A study on conflicts in rural settlements

Abstract

This article aims to understand the conflicts within social practices and
strategies developed during the formation and organization of rural settlements and
their implications for settlers, leaderships and representatives, based on the analysis of
the case of Assentamento Fazenda Jupira, municipality of Porto Feliz-SP, 1986 to
2006. The settlement is understood as a social space that can be expressed by
relations of tension and conflict found in social practices and struggle strategies
impregnated with symbologies and (re) meetings of cultures, space of representation
and legitimation of the social subjects. Analyses show that the conflict within social
practices and strategies provides the possibility of questioning secular values
(clientelism, paternalism). It also provides for the peasants democratic contents that can
structure collective identities. It was concluded that practices and strategies such as
meetings, assemblies, rallies, associations, cooperatives and others reshape the
symbolic, cultural, political and economic universe of settlers and make possible to
question previous lived experiences.