Territorialisation of rural development policy, World Bank productive alliances: a comparative study between São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Paraná

• Grant number: 19/11129-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2019
• End date: March 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Pires de Paula
• Grantee: Rodolfo de Souza Lima
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The World Bank Group has become a financial, political and intellectual actor with a vast influence in the implementation of the neoliberal agenda in the world and especially in Latin America. Since the 1990s, the Bank has included in its agenda the theme of reducing poverty to the rural development strategy as a necessary element for economic growth. It is identified that when accessing markets, peasants, indigenous and quilombolas could raise their income and become rural entrepreneurs. In this sense, the Bank formulates the Productive Alliances (PA) approach, which aims to strengthen agricultural chains between rural producers and buyers, through productive investments, infrastructure, inputs and so on. PAs begin to territorialize in Latin America in the early 2000s, and especially in Brazil in 2006, through sustainable rural development projects at the state level. In the meantime, until 2008, 10 projects worth US $ 1,859.49 billion were developed in different states of the country. We will try to analyze the territorialisation of PA policy - rural development, its implications for the families involved, the relations between territory, labor, capital and State, under the hypothesis that its implementation means an attempt to normalize peasant territory to neoliberal rationality. The proposed methodology will be based on the bibliographical and documentary survey, as well as on the field work and interviews with a view to a comparative analysis in different projects. In this sense, we will study the implementation in São Paulo (Sustainable Rural Development Project - Microbacias II - Market Access); in Paraná, (PRÓ-RURAL project); and in Santa Catarina (rural competitiveness project). (AU)