State and society

Social policies and their impact in rural locations in Itinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

In the early twenty-first century one of the central proposals of public policies in Brazil, especially social policies, concerns the elimination of economic poverty, and misery. The proposal part of a Brazilian scenario marked by considerable regional differences, different needs and even the lack of social infrastructure (particularly health care and education), as well as a significant number of poor or extremely poor Brazilians. This article aims to present a debate on the Brazilian social protection system, and from the experience of everyday poverty, dealing with the relationship between society and State, especially the implementation of social policies and their effects in places and living conditions, and as clipping the families living in rural communities selected in empirical research in Itinga, Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais. In this location, a field research was carried out based on qualitative methodologies, above all, but not only, in interviews that enabled the production of evidence that will be presented throughout this text, that is, oral history of life and thematic oral history as mechanisms for validation of some experiences not recorded in historical/written documents, as well as to give centrality to the interview in the production of empirical evidence. In general terms, it can be concluded that the most significant changes at the local level take place in the context of a strong presence of the State with its social programs, especially the Bolsa Família Program (PBF). It can be said that social, economic and even cultural processes are reconfigured from the moment when there is the “presence” of public authorities in “rural worlds” with high levels of poverty.