FEMINIST POPULAR EDUCATION AND RESISTANCE TO NEOLIBERALISM: EXPERIENCES OF AMAZONIAN WOMEN WITH THE AMAZONIAN WOMEN'S INSTITUTE (IMA) - ACRE
Feminist popular education; Acre Amazon; Instituto Mulheres da Amazônia; Neoliberalism; Strategies of struggle.
The advance of neoliberalism, with its logic of precariousness and commodification of life, has marked the reality of Amazonian women. Given this scenario, this thesis aims to analyze how feminist popular education relates to the collective strategies of these women's struggles, strengthening their practices of resistance, autonomy and emancipation in the territories. As a methodological approach, we used qualitative research, with semi-structured interviews with women from collectives and organizations participating in projects run by the Women of the Amazon Institute (IMA). The women's struggle strategies reveal feminist popular education practices that strengthen collectivity, autonomy, intercultural care and emancipation processes in the territories. Based on the speeches of midwives, indigenous leaders, peasants and black women, the research identifies the links between health, territory and community strategies, in the face of state neglect, violence and the absence of public policies. In this context, the thesis proposes the concept of body-exhaustion, based on the narratives of the interlocutors. The term expresses the accumulated impacts of intersectional violence that cuts across the dimensions of gender, class, territory, race/ethnicity, as well as structural and environmental racism, with direct repercussions on women's bodies, the implications of which affect their physical and mental health.