A atuação da Rede Omiosun perante o empreendimento Ponte Salvador – Ilha de Itaparica

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the challenges faced by women from the Omiosun Network and other leaders from traditional communities in their social struggles and resistance against the violations of rights perpetrated throughout the process of building the Salvador-Ilha de Itaparica Bridge. The Omiosun Network and other leaders operate in the area of influence of the bridge project, which is understood by the state government of Bahia as a major vector of urban mobility. The research is based on the experiences of the researcher herself as a citizen of this territory and a member of traditional communities that remain there and carry out their religious activities. As a theoretical reference, I drew on Claude Raffestin's concept to understand the state in its design of territorial development policy. From a geographical perspective, I address the constituent elements, which translate into social conflict and power relations present in the territory. Gustavo Lis's literature review led me to an update of a State that feeds on crises and adopts a process based on the logic of capitalist exploitation. In the theoretical field, I emphasize the importance of Milton Santos and Ailton Krenak with their more humanized geography, social transformation, and a different perspective on a possible world beyond the aspects of globalization. The Otra methodology (Harari; Pozzebon, 2024) was adopted as the research paradigm, which is consistent with the research theme when it creates a way of sharing knowledge based on the perspectives and emotions of populations historically silenced by coloniality. As a research strategy, I conducted a case study based on a comparison of the Social Residence, in which I carried out field research through interviews with leaders from the territory of Itaparica Island and the Quilombo de Alcântara Community in Maranhão, as a way of drawing a parallel between the strategies adopted in the territories affected by rights violations, with the aim of immersing myself in the experience of possible paths for social transformation in the territory, based on the experience and lived reality of other communities. As a result, this research provides a reflection on the risks, limitations, and challenges of the Omiosun Women's Network of Itaparica Island in dealing with the state's strategies for implementing the West Road System (SVO) Salvador Bridge Itaparica Island project. The social technology in this project is an audiovisual product with the narratives of the people interviewed who were directly and indirectly impacted in the territories studied, Alcântara Territory and Itaparica Island. This product will help the Omiosun Women's Network, universities, public administration, and the entire community of Itaparica Island to leverage public policies aimed at traditional peoples and communities.