In 1997, following a series of discussions about the Brazilian agrarian question, a group of researchers associated with the University of São Paulo (USP) Rural Geography Lab and the Rural Studies Section of the Brazilian Geographers’ Association (AGB) decided to broaden the debate to place the question in the contest of Brazil’s increased economic internationalization.
The First National Rural Geography Symposium emerged from these discussions. Round tables were organized on the following themes: “The Contradictions of Development in the Brazilian Countryside,” “The Law and Alternative Forms of Property in Brazil,” and “Peasant Agriculture and Sustainability.” The symposium also features two panel discussions, testimonies from various specialists, and a photographic exhibit. More than 100 people participated in the event and it succeeded in becoming a point of reference for broad reflection about Brazil’s agrarian question.
To reinvigorate and expand the discussion, the Second National Rural Geography Symposium and the First International Rural Geography Symposiums were held November 5-8, 2003. The organizers insisted on the necessity of deepening the Brazilian agrarian reform debate with some hope of extracting a singular vision of rural society. “The Countryside in the 21st Century: Territory of Life, Struggle, and Social Justice” was chosen as a unifying symposium theme. By introducing the international symposium, the meeting intended to break with the limits of national boundaries and generate theories to help reflect on the persistence of the agrarian question in many countries of the world.
The Second Symposium, with its international reach, hosted two panel discussions, five round tables, and various other activities for the more than 150 professors, undergraduate and graduate students who participated. Panel themes were “Roots and Routes of Rural Geography” and “Knowledge and Resistance.” The tables took on the complex but unifying topics of “Rural Geography Perspectives,” “Traditional Lifestyles,” “Indigenous Lands and Conservation,” “Social Movements and Agrarian Reform,” and “Rural Development and Public Policy.” In a series of events that recalled a successful periodic practice of the USP Rural Geography Lab – “Thursday Conversations” – militants from some Latin American social movements spoke off the cuff about their experiences and the significance of their struggles. Open sessions attracted paper presentations on the themes of “Rural Geography Thought,” “Traditional Communities” and “Social Movements and Public Policy.”
At the plenary, participants voted to schedule the Third National and Second International Rural Geography Symposium at the Paulista State University (Unesp) campus in Presidente Prudente, São Paulo. This event is being planned by working groups, laboratories, and research centers linked to the USP Geography Department, the Unesp Geography Department and the geography graduate programs at both institutions.
Welcoming a diversity of perspectives, studies and activities, the new symposium’s theme – Land, Forest, and Water Development – intends to broaden still farther debate on the worldwide agrarian question. The Symposium will also host the Ariovaldo Umbelino de Oliveira Day, designed to honor the contributions of this important Brazilian geographer.