Uma vida chamada luta, um sonho chamado terra: juventude rural e processos identitários

Abstract

As the borders between rural and urban zones tend to vanish and different cultural worlds get mixed, the socio-economic difficulties make life a hardship for whoever lives from agriculture. The rural youth emerges as a population deeply affected by these processes. For a long time, this population has not been the object of academic research in Brazil. Based on the Theory of Social Identities this research, therefore, seeks to know the possible differences of identity processes among young rural residents in a settlement from the Movement of Landless Rural Workers and young rural children of small farmers, and residents in interior Castelo. We interviewed twenty students of the Programa ProJovem Campo Saberes da Terra Capixaba, aged between fourteen and twenty-five years. The results indicated that contact of the rural youth with different backgrounds, and social groups has a direct influence in shaping their identities, and stereotypes. We also conclude that there are many factors that contribute to the desire to change young people from the countryside to the city, such as the opportunity to continue their studies, to have leisure options, to seek a better life.