Banca de DEFESA: DANILO MOURAO DOS SANTOS

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : DANILO MOURAO DOS SANTOS
DATE: 27/02/2026
TIME: 14:30
LOCAL: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/channel/19%3AKOGGfaL0dRWfsY6wf6jhQeYNbKp4yTGjuC2kgDzJ2 yE1%40thread.t
TITLE:

Rumors of Economic Development and the Racialization of Environmental Conflict Surrounding the Pará Railway: The Case of the Quilombola Communities of África and Laranjituba in Abaetetuba, Pará

KEY WORDS:

Environmental Conflict; Quilombola Communities; Racialization of Conflict; Pará Railway

PAGES: 285
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Sociologia
SUMMARY:

The purpose of this research is to analyze the environmental conflict surrounding the Pará Railway (FEPASA), examining the rumors about its construction and their mobilizing effects among the quilombola communities of África and Laranjituba, in the municipality of Abaetetuba, Pará, Brazil. The study seeks to understand how racialization operates as a structuring principle of this conflict, demonstrating how a logistics-oriented development project relies on racial classifications to legitimize the territorial expropriation of quilombola communities under the rhetoric of regional economic progress. The racialization of environmental conflict is understood as a social and historical process through which social groups are hierarchically positioned as racially inferior (Gans, 2017; Hochman, 2019), thereby structuring disputes between distinct modes of territorial appropriation (Acselrad, 2004a). This process materializes in the articulation between the zone of nonbeing (Fanon, 2008), marked by forms of racism that deny full human status and capacity, and the sacrifice zone (Lerner, 2010), characterized by environmental disposability. The intersection of these zones authorizes the state and economic actors to normalize the disposability of Black bodies and territories. Announced in 2016, the Pará Railway is an infrastructure project designed to transport agribusiness and mining commodities from the southern and southeastern regions of Pará to the seaports of Abaetetuba and Barcarena. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative approach, with data collected between 2015 and 2024 through field diaries, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, oral history, and narrative inquiry. The findings indicate that rumors about large-scale infrastructure projects triggered processes of collective public inquiry (Dewey, 1974a; Ginzburg, 1989), enabling traditional communities to identify environmental risks, map the hegemonic actors involved, and activate legal instruments of self-protection, such as Consultation Protocols grounded in International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169. However, the study observes the absence of the state in promoting effective consultation processes, not as an exception but as an expression of a structural and institutional pattern of racialized territorial governance in the context of Amazonian logistics-driven development. The research concludes that the legal and political recognition (Honneth, 2009) of quilombola communities constitutes an important political achievement, yet one that remains reversible (Bell, 1992; Mills, 2023) and is frequently threatened when confronted by large-scale economic projects.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interno - 1255605 - EDSON SILVA DE FARIAS
Interno - 2328733 - EMERSON FERREIRA ROCHA
Externa à Instituição - LORENA CANDIDO FLEURY - UFRGS
Presidente - 2529076 - SAYONARA DE AMORIM GONCALVES LEAL
Externa à Instituição - SONIA MARIA SIMÕES MAGALHÃES SANTOS - UFPA