Dynamics and Conflicts at the Agricultural Frontier: The Formation of the Contemporary Slave Labor Arc in the Central-Northern Region of Brazil

• Grant number: 24/13616-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Vicente Eudes Lemos Alves
• Grantee: Matheus Sousa Barros
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to investigate the advancement of contemporary slave labor through the processes of agricultural frontier expansion in the central-northern region of Brazil and the contradictions of production in the countryside, as part of the agrarian question. In recent decades, this developing region has shown significant economic growth driven by modernized agricultural production and mineral exploitation, as well as the establishment of industries, commercial activities, and services, along with population migration from various parts of Brazil through labor mobilization. With this proposal, the goal is to evaluate and identify the data obtained in order to develop a survey that allows for the identification of geographical areas with the highest capture and vulnerability to contemporary slave labor and the formation of the "contemporary slave labor arc" in Brazil.