Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1996

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Sociology

Major Professor

John Gaventa

Committee Members

Asafa Jalata, Anne Mayhew, Michael Betz

Abstract

The development of Brazil has been characterized by regional imbalances. In different historical periods one region occupied a hegemonic position vis-à-vis the others by producing a single commodity for export. As Brazil became industrialized in the twentieth century, the regional imbalances continued to be a feature in its development process. In fact, through industrialization, the Center- South region consolidated its hegemony, dominating the politics and economy of the country.

After a short period of wealth due to the production of sugar. Northeast Brazil became a peripheral region in Brazil. Its socio-economic indicators reflect the problems which the region has experienced throughout the centuries.

In the 1990s, as the global system is restructuring, Brazil is experiencing changes in both political and economic levels. In the midst of these changes, the government of the northeastern state of Ceará is attempting to attract businesses to the state in order to industrialize its countryside.

This research is an exploratory study that seeks to investigate both the incorporation of a rural area of Northeast Brazil into the globalization process of production, and the impact of this incorporation on rural women engaged in garment cooperatives.

This study uses several theoretical approaches, world-system, dependency, the new international division of labor, and extensive literature on cooperatives, women and development and women's work are employed in this research as useful analytical tools through which the problem can be The better understood.

The research setting is a rural area of Ceará called Macigo de Baturité (Baturité plateau). This region has been recently incorporated into the globalization of production as a result of the state policies aimed at industrializing its countryside.

This study employs both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. It applies direct observation; documentation, archival records and library research; and interviews. The use of several sources of evidence has the purpose of strengthing the validity and reliability of the data gathered during the field research.

The research focuses specifically on the implementation of the garment industry in Macigo de Baturité since it has incorporated mostly women in the production process. By doing so, this study seeks to analyze the nature of the process from which rural women have been incorporated into the global economy.

Women in the Macigo de Baturité are not employed directly by the garment industry operating in the region. Conversely, their labor is subcontracted by the garment garment company. Thus, this study also analyzes how this form of labor organization has been used in a period of capital expansion in a rural area of a peripheral region of Brazil.

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