Local development and quality of life in the perception of the farmers of the Mulunguzinho settlement in Mossoró (RN)

Abstract

The settlements in Land Reform in Brazil have been designed as possibilities to root a clientele excluded from more general processes of economic development, and also as stimulation mechanisms for rural areas anchored in the notions of sustainable development and with strong appeal to the notion of quality of life. In this way, the objective of this research was to investigate the perception of farmers’ families from the settlement Mulunguzinho in Mossoró (RN), semiarid region in Brazil, about quality of life. The research took as a reference the trajectory of two settled families, to seek disclosing, through their stories, the elements designated as quality of life. Furthermore, using picture cameras, the own interviewees recorded such aspects. We identified that rural space is conceived by farmers as a place of quality of life by nature, for all resources (food, water) it can offer. The access to housing appears as a prevailing expression for quality of life in settlements.