This article aims to systematize practices of economic plurality based on empirical self-sufficiency purpouses in ecovillages and, as a theoretical reference, elements of solidary economy, plural in Polanyi and Gift in Mauss. We assume the premise that the market economy dominates human socialization, reducing human rationality to utilitarian calculation, thus establishing a monoculture that spreads from the mind to agriculture. We point out economic practices whose purposes and work, management and economy schemes are guided by the preservation and regeneration of ecosystems that reconnect human beings to themselves and to nature. After 49 days of immersion in four ecovillages, and subsequent remote monitoring of their activities, diversified agricultural practices were qualified, centered on ideals of self-sufficiency, natural times and processes and singularities of social life revealing economic plurality in terms of domesticity, reciprocity, redistribution, giving and solidarity. Restricted relations with the market guide economic life dynamics and support ideals for facing the social and environmental crisis.
Key words:
Intentional communities; Ecovillages; Plural economy; Agroecology