Condições de emergência dos sem-terra em meio a reconfigurações do espaço estancieiro no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the symbolic disputes around the legitimacy of the struggle for land in the context of a region historically constituted by ranching domains in Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Our intention was to comprehend the structural conditions leading to the insertion of social agents identified as landless in the space of relations established by the former inhabitants from the municipalities of that region, especially in a scenario that, since the 1980s, has been one of crisis for ranching reproduction based on the sale of meat. We opted for an analytical approach privileging social mobilization processes that tookplace between 2003 and 2008 in São Gabriel, RS, which preceded the implementation of rural settlements in the municipality. We analyzed action repertoires articulated in a setting of agrarian conflict composed basically of rural employers, rural social movements and the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), besides the interventions of other agents like the press and the Public Prosecutor ́s Office. It is argued that the state of tension that permeated such struggles around São Gabriel and that negatively marked the landless as people "coming from outside" is a tributary of the structural conditions found in the social space, which restricted the emergence of local disputes over the land tenure regime. Methodologically, this articleis constituted by documentary analysis of official INCRA/RS processes, publications in the local press and books regarding the events of the period which were written by legitimate spokespersons of the landless people and of the rural producers.ZANELLA, Francis Casagranda e Marcos Botton Piccin. Condições de emergência dos sem-terra em meio a reconfigurações do espaço estancieiro no Rio Grande do Sul. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, junho de 2018, vol. 26, n. 2, p. 285-308, ISSN 2526-7752.