Abstract

This seminar intends to demonstrate the conduction of new organisational strategies in favour of  young people remaining in settlement project, founded in 1974, in the state of Rondônia, in the Western Amazon region of Brazil. This settlement project, named Marechal Dutra, was developed during the Military Government, with the intention of maintaining  national security and undeclared purpose of mitigating the struggles for land in the south-central region of the country, leading towards the northern region  those who had little land or none at all. In the municipality of Alto Paraiso, state of Rondonia, a group of young people is now in charge of the local farmers union and of the organisation of family collective agro-ecological production as an alternative to cattle production. Young people leading the local union are children of "pioneers", who occupied the lands of Rondonia settlements still in the 1970s. Pioneering is seen as a form of social recognition, fostering the creation of a local "sense of honour" (Bourdieu 1972). The learning of agroecological production was made possible by the participation of young people in social movements linked to Via Campesina, namely the MPA (Small Farmers Movement).

Bio note

Manuela Souza Siqueira Cordeiro, holds a PhD in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, with the thesis entitled “A Casa a rodar: Projetos e pioneirismo na Amazônia Ocidental” (2015) and holds a Master of Social Sciences in Agriculture Development from the same university with a dissertation entitled "Filhos da Reforma Agrária: Terra, casa e lógicas de sucessão em Novo Horizonte" (2010). Cordeiro is Professor at the Federal University of Roraima-UFRR since 2013, teaches Anthropology courses and develops research on "Contemporary ethnographies: Social Conflicts, Identities and Memory" and "The Roraima Rural Universe in Perspective: social processes and transformations. As for her work in outreach, she is responsible for a Workshop Series on Representations, Territorialities and Public Policies: the rural in the state of Roraima.

Activity within the CES Solidarity Economy Study Group (ECOSOL CES) | POSTRADE