Território e desenvolvimento segundo extensionistas rurais : um estudo no município de Afogados da Ingazeira - PE

Abstract

This study had the main objective to analyze the prospects about the concept of territory and development for rural extension workers operating in the municipality of Afogados da Ingazeira, in the state of Pernambuco, with respect to the conceptualization of territory and development. Privileging transdisciplinarity and being conducted from a case study, the research made use of territory and development as main analytic categories. This work also aimed at giving voice to those who deal daily with the populations served by the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Services in a municipality located in the northeastern semi-arid region that seems to have built development strategies differentiated in relation to its surroundings. Among these strategies, it is possible to highlight those arising from territorial development policies, as seems to be the case of the protagonism played by the municipality in the Citizenship Territories Program in relation to the territory of Sertão do Pajeú. The research was conducted by the summary question of the problem that inquires how do rural extension workers operating in the municipality of Afogados da Ingazeira manifest their representations about territory and development as strategies that can promote social welfare. Authors as José Eli da Veiga (2001; 2002; 2003; 2008), Maria Nazareth Wanderley Baudel (2013; 2014) Paulo de Jesus (2006), Sergio Schneider (2004, 2009), among others gave the theoretical basis for this research. For listening to the 21 participants, the semi-structured interview and the subsequent analysis were used. Considering what was proposed, at the end of this study, it was shown that both analytical categories were perceived as valid strategies in the pursuit of improving the lives of local people and from them the most varied perceptions in line with their complexities are intuited. Among the various representations about territory, a certain discourse that tends to see its instrumentation and standardization prevailed. Considering that respondents were asked to contextualize the concept of development with the local reality, on the context of knowledge of the respondents, understandings about the scarcity and even on the absence of factors that denote the existence of development in the locus of research prevailed. Words that give more prominence to the absence were more frequent than those that emphasize what is seen as development.