Relações de gênero e apropriação de tecnologias de informação e comunicação na agricultura familiar de Santa Maria - RS

Abstract

The thesis was developed having as research problem the question of whether the information and communication technologies (ICTs) give rural women some kind of power. To answer this, the main objective was to analyze the appropriation of the ICTs in family farming in Santa Maria-RS from the gender relations. Because we believe that information regarding women is also information regarding men (SCOTT, 1995), the research involved rural women, family farmers and young sons and daughters, having the generation theme as a specific goal. For the collection and analysis of data the research used the Q methodology which has as characteristic the production of quali-quantitative data, it also avoids conditioned answers and minimizes the interference of the researcher in the collected data. For the collection of data six steps were accomplished: realization of three discussion groups with family farmers, rural women and rural youngsters; interview with six qualified informers linked to the thematic of family farming, elaboration of 32 assertions from the transcription and analysis of the interviews with the qualified informers; classification of the assertions by ten families of family farmers; the obtaining of factors from specific software and analysis of the results. The factors are groups of people that share similar answer patterns (HEGEDUS, 2005). In the research, which contemplated in whole, ten farmers, ten rural women and fifteen rural youngsters (ten girls and five boys), five factorial analysis were performed which sought to identify supposed gender and generation differences in the bonds established by ICTs. To understand how these bonds are established, we started from the social bonding approach by Muniz Sodré (2002). The thesis was structured in three chapters. Chapter 1 Methodological Aspects of the Research describes the methodological path; Chapter 2 Gender and Generation deals with the study on gender and generation in the rural environment and also brings the results of the first three steps of the research and Chapter 3 Information and Communication Technologies and Bonds contextualizes the advance of ICTs in Brazil, describes the families that participated in the classification of the assertions and also presents and analyses the factors obtained by this classification. The factors were synthesized with the denomination: New Bonds, Bonds in Question, Correct Bonds, Conflicting Bonds and Educational Bonds. The analysis of the factors verified that rural women are assuming a new role inside the rural family properties and also in the family nucleus, rejecting the legitimate role of subordination (BORDIEU, 2002). This empowerment is driven by the greater access to information by the ICTs, specially the cellular phone. Specifically in the case of rural youth, which in most of the visited families have access to ICTs such as computers and Internet connection, the empowerment parameters such as self-assurance and the ability to make decisions (CORDEIRO, 2010) are even more evident.