O coletivo feminino “Varal das mina”

Abstract

This dissertation examines the Varal das Mina women’s collective, located in the city of Ponta Grossa (Brazil), with the aim of understanding how this grassroots initiative is positioned within the field of alternative economies, particularly through feminist, solidarity-based, sustainable, and circular approaches. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, inspired by participatory research, and combines data collection techniques such as participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and a socioeconomic questionnaire applied to 34 members of the collective. The theoretical framework draws on contributions from feminist economics (Carrasco, Orozco, Federici), solidarity economy (Singer, Gaiger), sustainable development (Sachs), and circular economy (Stahel), in addition to classical references such as Karl Polanyi. The findings reveal that Varal das Mina represents a space of resistance and economic organization led by women, where practices of care, self-management, and material reuse are mobilized as strategies for income generation and as critiques of market-centered logics. The research also identifies tensions between the collective principles of alternative economies and contemporary discourses of individual entrepreneurship, highlighting the complexity of strategies adopted by women in contexts of precarity and structural inequality. This case offers a socially, politically, and ecologically relevant experience that contributes to debates on economic justice, gender, and local transformation.