CRITICAL NOTES ON THE EMERGENCE AND EVOLUTION OF THE FIELD OF RURAL STUDIES IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The article analyzes the emergence and evolution of the field of rural studies in Brazil, seeking to understand how its internal and external articulations have changed. Based on Bourdieu's concept of scientific field, it seeks to explain the structure and change of this branch of the social sciences based on the links between its own attributes and other social domains. The analysis is based on three dimensions: a) the epistemological dimension, through the evolution of the themes, theories and methods used; b) the institutional dimension, focusing on funding, the formation of postgraduate programs, research centers and associations; and c) the societal dimension, through the interdependencies between science and society, including the circulation of scientists. To this end, reference works, reviews of the literature already produced and biographical texts of key researchers were analyzed. It was concluded that the trajectory of the field of rural studies was shaped by competitive struggles and by variations in the forms of relationship with other spheres of the social world, which determined its capacity to refract external demands, especially from the political field, giving rise to different research agendas according to the contexts of each era. Three stages were identified in the trajectory of rural studies: its emergence between 1940 and 1960, marked by the field's differentiation in relation to the agrarian debate in the political field; consolidation in the 1970s and 1980s with the diversification of agendas and practices and epistemological and institutional strengthening; and, between 1990 and 2010, with greater tension in the dialectic between the autonomy and heteronomy of this field.