The Difference Ethnography Can Make: Understanding Social Mobilization and Development in the Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

Ethnographic research is invaluable for social movement research. Ethnographies of everyday participation in mobilization help to counter the popular image of social movements as coherent, well-bounded entities consisting of individuals committed to the goals of the collective. In this study of the Movimento Sem Terra (the Landless Movement, or the MST) in northeastern Brazil, I establish a more complete continuum of movement membership by analyzing two interviews (one conducted in 1999, the other in 2003) with a former plantation worker named Cicero who considered himself a member of the MST in 1999 but "didn't even know what to say about the movement" three years later. Cicero's interviews are noteworthy because he is not the sort of person typically featured in studies of social mobilization: he did not join the MST because of a passionate commitment (more because the movement showed up and he couldn't see a reason not to), and he was never convinced of the MST's primary ideals or methods. Cicero's interviews provide what Lila Abu-Lughod calls a "counter-discourse," in which people make decisions that are contradictory, and incomplete, often made without explicit articulation or even understanding. Ultimately, I argue that incorporating this broader continuum will help us better explain movement personalities and trajectories.

Small-scale mining cooperatives and the state in Bolivia: Their histories, memories and negotiation strategies

“…Whereas in 1977 McCarthy and Zald still emphasized resource mobilization as the key approach to analysing the stand and actions of social movements, in later work (notably McAdam et al, 1996) they stressed that cultural features need to be included in the equation. Today, many scholars of social movements and social organizations stress that cultural features help to explain organizational features, reactions, strategies, growth or contraction, and success or failure (Alvarez et al, 1998;Campbell, 2005;Edelman, 2001;Lazar, 2006;Nash, 2005;Salman, 2002;Salman and Assies, 2007;Wolford, 2006). In such accounts, the issues of memories, feelings of belonging to specific groups (like miners) or regions, and class or ethnic identities often crop up (Damonte, 2008;Olick, 1998;Wolford, 2006).…”

“…Today, many scholars of social movements and social organizations stress that cultural features help to explain organizational features, reactions, strategies, growth or contraction, and success or failure (Alvarez et al, 1998;Campbell, 2005;Edelman, 2001;Lazar, 2006;Nash, 2005;Salman, 2002;Salman and Assies, 2007;Wolford, 2006). In such accounts, the issues of memories, feelings of belonging to specific groups (like miners) or regions, and class or ethnic identities often crop up (Damonte, 2008;Olick, 1998;Wolford, 2006). Additionally, scholars now often highlight that the state will not necessarily operate as one coherent entity, and the awareness that multiple relations between civil society organizations and local, regional and national state branches might exist and result in network dynamics (Kahler et al, 2009;Jessop, 2000).…”

Tempo de acampamento

“…No entanto, como identificado por Macedo (2003), Ondetti (2006), Wolford (2006) e Loera (2006, os acampamentos são constituídos por pessoas de origens diversas e por uma heterogeneidade de perfis socioeconômicos, o que põe em questão argumentos como o de Navarro, isto é, "a crença de que os acampadei-me conta de que é por esse nome que seus parentes e amigos da Bahia a conhecem. Nesta ocasião não analisarei esse aspecto, mas estou ciente de que o nome, como menciona Pina Cabral (2007), está intimamente ligado à constituição social das pessoas.…”

“…Um exemplo são os trabalhos publicados por Fernandes (1998Fernandes ( e 1999 e Stédile e Fernandes (1999). Em estudos mais recentes, especialistas em movimentos sociais têm focalizado suas análises nas organizações que promovem as ocupações, de maneira especial o MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra), entre eles estão Fernandes, 2000;Meszaros, 2000;Veltmeyer e Petras, 2002;Navarro, 2002Navarro, , 2005Wolford, 2003;Branford e Rocha, 2004;Ondetti, 2006;Giarracca et al, 2006;Baletti et al, 2008;Vergara-Camus, 2009. No entanto, hoje em dia, existem no Brasil inúmeras organizações de trabalhadores rurais que promovem ocupações de terras e organizam "acampamentos de lona preta", entre elas o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (MST), Movimento dos Agricultores Sem-Terra (Mast), Associação dos Trabalhadores Sem-Terra de São Paulo (ATST), Movimento do Trabalhador Rural Sem-Terra do Brasil (MTRSB), União dos Trabalhadores Sem-Terra (Uniterra), Organização de Luta no Campo (OLC), Movimento Terra, Trabalho e Liberdade (MTL), Movimento do Trabalhador Rural (MTR), Movimento de Luta pela Terra (MLT), Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) e as federações de trabalhadores rurais estaduais (Fetape, Fetag/RJ, Fetaemg, entre outras) e demais organizações que surgiram ao longo dos últimos anos.…”

Learning as territoriality: the political ecology of education in the Brazilian landless workers’ movement

“…This tactic evolved in response to the Brazilian constitution, which states that the government can expropriate land if it is not 'socially productive' (Wolford 2006). 2 Both agroecology and transformative education are central to the MST's ideology and struggle (Branford and Rocha 2002;Rosset and Martinez-Torres 2013).…”