'Landless Peasant' Activism in Brazil: fighting for social inclusion through land reform

© 2010 Dr. Carmen LindemannAbstract This thesis investigates why problems of social exclusion for ‘landless peasants’ are ongoing in Brazil even after access to land has been gained through land reform. Gaining access to land is the primary strategy for those who are ‘landless’ in an attempt to reposition themselves within society. The problem, however, is that social exclusion continues even after access to land has been gained, and that land reform strategies are not sufficient on their own to redress uneven social relations and power. Put in other words, the ways that land reform policies are currently constructed limit the opportunities, and may exacerbate the difficulties, experienced by those who gain access to land through ‘landless peasant’ activism. By drawing on research in three land settlements in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, I found that although ‘landless peasants’ achieve access to land, they continue to experience discrimination by local communities surrounding land settlements. The mechanisms they draw on for meeting their daily needs are not perceived as ‘legitimate’, ‘formal’, or economically sustainable. In order to achieve effective participation in the formal institutions of society, it is not only access to land that matters, but also: (a) the perceived illegitimacy of the processes for gaining access to land, which create tensions that affect the broader societal positioning of settlers; (b) institutional arrangements that are set up for the management of land settlements, which promote links across land reform networks and maintain the division between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, as well as amongst the settlers themselves; (c) the ‘ideologies of resistance’, and ‘landless peasant’ activism more broadly, that continue to play a key role in enabling settlers to formulate their claims around access to land: the closer the settlers are bound by their internal ideology, the more distant they become from the local communities surrounding land settlements. As argued here, for land reform to result in greater social inclusion, concerted efforts would be required for blurring the differences, and removing the boundaries between settlers and non-settlers. Those who are able to move beyond ‘ideologies of resistance’ find themselves in a better position to access a wider range of social interactions and networks. My conclusion, therefore, is that ‘landless peasants’ are fighting not just for land, but also for a better place within Brazilian society. Certain structural factors that affect discrimination and differences between settlers and non-settlers are explored in this thesis