This study reflects on numerous environmental perceptions and memory of a local group from Xinguara/PA, starting from a critical approach of growth, based on the ideals of progress and regional development. It also considers the occupation of Pará's southern border region and the rescue of local social history, focusing on the environmental problems that were observed along three different periods: the first one is marked by natives' catechism and the occupation of this territory by farmers...

This text is a reflection based on the results of an ongoing research on the different types of rural areas that develop and resist to the advance of agribusiness, attesting the strength of peasantry throughout history. Here are considered three types of peasant spaces in rural areas configuration in Brazil, following the typology under development by Whitaker (2009): a "traditional ruralism" historically recognized as peasantry; a "contemporary ruralism" as a result of the struggle for...

Since the 1990s we have observed visible traces of a new rurality that has been specifically changing the living conditions of families, especially of women rural workers in Brazil and worldwide. In Amazon, it was possible to identify traces of this new rurality in production strategies developed by households in agrarian and forest systems in different territories. This article, based on literature review and preliminary data from the doctoral thesis entitled "Socioeconomic Dynamics in...

Against the trend of abandonment of rural areas, the implantation of hundreds of land reform settlements projects in São Paulo indicates a new situation of rural occupation and territorial organization. Expressions of a conflictive dynamic involving the government and the social movements engaged in the struggle for land reform, these settlements constitute real laboratories of social experiences. This paper is concerned with the reuse of architectural structures of large farms that were...

In this paper I present some preliminary notes on recent developments in the sugarcane labor market, pointing to trends and to some changes in labor relationships. I also discuss the impact of the current context of mechanization of sugarcane, the emergence of new actors and labor relationships in this new context and some determinants that appear to influence the process of defining the institutional rules of labor conditions for all activities. I also point to an intense deterioration of...

For its historical and structural features, the sugarcane agribusiness has imposed its dominance over the countryside and has subordinated the collective interests in the municipalities where their producing units are installed – the plants. This situation exposes the local population to a situation of insecurity, insofar as it reduces the possibility of economic activities and jobs that generate income which is not related to the activities of the plant, hindering local production and...

As part of agrarian public interventions, settlement projects close to large urban centers are few. However, the study of these cases in the state of Sao Paulo allows to analyze several territorial impacts in the terms of a multidimensional approach. Therefore, this study intends to show the main transformations caused by the creation of a settlement in the periurban fringe of the city of Campinas, that, in spite of its large population, has large sugar-cane plantations for the production of...

This study analyzes the territorial planning of lots of a land reform settlement (Settlement 'Nova Conquista'), located in a municipality in the western region of São Paulo State. To describe the lots internal space organization, undertaken by the settlers, we have used the design of croquis, to reproduce schematically the objects constructed by them. The analyzed sample contains four representations of lots. The croquis include an area of 50 meters from the house, encompassing the space of...

This article aims at analyzing the effects of the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture in agricultural production, generating employment and income in rural communities belonging to the São Pedro Settlement Project located in the municipality of Paranaíta, North of Mato Grosso state. To this end, surveys of quantitative and qualitative data, using primary and secondary sources were conducted. The results show that the program was first accessed in 1999, becoming an important...

The central issue of this study was the implementation of Food Acquisition Program – FAP (PAA) in rural settlements. For this purpose, it was conducted a case study in three settlements located in the municipality of Araras, Sao Paulo state, in which the implementation of FAP occurred in 2008 on the initiative of settled family farmers ("Terra Boa" Association). In 2011, the operation of the Program switched to the Beekeepers and Family Farmers from Araras and Region Cooperative (COAF),...

Based on the concept of development as liberty, development is a process that involves, fundamentally, people's agent condition, allowing them to be "beneficiary and judges of the progress, but also, direct or indirectly, all the production primary means. Analyzing this issue, the author points out the risks coming from this double role – of agents and means of development performed by people – in situations of planning and formulation of policies aimed only at the progress in production and...

This article has as main objectives to characterize the socioeconomic and environmental aspects of conventional and ecological coffee (agroforestry) of Pontal do Paranapanema, region in areas of rural settlements production systems, evaluating the sustainability of these agroecosystems and the opportunities for income generation and food security to families. Despite the fact that the coffee produced in agroforestry systems do not receive agrochemical applications and present a high...