Rural Brazil Research Articles

Perceptions of ICT use in rural Brazil: Factors that impact appropriation among marginalized communities

This study of digital inclusion among the rural poor examines how residents of remote mountain communities in Brazil perceive the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It analyzes social factors that impact ICT appropriation and the behaviors and attitudes that advance digital literacy among marginalized rural populations. The authors conducted factor analysis and logistic regressions to survey data collected. Results confirm the presence of a gender divide in ICT adoption. Women were more likely to perceive that ICT use brings social benefits to the community, and considered that ICTs provide better opportunities for the young.Este estudio sobre inclusión digital entre los pobres en comunidades rurales examina cómo es que los residentes de comunidades serranas remotas en Brasil perciben el uso de la las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TICs). Analiza los factores sociales que impactan la apropiación de TIC, así como el comportamiento y las actitudes que permiten el avance de la alfabetización digital en poblaciones rurales marginalizadas. Los autores realizaron un análisis factorial y regresiones logísticas de la información recolectada a través de encuestas. Los resultados confirman la presencia de una brecha de género en la adopción de TIC. Las mujeres son más propensas a percibir que el uso de ICT trae beneficios sociales para la comunidad, y también consideraron que las TICs proporcionan mejores oportunidades para los jóvenes.

Seroprevalence of Orthopoxvirus in rural Brazil: insights into anti-OPV immunity status and its implications for emergent zoonotic OPV.

BackgroundBovine vaccinia (BV) is a zoonosis caused by Vaccinia virus, a virus from Orthopoxvirus genus (OPV) that affects mainly cattle herds and humans in rural areas in Brazil. Because most studies have focused on outbreaks situations, data on BV epidemiology is limited. A cross sectional study in Brazilian rural areas during 2012–2013 was conducted to determine the neutralizing antibodies seroprevalence and risk factors for BV.MethodsA structured questionnaire was applied to elicit demographics data and farming practices considered risk factors for BV exposure. Neutralizing anti-OPV antibodies were investigated using plaque reduction neutralization test. The neutralizing antibodies prevalence rates were calculated and the risk factor analysis was performed using multivariate logistic regression.ResultsTwo hundred and forty participants were enrolled in this study with a prevalence of neutralizing antibodies of 30.8 % (95 % confidence interval [CI], 25.3–36.9). In multivariate analysis, age > 35 years (Odds Ratio [OR] = 18.2; CI 95 % = 7.7 – 43.2) and previous outbreak in property (OR = 3.9; C I95 % = 1.2 – 12.6) were independently associated with anti-OPV neutralizing antibodies.ConclusionsIn this study, anti-OPV protective immunity (neutralizing antibody titers) was assessed in an endemic BV Brazilian rural area. Our findings indicate that epidemiological surveillance is required and should be applied by public health authorities to create interventions and/or prevention strategies to avoid viral spread causing future outbreaks among individuals who are under risk of infection.

Diferenças e aproximações dos leitores da imprensa nacional e regional

A interiorização da economia no Brasil e a política de descentralização das verbas publicitárias oficiais têm despertado maior interesse dos pesquisadores sobre a mídia regional ou local. Mas estudos acadêmicos costumam se valer de levantamentos nos quais a realidade de regiões mais ricas e populosas é projetada como um retrato de toda a mídia brasileira. Com acesso à base de microdados, será apresentado um recorte sobre os leitores de jornais impressos dentro da Pesquisa Brasileira de Mídia (PBM) nas edições de 2014 e 2015, publicadas pela Secretaria de Comunicação Social da Presidência da República. Inédita por sua representatividade, a PBM revela os hábitos de consumo de mídias de 18.312 brasileiros. Para este artigo, optou-se por um corpus com 4.064 e 3.766 entrevistas, respectivamente. A presente análise evidencia que há distinções significativas na forma como os leitores consomem mídias nos principais centros urbanos e fora deles.

