Peasant Lawyers: Legal training through the National Program for Education in Agrarian Reform (Pronera) and the uses of law by rural social movementsRural social movements; Collective action; Legal mobilization; University; Cause lawyering
In 2007, 60 peasant students, amongst social movements activists, trade unionists, agrarian reform settlers and family farmers, constituted the first class of an undergraduation in Law institutionalized within the scope of the National Program for Education in Agrarian Reform (Pronera). This pioneering experience was followed by the creation of other five classes, all of them settled in public universities spreaded all over Brazil. Based on the premise that those undergraduations are part of the land struggles’ grammar, this thesis proposal aims to place them in the trajectory of relationship between rural social movements and the field of law. The research main objective is to understand the intentionalities and efforts mobilized by peasant movements in order to the creation of the aforementioned undergraduations, which also represents an unprecedented way of inserting the rural population in universities. Moreover, the investigation also intends to reflect on the meanings that guide the strategy of providing peasant activists with a formal education in law.