Participatory Construction of a Collective Brand in Agroecological Networks: Developing a Symbolic Territorialisation Methodology in Guerrero, Mexico

Peasant agroecology faces limitations in commercial visibility and institutional recognition despite its contributions to ecological, food and cultural sustainability. This article analyses the participatory construction of a territorialised collective brand within the Red de Soberanía Alimentaria de Productores Indígenas de la Montaña de Guerrero, Mexico (SAPIGro), and systematises the Territorialised Collective Brand Model (TCBM). The research was conducted in 2024 with 18 families from seven rural Indigenous communities using a participatory action research strategy that combined symbolic co-design workshops, participant observation, documentary analysis and Frederic Vester’s systemic analysis matrix to identify critical variables within the local agri-food system. The results show that the TCBM is structured around four interrelated dimensions: identity, organisational, productive and commercial–symbolic. Cultural identity operates as a regulatory variable, while organisational capacities and market access constitute critical variables. The collective brand functions as a social innovation and symbolic territorialisation mechanism that strengthens community agency, revalues Indigenous agroecological food systems, and provides transferable methodological inputs for rural development policies and strategies grounded in territoriality and solidarity-based economies.