Smart cities, sustainability, and associative networks

The configuration of the Solidarity Economy Movement (SEM) in response to the environmental question in São Carlos (SP-Brazil)

Resumo

This article analyzes the positions of the Solidarity Economy Movement (SEM) regarding the environmental question in the city of São Carlos (SP-Brazil), focusing on both territorial practices and discursive disputes that shape its intervention in the face of hegemonic development models. In an urban context marked by spatial segregation, social conflict, and the consolidation of agribusiness, the study examines how SEM articulates associative, productive, and symbolic actions that challenge dominant interpretations of sustainability. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the Integrated Multidisciplinary Center for Studies, Training, and Intervention in Solidarity Economy (NuMI-EcoSol in Portuguese) as a key institutional actor that provides coherence, depth, and projection to the movement’s strategies. The study also explores agroecological experiences developed in rural settlements, solidarity fairs as alternative spaces of commerce, and short circuits of critical consumption. The methodology employed is qualitative, based on interviews with relevant actors, analysis of normative documents, and review of institutional sources. The article concludes that the Solidarity Economy in São Carlos not only promotes concrete forms of sustainable production, but also constitutes a socio-political platform of resistance that contests dominant meanings of urban development through a situated political ecology.