Understanding rural resistance: contemporary mobilization in the Brazilian countryside

Contradictions between impressive levels of economic growth and the persistence of poverty and inequality are perhaps nowhere more evident than in rural Brazil. While Brazil might appear to be an example of the potential harmony between large-scale, export-oriented agribusiness and small-scale family farming, high levels of rural resistance contradict this vision. In this introductory paper, we synthesize the literature on agrarian resistance in Brazil and situate recent struggles in Brazil within the Latin American context more broadly. We highlight seven key characteristics of contemporary Latin American resistance, which include: the growth of international networks, the changing structure of state–society collaboration, the deepening of territorial claims, the importance of autonomy, the development of alternative economies, continued opposition to dispossession, and struggles over the meaning of nature. We argue that by analyzing rural mobilization in Brazil, this collection offers a range of insights relevant to rural contention globally. Each contribution in this collection increases our understanding of alternative agricultural production, large-scale development projects, education, race and political parties in the contemporary agrarian context.

Rede Brasil Rural: Inovação no Contexto da Agricultura Familiar

A agricultura familiar representa um segmento de grande importância econômica e social para o meio rural brasileiro. Devido a essa importância, observa-se um crescente interesse do governo por esse segmento, que se materializa em forma de políticas públicas. Dessa forma, em 2011, o Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário (MDA) criou o Programa Rede Brasil Rural, uma ferramenta virtual que visa facilitar o contato entre as cooperativas e associações de produtores rurais e os fornecedores de insumos, a logística de transporte e os consumidores públicos e privados. O principal objetivo da rede é auxiliar na comercialização, seja dos insumos necessários à produção, seja dos produtos procedentes da agricultura familiar através de uma plataforma eletrônica. O propósito do Programa Rede Brasil Rural é inserir novos conceitos e ampliar o limite geográfico de comercialização para o segmento através do comércio eletrônico. O objetivo desse estudo é escrever os mecanismos de funcionamento da Rede Brasil Rural, as medidas adotadas pelo governo para implantação do programa, os principais parceiros, as Contribuições que a rede proporcionará à agricultura familiar, além dos desafios a serem superados. Rural Brazil Net Work: Innovation Within The Family Agriculture Context ABSTRACT: Family agriculture is a segment of high economic and social importance for the Brazilian rural region. There is an increasing interest by the government manifested in public policies. The Ministry of Agrarian Development established in 2011 the Rural Brazil Network Program, a virtual tool that facilitates contact between cooperatives and associations of rural producers, suppliers, transport logistics and public and private consumers. The network´s main aim is the commercialization of required production supplies and of products produced by family agriculture through an electronic platform. Rural Brazil Network Program inserts new concepts and amplifies the geographical limit of commercialization for the segment through electronic commerce. Current analysis describes the functioning of the Rural Brazil Network Program, the measures worked by the government to adopt the program, the main partners, the contributions that the network provides to family agriculture and the challenges that should be coped with. KEYWORDS: Family Agriculture; Agricultural Commercialization; Electronic Commercialization; Rural Brazil Network

Beyond the Eagle's Shadow: New Histories of Latin America's Cold War

Beyond the Eagle's Shadow: New Histories of Latin America's Cold War

Beyond the Eagle's Shadow: New Histories of Latin America's Cold War

Beyond the Eagle's Shadow: New Histories of Latin America's Cold War

Proposals for rural development in Brazil: limits and contradictions between sustainable development and sovereignty

In this article, we reviewed the sustainable development proposals of the United Nations and their objectives. From this point we identified relationships between the specialised agencies which form an institutional group, such as financiers, in the implementation of these proposals in rural Brazil, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank and, in particular, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Agency. Subsequently, we looked into the proposition of sovereignty as well as the conditions arising from the organisation responsible for its dissemination, the Via Campesina, also analysing relationships between this organisation and the social movements responsible for the territorialisation of this proposal in rural Brazil. Therefore, the scope presented refers to territorial disputes ruled in speech protection of natural resources and agricultural and livestock production with different approaches aiming to demonstrate how distinct institutions think and implement actions to protect natural resources.

Charles Wagley: his career, his work, his legacy

Charles Wagley's work, firmly in the Boasian tradition, reflects his association with and training by Franz Boas, but especially by Ruth Benedict and Ruth Bunzel. Wagley's career as an ethnographer began in the Guatemalan highland town of Santiago Chimaltenango in 1937. Soon thereafter, he turned from Guatemala to Brazil, where he did his first field research (1939-1940) among the Tapirapé Indians. Wagley's Tapirapé revisits culminated in his last book, "Welcome of tears: the Tapirapé Indians of Central Brazil" (1977). Wagley's study of Gurupá began in 1948 and produced various editions of his popular book "Amazon town: a study of man in the Tropics". Wagley co-directed the Bahia State-Columbia University Community Study Project in 1951-1952, culminating in the edited book "Race and class in rural Brazil". Over time, Wagley focused increasingly on non-Indians, ranging from rural towns like Gurupá to Brazilian culture as a whole. Illustrating the latter, Wagley wrote two editions of "Introduction to Brazil", a culturally insightful text that examined unity and diversity in Brazilian culture and society. A man of careful scholarship and keen intellect, Chuck Wagley took great pride in the excellence of his teaching and writing; he also enjoyed sharing his knowledge and insights with a larger public

