Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: SARAH PEREIRA BARBOSA

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : SARAH PEREIRA BARBOSA
DATE: 28/08/2026
TIME: 10:00
LOCAL: CPDA/UFRRJ
TITLE:

Ruralities in Dispute: An Ethnography of Specialty Coffee and the Reconfigurations of the Rural World in Cristina (MG)

KEY WORDS:

specialty coffee; ruralities; moral economy; rural identity; symbolic differentiation; cooperativism; Southern Minas Gerais; ethnography

PAGES: 55
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Sociologia
SUBÁREA: Sociologia Rural
SUMMARY:

This research investigates how the expansion of the specialty coffee market reconfigures rural identities, disputes over authenticity, and forms of recognition among family coffee farmers in Cristina, Minas Gerais, Brazil, through an ethnographic and comparative approach centered on the rural communities of Sertãozinho and São Domingos. Drawing on a historical-sociological perspective, the study situates the emergence of specialty coffee within broader transformations of contemporary capitalism, characterized by the increasing valorization of symbolic attributes such as authenticity, quality, and sustainability. It argues that, under this new regime of differentiation, the value of coffee shifts beyond the strictly productive sphere to incorporate narrative, moral, and affective dimensions, thereby reshaping hierarchies and forms of recognition in the rural world. The study adopts a comparative and multi-sited ethnographic approach focused on Sertãozinho and São Domingos, which, despite sharing similar historical trajectories, display distinct forms of integration into the specialty coffee market. In Sertãozinho, greater integration into cooperative networks and international circuits of certification and awards can be observed, constituting a moral economy of competition in which prestige and distinction are articulated with technical and institutional rationality. In São Domingos, by contrast, networks of reciprocity and community-based moralities predominate, challenging competitive market logics and emphasizing belonging, solidarity, and family continuity as criteria of value. The concept of moral economy, drawing on the work of E. P. Thompson and Viviana Zelizer, constitutes a central analytical axis for understanding how economic values and moral judgments become intertwined in defining what constitutes “good coffee,” a “good producer,” and a “good rural life.” In dialogue with Bourdieu’s contributions on field and distinction, as well as Maria José Carneiro’s studies on rurality, the research demonstrates that the specialty coffee market not only introduces new production techniques but also establishes grammars of recognition that produce internal hierarchies and reconfigure identities. By analyzing Cristina as a microcosm of global transformations in coffee production, the study contributes to economic sociology and rural studies by demonstrating that market differentiation operates as a mechanism for symbolic and social reordering. The expansion of specialty coffee, far from representing mere productive modernization, constitutes a moral and political process through which ruralities are contested, reinvented, and hierarchized. Thus, the research proposes understanding the rural not as a residue of modernity, but as a dynamic space of agency, conflict, and meaning-making within contemporary capitalism.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 3353597 - LEONARDO OCTAVIO BELINELLI DE BRITO
Interna - ***.209.648-** - LEONILDE SERVOLO DE MEDEIROS - UFRRJ
Interna - 1550345 - MARIA DE FATIMA FERREIRA PORTILHO