The creativity of everyday life in crafting resilient food systems: A framework and case from the Atlantic Forest Coast of Brazil

We introduce an approach to consider the role of agency in our understanding of social-ecological resilience in the context of remote indigenous and other rural communities. We introduce biocultural creativity as the everyday... [ view full abstract ]

We introduce an approach to consider the role of agency in our understanding of social-ecological resilience in the context of remote indigenous and other rural communities. We introduce biocultural creativity as the everyday actions of harvesters in utilizing biological materials to respond to the challenges they face as actors within dynamic social-ecological systems. We focus on food systems and draw upon that literature to develop an approach that traces the flows of biological materials from the environment and through its transformation, exchange and consumption phases. This approach allows us to systematically locate challenges within a food system to which harvesters respond through everyday choices that lead to transformations of the food system over time. We present a case study from Ponta Negra, Brazil, to illustrate food system resilience as a process of crafting through everyday creativity and the challenges to this process when access to key components of the food system are lost. While much work has focused on the emptying of rural and remote regions emphasizing those who have left, we focus on those who have stayed, or come back, and the actions they undertake to fashion these spaces as meaningful places to work and live. Our goal in doing so is to bring the creativity of everyday life into the broader discussion of the role of agency within resilience thinking.