Experiências de trabalhadores rurais sem-terra do assentamento Olívio Albani, Campo Erê, Santa Catarina (1989-2022)

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the social experiences of workers, between 1989 and 2022, currently settled in the northwest region of the state of Santa Catarina. The research also seeks to understand the meanings attributed to land and agrarian reform, developed during the process of struggle for the land and of the settlement construction. It focuses on the forms of resistance and organization of rural workers to remain in the settlement in the face of the pressures from the agribusiness predominant in the region. After the conquest of the land, the settlers face significant challenges in implementing agricultural practices and forms of territorial organization that are distant from the prevailing relations in conventional agriculture. In the daily interactions, these difficulties manifest themselves in the tensions that are formed over how these people seek to build a way of life that reflects their ideas, interests and needs, either by opposing or assimilating the interests of capitalism in the countryside. This study is based on oral history interviews conducted with residents of the Olívio Albani Settlement, in Campo Erê, Santa Catarina, and on the analysis of sources such as newspaper articles, photographs and videos. This approach makes it possible to understand the meanings established by the subjects, as well as to understand the heterogeneity of the settlers and the historical process in which they are inserted.