Socio-environmental conflicts in the Northeast of Brazil: A topic of interest for Social Work

Abstract This article presents research focusing on the characterization of the current context of socio-environmental conflicts in Northeast Brazil as part of the expressions of the “environmental issue” and its confrontation nowadays. These conflicts are pointed out as new challenges to the field of Social Work. This is an exploratory bibliographic and documentary research. The results show a significant growth of conflicts in the region; land as a major environmental resource in dispute; and who are the main political subjects involved in these conflicts, representing the capital and the labor. The conclusion is that the current economic development model is constitutive and a constituent of the observed worrying scenario, as it is based on taking the national economy back to produce primary goods, commodity, and deepening the associated, dependent, and unequal place historically assigned to Brazil within the capitalist world market.

摘要 本研究聚焦巴西东北部当前社会环境冲突的现状特征，将其视为“环境议题”的当代表达及其对抗实践的组成部分。此类冲突被视作社会工作领域面临的全新挑战。本研究属于探索性文献与档案研究范畴。研究结果显示，该区域社会环境冲突数量显著攀升；土地作为核心环境资源成为各方争议的焦点；而卷入此类冲突的主要政治主体分别代表资本与劳工两大阵营。研究结论表明，当前的经济发展模式既是本次观测到的令人担忧的局势的核心成因，也是其构成要素——该模式推动国民经济重回初级商品生产路径，并进一步深化了巴西在资本主义世界市场中历史形成的依附性、不平等的边缘地位。