Regional developing policies as a form of social justice: the experience of fair trade in Poços de Caldas

• Grant number: 12/22531-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Sociology of Development
• Principal Investigator: Agnaldo de Sousa Barbosa
• Grantee: Carolina Villas Boas Muniz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This Project has the purpose of demonstrating that public policies of regional development can have as an outcome a fair society. Besides it, it seeks to verify if the matter or Fairtrade, particularly the experience that took place in Poços de Caldas, inside Minas Gerais state, confirms those premises. Fairtrade is a private enterprise, but also make use of government incentive to be deployed. The label enables a better sail of Fairtrade products (with prices higher than the usual at the market), and besides it, the community receives a bonus that must be invested in a democratic way at the local society, improving the producers quality of life, and benefiting the whole society. At the methodological aspect, beyond works about public policies, development, opportunities, and justice - especially the ones made by John Rawls - and also reports and studies about the matter of Fairtrade, among the sources used to accomplish this project are interviews with public managers and staff related to the project that took place in Poços de Caldas and in addition, studies, data and reports done by The Division of Farming Support, related to the Working and Development Office of Poços de Caldas. (AU)