OLIVEIRA, M. S. L.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/1088572350623888; OLIVEIRA, Maria do Socorro de Lima.
Resumo:
The thesis aims to ascertain how collective action encouraged by external actors -
entities and organizations that are part of the Paraiba Semi-arid Articulation (ParaibaASA)
- was developed in the rural community of Mandacaru, located in the Cariri
Region, State of Paraiba Cariri. Our goal was to analyze how the actions of external
actors and peasants changed the configuration of the community Mandacaru,
causing changes in the way of production, lifestyles and identities in the construction
of the peasants. The history of the establishment of the Community Mandacaru
highlights the social changes, over time, in its social setting. This process focused on
the formation and division of the Rural Propriety called Fazenda, which led to the
Community, and turned to the present day. The social organization of the Community
has gradually affected and transformed by the emergence of collective action,
enabling the development of a process of change, more than fifteen years, which
changed the social trajectory of the peasants who live there and work. It was through
the introduction of innovative techniques and organizational initiatives that new forms
of social life and environment with the semi-arid region were introduced into the
Community. Collective action driven particularly by the Union of Rural Workers of
Solitude (STR) and the Program for Application of Appropriate Technology for
Communities (PATAC) brought to a new look at their social and economic
organization. The major organizational innovation, which is juxtaposed to the
community organization, was the Revolving Funds Solidarity System (FRS). This
system is a strategy applied to all technological and productive innovations: a set of
simple, low cost and great potential adapted to environmental conditions, such as:
tank plates, underground dams, some screens, silos and ecological various forms of
sustainable management of natural resources and native forest, breeding herd,
pastures and crops, in particular with the adoption of agro-ecological paradigm. The
result of this work is the collective learning and community management of common
resources and public through the exercise of solidarity. The community is
strengthened and its members have gained confidence. The peasants learned to
exchange ideas and found that collective action delivers results difficult to be
achieved by individual action. This process of collective construction took place not
without conflict and intense way, resulting in a profound transformation in the
production practices of farmers, their way of life and identity.