In the contemporary context, the environmental issue has been the main focus for
the scientific community of different countries. They provide background to new policies
that join production and satisfaction of human needs together with preservation and
rational management of natural resources. In the countryside, agriculture is responsible
for most environmental damage, and its socioenvironmental consequences are drawing
attention of global debates. Since the1960 ́s, when the environmental subject was
brought up to international discussions at UN, worldwide initiatives have been set in
motion to stand for alternatives to the technological pattern of industrial agriculture -
result of the so-called Green Revolution. Nowadays, as the visibility of these enterprises
increases, along with its worldwide projection, we notice an indiscriminate use of terms
such as “sustainable agriculture”, “organic agriculture”, “natural agriculture”, “ecological
agriculture” and “agroecology”, due to an unclear distinction of these terms or due to
economical interests in appropriating them. The present dissertation proposes a
conceptual elucidation about Agroecology, considering rural problems as expressions of
the capitalist society and the hegemonic development model, whose interpretations
suffer refractions from the present science paradigmatic crisis. This research presents a
historical retrospective of the beginning of Agroecology, in the Agricultural Ecology field,
through the analysis of its development process and theoretical enrichment, taking as
backgrounds the works of Miguel A. Altieri and Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán, due to their
international recognition and complementary approaches. This research identifies a
process of “continuums” and “ruptures” in the historical development of Agroecology,
which indicates the richness and complexity of its development and of the subject it
embraces, beyond purely technological and ahistorical conceptions. The “continuums”
are expressed by the incorporation and development of the theoretical basis and of
specialized technical knowledge, gathered along its development; and the “ruptures” are
found in the subordination of these conquers to the social aim of research and initiatives
taken in the mark of this theoretical orientation, concerning rural development. In this
approach, Agroecology means more than simply a tool to design sustainable productive
systems, but it represents a possibility to empower social processes, rescuing peasants’
knowledge and practices through methodological strategies aimed at the sustainable
rural development. It implies the affirmation of a critic social thought – by students,
professionals and peasants – beyond the operational rationality reigning over occidental
scientific community.