Local history and landscape dynamics: A comparative study in rural Brazil and rural France

In rural France as well as in rural Brazil, the years 1960–1970 were marked by profound socio-economic and environmental changes. In France, these changes were due to the agricultural modernization policy, in Brazil, they were caused mainly by the political integration of the Amazon to the rest of the country by infrastructure and agricultural colonization. The apparent irreversibility of the parallel phenomena of settlement, in France, and deforestation, in Brazil, gives us a comparative ground that this paper wishes to explore. We focused on four Brazilian protected areas and two French rural communes and studied the local attachment of the people and their collective attitude toward the environment. To do so, we assessed the main proximate factors identified in the literature, those determining the attitude of a human group toward its environment, an attitude influenced by structural drivers like legal issues and law enforcement. Our results suggest that these multiple factors are often randomly interconnected and can hardly be modeled. Land use and cover change may be an interesting way to understand social and environmental change, if accompanied by qualitative research about environmental and social perceptions. Our main conclusion is that collective and individual choices are eventually framed by local history: we use the notion of hysteresis to suggest that ancient causes may have enduring effects.

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN THE LINK BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH AND FOOD INSECURITY: A CASE STUDY FROM BRAZIL

Food insecurity has traditionally been characterized as a driver of health disparities because of its potential impacts on nutritional status. Food, however, has important social and cultural valences that make it much more than a nutritional vehicle. Recent research that is sensitive to the social meanings of food has drawn attention to the complex and far‐reaching mental and social health effects of food insecurity. In this article, we outline several theoretical pathways linking food insecurity to reduced physical and mental well‐being, and then present results of a preliminary study in rural Brazil designed to test the relative importance of each of these pathways. Our results tentatively suggest that in this context, food insecurity is closely related to both mental and physical health disparities, but the pathways connecting food insecurity and mental health remain somewhat unclear. We present lessons learned and propose a set of research steps to further address the relationships between the social meaning of food and mental health.

Gender Differences in Risk Factors for Delayed Diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in a Midsized City of Brazil.

Patients treated in the specialized service at a midsized city in Brazil participated in a cross-sectional study that aimed to identify the risk factors for delayed diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. Through interviews and review of medical records, information was collected on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and diagnoses. The study included 403 patients, of whom 216 (53.6%) were male and 311 (77.1%) had ≤8 years of education. According to the criteria adopted in this study, 162 (40.2%) of the participants had a late diagnosis of AIDS. Only 19 (4.7%) were diagnosed by routine examinations and 45 (11.2%) presented with AIDS-defining disease at the time of diagnosis. After adjustments, the results showed that having more education was protective against a late diagnosis for women. With the advance of the AIDS epidemic to small town and rural Brazil, vulnerable populations now include low-income and less educated women, most of whom have had monogamous relationships throughout their lives.

Blautia and Prevotella sequences distinguish human and animal fecal pollution in Brazil surface waters.

Untreated sewage discharges and limited agricultural manure management practices contribute to fecal pollution in rural Brazilian waterways. Most microbial source tracking studies have focused on Bacteroidales, and few have tested host-specific indicators in underdeveloped regions. Sequencing of sewage and human and animal feces with Illumina HiSeq revealed Prevotellaceae as the most abundant family in humans, with Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae also comprising a large proportion of the microbiome. These same families were also dominant in animals. Bacteroides, the genus containing the most commonly utilized human-specific marker in the United States was present in very low abundance. We used oligotyping to identify Prevotella and Blautia sequences that can distinguish human fecal contamination. Thirty-five of 61 Blautia oligotypes and 13 of 108 Prevotella oligotypes in humans were host-specific or highly abundant (i.e. host-preferred) compared to pig, dog, horse and cow sources. Certain human Prevotella and Blautia oligotypes increased more than an order of magnitude along a polluted river transect in rural Brazil, but traditional fecal indicator levels followed a steady or even decreasing trend. While both Prevotella and Blautia oligotypes distinguished human and animal fecal pollution in Brazil surface waters, Blautia appears to contain more discriminatory and globally applicable markers for tracking sources of fecal pollution.

