Rural Territory Development with Social Management: an Exploratory Study Between Brazil and Argentina

Abstract

The article has the principal objective of performing a comparative study between the normative dispositions related to the social management in the scope of rural territory development programs of Brazil and Argentina: Programa Territórios da Cidadania (PTC) and Programa Nacional de Apoyo al Desarrollo de los Territorios (PNADT), respectively. We begin with the discussion that the promotion of rural territory development requires the participation of social actors in institutional arrangements aimed at a joint decision of development actions. Such participative dynamic must be guided by social management understood as a dialogic relationship, in which the decision-making process is shared and agreed between the many participants of the action. The study, of exploratory character, included literature and documental research. Data analysis was performed based on the selection of criteria for the evaluation participative decision-making process formulated by Tenório et al. (2008), especially the discussion, inclusion and pluralism process. The results show that the researched programs preconize the participative directive in conducting their actions, with emphasis on the Brazilian case which features participatory institutionality in the deliberative process. The emphasis in pluralism of social actors is perceived in Argentinian program which, unlike the PTC which elects familiar agriculture as priority public. It is also noteworthy that, while in Argentina the highlight is granted to local competitiveness, in Brazil the main focus is overcoming poverty by means of empowering civil society.