FEMALE PROTAGONISMS AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: RECYCLING AND QUILOMBOLA TERRITORIES IN MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

This article examines how the protagonism of women in two socio-territorial contexts in Minas Gerais, waste pickers in Belo Horizonte and women from the Quilombola Community of Cachoeira dos Forros in Passa Tempo, sustains concrete processes of socio-environmental justice. A qualitative approach inspired by action research was adopted, combining field observation, guided conversations, document analysis and collective feedback, aiming to understand how practices of labor, care and self-management, articulated with territorial defense and the transmission of knowledge, reshape power relations, generate socio-environmental value and expand local political capacities. The analysis mobilizes four interrelated dimensions: circularity and value in urban cooperatives, where waste pickers organize material flows, improve quality, mitigate environmental impacts and internalize risks widely neglected by the State and the market; territory and ancestry in the quilombo, where productive techniques, memory rituals, commons-based rules and intergenerational solidarity ensure social reproduction and food sovereignty; governance and recognition, revealing asymmetries in the distribution of responsibilities, resources and public voice; and everyday social technologies, in which cooperation, care and community agreements transform adversity into innovative arrangements of management, income and protection of life. Findings indicate that effective sustainability depends on recognizing the socio-environmental value produced by these women and correcting structural inequalities that disproportionately burden Black bodies and territories, requiring policies that promote redistribution of rights, cognitive recognition and qualified political participation. It is concluded that the articulation between urban circularity and rural ancestry constitutes a model of socio-territorial transformation capable of guiding just ecological transitions in Brazil, in which socio-environmental justice becomes inseparable from the strengthening of female protagonism and the appreciation of their knowledge and practices.