O approche acadêmico sobre o rural brasileiro

This paper analyses the academic approach about the rural Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on a bibliography review, the results reveal that the subject rural became an issue of specific investigation to comprehend the singularity of the transformation process of the Brazilian society. The existence of a group of researchers and the production from this research confirms their interest, as well as the institutions that finance this research in the construction of a space of reflections on rural Brazil.

Ethanol and food production by family smallholdings in rural Brazil: Economic and socio-environmental analysis of micro distilleries in the State of Rio Grande do Sul

In light of the perspectives of ethanol from sugar cane industry in Brazil and the biofuelscurrent international debate, certain questions ought to be examined. The framework for future expansion of ethanol production, to meet with supply needs at national and international levels using the current production model, does not take into consideration the prospect of Brazil's regional and rural development. Although currently there are no impediments to the culture of sugar cane in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) State, Brazil's largest producer of biodiesel, it imports 98% of its demand for ethanol from São Paulo and other regions. The promotion of ethanol market in that State might pass for a productive model different from the practice in industrial monocultures, given their cultural and agricultural characteristics. The IFES (Integrated Food and Energy System) from COOPERBIO -n Cooperativa Mista de Produção, Industrialização e Comercialização de Biocombustíveis do Brasil Ltda., established on an experimental basis in the State, presents multiple economic, social and environmental benefits, potentializing the present food procuction by smallholders and favoring a sugar cane ethanol greater consumption in the inland of RS State. With a few tweaks and adequate governmental policies and instruments, the expansion of this model may even cover the current demand in the State. In addition to the production of energy and foods less dependent on fossil fuels, this model contributes for preservation of ecosystem services and for climate smart rural sustainable development.

The Effect of Violence on Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Homicides in Rural Brazil

This paper uses microdata from Brazilian vital statistics natality and mortality data between 2000 and 2010 to estimate the impact of in-utero exposure to local violence -measured by homicide rates- on birth outcomes. Focusing on small communities, where it is more plausible that local homicide rates reflect actual exposure to violence, the analysis shows that exposure to violence during pregnancy leads to deterioration in birth outcomes: one extra homicide during the first trimester of pregnancy increases the probability of low birthweight by around 6 percent. Results are particularly pronounced among children of poorly educated mothers, implying that violence compounds the disadvantage that these children already suffer as a result of their households' lower socioeconomic status.

Classic Works of Brazil’s New Rural History: Feudalism and the Latifundio in the Interpretations of the Left (1940/1964)

This article examines the works of two prominent Brazilian writers considered to be the leading exponents of the presence of a feudal system in rural Brazil during the first half of the 20th century. Based on an analysis of the writings of Nelson Werneck Sodré and Alberto Pasos Guimarães, the objective of this work is to identify Sodré and Guimarães main arguments with relation to the historical context in which their works were produced, based on an analysis of their writings. This leads to a discussion around the topics explored by these authors regarding the farmer and the landholding elites, the differences between them, their links to contemporary society, and the readings of the past that legitimated or seemed to legitimate the production of their historic writings.

Brazil - Rural Brazil: healthcare to go

Brazil - Rural Brazil: healthcare to go

Brazil - Rural Brazil: healthcare to go

Brazil - Rural Brazil: healthcare to go

Encrypted humor and social networks in rural Brazil

The encryption theory of humor (Flamson & Barrett, 2008) proposes that one of the means by which people develop their social networks is assortment with the most compatible peers by signaling similarity in locally variable personal features through humor. Here we present experimental and observational evidence obtained on a collective farm in rural Brazil, where participants were presented with high- and low-encryption versions of jokes after assessing their prior knowledge, and completed a photo-sorting task to determine the structure of their social networks. These results, replicating previous findings using online surveys, demonstrated a significant effect of prior knowledge and some of the predicted interactions between prior knowledge and encryption level, as well as a small but significant effect of social closeness on similarity in joke ratings. Taken together, these findings support the hypotheses that (a) the cognitive processing of humor relies on an encryption–decryption process, (b) similarity in humor preferences reflects similarities in those cognitive processes and (c) that similarity plays a role in real-world social assortment.