Between fences and walls

the territorialization trajectory or the MST in Ribeirão Preto - SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research focuses on the territorialization trajectory of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Ribeirão Preto - SP, Brazil. The study aims to emphasize how the MST's construction experience at the national level dialectically influences the municipality, bringing fundamental principles of the Movement into the experience of materializing the societal project in the Mário Lago settlement. The study is conducted through the analysis of official documents from the municipality, a literature review on topics related to struggles and social movements for agrarian reform, and semi-structured interviews with different actors of the social movement, from settlers to political leaders. These dimensions were analyzed in light of the concept of territory, conceived as a connection between the principles of sovereignty and control in its spatial dimension, both material and immaterial. Therefore, it dealt with how the realization of MST's values and demands materialized in the settlement from its occupation phase to the present day, focusing on how the process of struggle relates to the changes in the socio-spatial dynamics of the municipality, which shifted from confronting the agribusiness sector to the real estate sector, as endorsed by the municipal agenda characterized in Ribeirão Preto's Master Plan.