The formation of family agriculture’ class identity, social moviment and formation of class identity: a theoretical articulation between media consumption and participation in the Solidarity Economy Social movement

Abstract

This article discusses, theoretically, the relationship between the participation of family farmers in the Solidarity Economy social movement and the formation of class identity, as well as the role of the media in the (de) legitimation of identities. The theme of mobilization, through collective action in a social movement, allows us to observe the identification process with the social class more clearly from the interactions with traditional means of communication and new technologies. As a theoretical axis, British and Latin American cultural studies are used, and a combination is made between the sociology of reproduction by Pierre Bourdieu and the communicative mediations of culture, by Jesús-Martín-Barbero: the first, for his contributions to the study social class; the second, for treating the media as a matter of culture and social recognition. In the theoretical argument, it is stated that the movement's critical positioning on the modes of work and consumption in capitalist society tends to result in negotiated interpretations of the hegemonic media's representations about family farming. The role of the Solidarity Economy in the maintenance and economic survival of family farming is not sufficient to allow awareness of the subalternity of the class communed with other fractions of the rural working class. The desire for social and media recognition separates family agriculture from recognition with other workers.