspired by the so-called “Gioia Method” and grounded theory, we followed a research strategy characterized by a constant process of interaction with the data, with the intention of contributing elements for the design of approaches to fostering sustainability in assentamentos.
Given the space and time constraints we faced, our strategy led to an admittedly limited depth of analysis. Nevertheless, the more general approach allows us to structure policy debates regarding sustainability in assentamentos more inclusively, in such a way that other scholars and practitioners can more easily take part of them. We believe that more meaningful policy design can happen when such spaces for dialogue occur.
This belief also explains our research design, which included a concern for more effective communication of research outputs through interfaces different than text-dominated black-and-white linear narratives. The multimedia datasets we collected can enable the production of more user-centered outputs, which we see as a future development that we intend to carry out on the basis of this text.
Indeed, our intention is to explore strategies for presenting the wide variety of data we collected in such a way that our research ‘leftovers’—data collected and processed, but not directly published in this synthetic narrative—can be accessed, used and disseminated not only by other researchers, but also by journalists, civil servants, and politicians, among other potential audiences. We interpret this project as the first prototype of a larger venture, OndaPolitica [www.ondapolitica.org], which has the vision of bridging the gap between researchers and practitioners in the field of public policy.
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