Intersections between Traditionality, Territoriality and Reterritorialization in Urban Fishing Communities: A Study of the Bode Community (Recife - Brazil)

This research focuses on the intersections between traditionality, territoriality and reterritorialization in urban fishing communities, with a focus on the Bode Community (Recife - Brazil). Starting from the premise that the fishing territory in Brazilian cities is projected in a continuum between traditionality and modernity, we investigate how everyday practices are guided by logics that constantly reconfigure their territorialities. The community, located on the urban-oceanic interface, faces challenges arising from urbanization that casts its territory as a “non-place”, corresponding to the city's mangroves, being constantly the target of deterritorializing processes, which include the removal of residents, a lack of incentives for traditional activities and a prohibition on access to the surrounding mangroves. In the meantime, the refusal of local individuals to continue developing traditional activities, entering the city's commercial and service sectors, confronts the fact that there are parallel internal movements that seek to maintain traditional practices and territorial connections. Thus, many other individuals act politically by claiming their territory as a “traditional fishing community”, as a form of resistance to these pressures. We argue that the claim to traditionality represents a form of reterritorialization, as described by the Brazilian geographer Rogério Haesbaert, revealing ontological conflicts within the group. Projecting the discussion beyond modern epistemologies, based on the contribution of authors such as Arturo Escobar, Marisol de la Cadena and the Brazilian philosopher Ailton Krenak, we seek to understand the ontological nuances of the community members and how, based on these worldviews, they negotiate their identities and practices. The study thus highlights the importance of incorporating these voices and knowledge into debates on new urban territorialities, recognizing the territories from their intrinsic condition of transitional land-sea.