Global multifunctional countryside: debates concerning

rural change in transition economies (Brazil)

Felipe da Silva MachadoResearch student

Plymouth UniversitySchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

 

Research student scholarship - CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasília - DF, Brazil.

Introduction

• The doctoral research is based on debates concerning contemporary rural change with an emphasis on multidirectional and multidimensional paths.

• Early discussion and theoretical positions concerning rural restructuring were developed by researchers from countries with post-production economies in order to explain the kind of rural transformations that occurred with the rise of non-agricultural activities alongside or in competition with farming. However, in recent years researchers have displayed an interest in understanding the dynamics of the rural spaces in other regions of the world which are also being affected by global processes in different ways and the sum result is great global spatial diversity.

• How the rural space in transition economies such as Brazil will be affected by the rapid socio-economic and political changes expected in this country over the next decades.

Theory review• Understanding rural change: theoretical approaches

- political economy (Marsden et al., 1993; Munton, 1995; Murdoch and Marsden, 1995; Ilbery, 1998)- political ecology (Winter, 1996)- resilience (Wilson, 2012)- post-productivism and multifunctionality (Wilson, 2007; Wilson, 2010)… but most theories only applicable in developed world (Wilson and Rigg, 2003; Wilson and Burton, 2015; ‘Travelling Theory’ by Edward Said)

• Rural change in BRIC countries and transition economies

• Rural change in Brazil (key hypotheses for Brazil emerging from above studies)

The Brazilian countryside in the context of global multifunctionality

Brazil is a country of immense diversity and went from being the 14th largest global economy in 1970 to 10th in 1990 and to the 6th or 7th largest economy in recent years (Becker and Egler, 1992; Cohn, 2012). As the economy globalized and industry decentralized away from metropolitan areas profound changes occurred in the hinterland, which was particularly marked in the state of Rio de Janeiro. With ample petroleum offshore Rio de Janeiro assumed a series of new manufacturing and logistical functions which transformed it into one of the most dynamic states in Brazil and this produced profound impacts in the countryside.

Total area 43 780,172 km² (24º)

Population (2015)

Estimate 16 550 024 hab. (3º) 

Density 378,03 hab./km² (2º)

Economy

GDP (2013) US$ 154,950 billion (2º)

GDP per capitaUS$ 7.689,00 (3º)

HDI (2010) 0,761 (4º) – high

Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

Revealing the diversity of land use, new functions and rural activities

Multifunctionality constitutes the new set of interests, activities and functions that rural space assumes for local society, or for society previously not present (Wilson, 2007, 2008).

Understanding the contradictory relationship between new urban, industrial and global

investment and the process of rural restructuring

Global countryside is a hypothetical space, corresponding to a condition of the global interconnectivity and interdependency of rural localities. As this emergent global countryside is not a uniform, homogenous space, but rather is differentially articulated, and contested, through particular rural places (Woods, 2007).

Assessing the implementation of policies to promote rural development and rural territorial planning

• The focus on the territorial dimension is crucial for managing and public policies in multifunctional rural space.

• From an agricultural policy focus to a rural policy focus (Woods, 2005).

• Community resilience/local level (Wilson, 2012) - how local actors adapt and innovative in novel ways in the specific contexts and in the process construct new rural functions and values involving creative forms of connectivity and governance in order to achieve their aims.

To assess the implementation of policies meant to promote rural development and rural territorial planning, the diverse level policies have been analysed with regard to the implications for diversity of land uses and functions, which can give rise to multifunctional rural space.

References• Becker, B.K. and Egler, C. (1992). Brazil: A New Regional Power in the Global

Economy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.• Ilbery, B. (ed.) (1998). The Geography of Rural Change. Longman, Essex.• Marsden, T., Murdoch, J., Lowe, P., Munton, R. and Flynn, A. (1993). Constructing the

countryside. UCL Press, London.• Murdoch, J., Lowe, P., Ward, N. and Marsden, T. (2003). The Differentiated

Countryside. London, Routledge.• Woods, M. (2005). Rural Geography: Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural

Restructuring. Sage, London.• Woods M. (2007). Engaging the global countryside: globalization, hybridity and the

reconstitution of rural place. Progress in Human Geography 31, 485-507. • Wilson, G.A. (2007). Multifunctional Agriculture: A Transition Theory Perspective.

CABI, Wallingford.• Wilson, G.A. (2008). Global multifunctional agriculture: transitional convergence

between North and South or zero-sum game? International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 6 (1), 3–21.

• Wilson, G.A. (2012). Community Resilience and Environmental Transitions. Earthscan, London.

• Wilson, G.A. and Rigg, J. (2003) ‘Post-productivist’ agricultural regimes and the South: discordant concepts? Progress in Human Geography 27 (5), 605–631.