Characterization of social capital between rural family farmers in sÃo raimundo das mangabeiras, ma

Abstract

Family farming, in addition to playing a relevant social role in people's lives, also represents a significant part of the composition of the economy in Brazil. Thus, with the application and improvement of tools that enable an improvement in production in this sector of the economy, good results can be achieved. One resource that can make these results possible is social capital. The aim of this work is to identify aspects and characteristics considered as elements that lead to the formation of social capital in the studied rural community, choosing rural family farmers in the municipality of São Raimundo das Mangabeiras as a field of study and research, regarding collective organization. A survey was carried out in the Assentamento Nova Descoberta community in the municipality of São Raimundo das Mangabeiras, which is located in the southern mesoregion of Maranhão, in the Chapada das Mangabeiras microregion. It investigated whether the existing social capital among family farmers in that community through exploratory research with a qualitative approach and as instruments for carrying out the work, the Integrated Questionnaire to Measure Social Capital-IQ-MCS of the Thematic Group on Social Capital of the World Bank (2003) was used. There were found to be reasonable levels of social capital in relation to the community and some negative aspects external to the community. Research has shown that together, family farmers have made significant gains for themselves and the community.