Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Dept. of Geography. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/08/04). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 3, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-409).

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This dissertation explores the dynamics of market relationships in a regional vegetable market in the Serra da Ibiapaba, Ceara, Northeast Brazil. During the last two decades this region has undergone a rapid socio-economic transformation involving the widespread adoption of intensive cropping patterns and modern farming technology. Vegetable, especially tomato, production has increased the economic viability of small-farm alternatives; however, farmers now find themselves caught up in market forces over which they have little control. The Ibiapaba vegetable market supplies four large urban markets within Brazil's North/Northeast, and the structure of the supply channels to each market varies significantly. Analysis of a middleman sample reveals that this market accommodates remarkable diversity--small and undercapitalized marketers, large truckowners, and several variations between these extremes. Not only is this market open to many types of market enterprise, it also provides an opportunity for upward mobility, the major mechanism of which is the purchase of a truck. The highly perishable nature of vegetable products and the organizational exigencies of long distance marketing make this profession extremely risk-laden. Not only do market participants face highly variable prices, but also rigid schedule demands. Since these products cannot be stored, middlemen must be able to maintain both regular supply lines and secure buyers, and they respond to these requirements by constantly devising, testing, and revising behavioral strategies which minimize such inherent market risks. Evidence suggests that different types of middlemen have access to different types of strategies: middlemen with abundant resources enjoy definite advantages over their less fortunate counterparts. These comparative advantages can result in greater financial reward and ultimately in a larger share of the market. Vegetable farmers also face risks in a market characterized by extreme price variation and poor local infrastructure. They also confront this instability through the elaboration of behavioral strategies which often involve a loss of relative bargaining power with middlemen. A comparison of producers from two separate municipics of the region reveals the importance of improving information flow to farmers. It is critical that farmers increase their marketing skills. This dissertation employs both standard economic price analyses as well as traditional anthropological methods to account for middleman and farmer market behavior. A model of market dynamics outlines the process middleman response to new opportunities in the socio-economic environment, and generates hypotheses regarding the long-range effects of increased market activity within a capitalist framework. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of market system performance, defined not only in terms of the efficient allocation of resources, but also with regard to distributional outcomes of market trends. The trade-off between market growth and distributional equity is considered with respect to the specific characteristics of the Ibiapaba region.

A pesquisa que aqui apresentamos tem como objetivo analisar, a partir da atual conjuntura política e econômica, as contradições entre as representações de desenvolvimento que perpassam o Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (PRONAF), enquanto política de crédito, e os usos que os camponeses fazem dessa política, a partir da prática. Além da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e da análise de dados secundários, este trabalho também se amparou em trabalho de campo. Sabendo que o PRONAF é uma política de desenvolvimento, julgamos necessário realizar uma reflexão acerca da prática e das representações mobilizadas pelo discurso do desenvolvimento, compreendendo-o enquanto discurso de dominação. Dessa maneira, situamos o PRONAF como uma política que veicula, a partir de suas ações, as representações de desenvolvimento, sem, contudo subsumir tal política ao movimento global, mas considerando a própria dialética inerente ao programa. Compreendidas as representações que dão sustentação ao PRONAF, partimos para um segundo movimento, que procura compreender os usos que os camponeses fazem do PRONAF. Assim selecionamos quatro comunidades camponesas do município de Sapé-PB, são elas: Barra de Antas, Padre Gino, Maraú e Lagoa do Félix. Nestas comunidades, pudemos apreender subversões quase ocultas que os camponeses impõem ao programa, subversões produzidas a partir da vida cotidiana. É nesse segundo momento que o concebido se encontra com o vivido, na vida cotidiana, sem reduzi-la à sua norma. / The present research aims to analyze, from the current political and economic situation, the contradictions between the representations of development that underlie the Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (PRONAF), related to credit policies and its use by the peasants. Beyond the literature, documents and secondary data analysis, this paper also had been endorsed in fieldwork. Understanding PRONAF as a development policy, it was necessary to carry out a reflection on practices and representations deployed by development discourse, analyzing it as a discourse of domination. Thus, PRONAF is understood as a policy that conveys, from their actions, the representations of development, though without subsume such a policy to the global movement, but considering the very dialectics inherent to the program. As long as we understand the representations that support PRONAF, we are able to seek to understand the PRONAFs uses by the peasants. So we selected four rural communities in the municipality of Sapé-PB: Barra de Antas, Padre Gino, Maraú and Lagoa do Félix. In these communities, it was noticed some almost hidden subversions that peasants impose on the program, these subversions are produced from everyday life. In the second stage the conceived faces the lived in everyday life, without reducing it to its norm.

Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a Comunidade Cafuza, cujo objetivo é compreender a organização do grupo em torno de um projeto de produção coletiva de erva-mate, elaborado pelos Cafuzos em conjunto com várias pessoas que lhes prestam assessoria.Os Cafuzos estão assentados há seis anos no município de José Boiteux, em Santa Catarina. Totalizam 180 pessoas e constituem um grupo familiar extenso cuja origem é o casamento de um negro e uma índia no final do século passado. Viveram e sobreviveram à Guerra do Contestado, no início deste século, após a qual migraram do Planalto Catarinense para o Vale do Itajaí, onde, mais uma vez, foram expulsos da terra. Para compreender os impasses que surgiram na condução do projeto coletivo se busca a história do segmento populacional do qual este grupo faz parte, o campesinato aqui denominado brasileiro, e suas relações com outros segmentos e classes sociais. Também se considerou a relação interétnica conflitiva que têm com os colonos da região e a forma como se constrói a identidade étnica do grupo. Todo este conjunto é, então, confrontado com as diretrizes do projeto coletivo e consegue perceber-se como os Cafuzos as reinterpretaram adaptando-as aos valores e às contradições que elaboraram ao longo de sua história. / This study about the Cafuzo Community aims a comprehension of the project of organization of the group to produce collectively "erva-mate" (Ilex paraguaiensis). The Cafuzo Community, settled by the government in the years of 1992 on a land in the city of José Boiteux, state of Santa Catarina. They are na extense family group originated with the union of na african-descendant man and an indigenous woman at the end of the 1800’s. They lived and survived to the War of Contestado, migrating, thereafter, to the Highlands of Santa Catarina. To comprehend the conflicts and tensions aroused by the collectivization of the work, we considered the cultural characteristics of the wider segment they take part called brazilian peasantry in the south region of Brazil. I show the tension between the Cafuzo tradition, which is peasant, and the new organizational guidelines, as well as the tension between this group and the involving society. The theory used for interpretation was the one about the tension between two ideal society types: communitary and societary.

This thesis is motivated by my felt connection with the unnecessarily hungry peasants of the Majority World. The odyssey that results is portrayed as one of epistemic learning in which the meaning of participation is central. The first part (Chapters 1-4) introduces the philosophical understandings gained at the end of the research in order to assist the reader’s orientation at the beginning of the thesis. This explanation depends upon understanding the paradigmatic implications of Classical and Quantum Physics along with an autooethnographic approach. Using these concepts, I portray my experiences in agricultural development with peasants in the Solomon Islands and Mozambique as naïve systemic practice. This practice arises in response to the continual failure of contemporary development which I refer to as expat-centric development. I systemically reframe the categories of “expert” and “blueprint project” which become “expert and project with peasant.” The development that results I find to be easy and successful, yet it is ignored and undermined. This leads me to a watershed experience, which becomes Part 2 (Chapter 5) of the thesis.Within Part 3 I see the role of society’s institutions to replicate the mechanistic paradigm. Thus, in order to avoid the institutional entrapment that results from this, I see the need post-thesis, to participate in evolving new social structures that can replicate the paradigm of systemic participation. This will largely depend upon the willingness of society to engage with a cosmology of connectedness. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis is motivated by my felt connection with the unnecessarily hungry peasants of the Majority World. The odyssey that results is portrayed as one of epistemic learning in which the meaning of participation is central. The first part (Chapters 1-4) introduces the philosophical understandings gained at the end of the research in order to assist the reader’s orientation at the beginning of the thesis. This explanation depends upon understanding the paradigmatic implications of Classical and Quantum Physics along with an autooethnographic approach. Using these concepts, I portray my experiences in agricultural development with peasants in the Solomon Islands and Mozambique as naïve systemic practice. This practice arises in response to the continual failure of contemporary development which I refer to as expat-centric development. I systemically reframe the categories of “expert” and “blueprint project” which become “expert and project with peasant.” The development that results I find to be easy and successful, yet it is ignored and undermined. This leads me to a watershed experience, which becomes Part 2 (Chapter 5) of the thesis.Within Part 3 I see the role of society’s institutions to replicate the mechanistic paradigm. Thus, in order to avoid the institutional entrapment that results from this, I see the need post-thesis, to participate in evolving new social structures that can replicate the paradigm of systemic participation. This will largely depend upon the willingness of society to engage with a cosmology of connectedness. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This paper has been awarded the Ronald S. Love Prize of the Western Society for French History in 2009.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1979. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 522-527).