Cooking the/in Common: Elements of the Differential Production of Space in Collective Kitchens' Actions during the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

If, on the one hand, the intensification of social inequalities is an evident effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, on the other hand, it is also necessary to bring to light the popular organizations that gained strength in this sad period. These are self-organized local organizations such as community kitchens and gardens, neighborhood associations, health brigades, and other experiences that have been showing us that doing politics is much more than simply going to vote every two years. Such spatial practices confer the existence of what Henri Lefebvre (2013) calls "differential space", spaces of use, residues of the hegemonic everyday life, and, at the same time, resistance to it. As places of experimentation, they are also related to what Stavrides (2016) proposes as "thresholds", portals in which the common is allowed to emerge. This article presents these concepts as reading keys to understanding the actions and practices of community and collective kitchens from Curitiba during 2020 and 2021, in particular one maintained by the Marmitas da Terra collective, linked to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). As well, intends to analyze how these spaces can collaborate to the emergence of common practices and actions in urban daily life.