The Substance of the Broth: Modernization and work in slave-like conditions in the sugarcane agroindustry in Ribeirão Preto

• Grant number: 24/04552-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Teixeira Pitta
• Grantee: Thiago da Nóbrega Prata
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this research we intend to propose the investigation of the relationship between the modernization process, territorialization of sugar-alcohol agro-industrial capital and work in conditions similar to slavery in the sugarcane production chain in the Administrative Region of Ribeirão Preto today. The absurdity of labor relations in which slave-like work is characterized and the fact that it is present even in a highly modernized, mechanized and financialized sector (PITTA, 2013) in one of the main regional centers in Brazil, according to the state planning (SÃO PAULO, 2020). The recognition of the lack of control over the problem on the part of sugar and alcohol plants in the region (SÃO MARTINHO, 2023) poses the research challenge of how to deal with this issue, recognizing different scales of interpretation. In this sense, it is proposed to think of the relationships established between the different actors and scales of the phenomenon as particular territorialities that fit into a process of territorialization of capital, in which social mediation, and therefore the relationship between individuals, is crossed by the form- commodity and the nexus between subjects is through work, which forces subjects to sell their life time to socially reproduce. We propose here an approach to the topic that aims to recognize different scales, based on documentary sources, bibliographic reviews and fieldwork.