In recent years researchers have displayed an interest in understanding the rural dynamics in other regions of the world which are also being affected by global processes in different ways and the sum result is great global spatial diversity.

1. Global multifunctional countryside:
debates concerning rural change in
transition economies (Brazil)
Felipe da Silva Machado
Research student
Plymouth University
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental
Sciences
Research student scholarship - CAPES Foundation,
Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasília - DF, Brazil.

2. Introduction
• The doctoral research is based on debates concerning
contemporary rural change with an emphasis on multidirectional
and multidimensional paths.
• Early discussion and theoretical positions concerning rural
restructuring were developed by researchers from countries with
post-production economies in order to explain the kind of rural
transformations that occurred with the rise of non-agricultural
activities alongside or in competition with farming. However, in
recent years researchers have displayed an interest in
understanding the dynamics of the rural spaces in other regions
of the world which are also being affected by global processes in
different ways and the sum result is great global spatial
diversity.
• How the rural space in transition economies such as Brazil will
be affected by the rapid socio-economic and political changes
expected in this country over the next decades.

3. Theory review
• Understanding rural change: theoretical approaches
- political economy (Marsden et al., 1993; Munton, 1995;
Murdoch and Marsden, 1995; Ilbery, 1998)
- political ecology (Winter, 1996)
- resilience (Wilson, 2012)
- post-productivism and multifunctionality (Wilson, 2007;
Wilson, 2010)
… but most theories only applicable in developed world (Wilson
and Rigg, 2003; Wilson and Burton, 2015; ‘Travelling Theory’ by
Edward Said)
• Rural change in BRIC countries and transition
economies
• Rural change in Brazil (key hypotheses for Brazil
emerging from above studies)

4. The Brazilian countryside in the context of global
multifunctionality
Brazil is a country of immense diversity and went from being the 14th largest
global economy in 1970 to 10th in 1990 and to the 6th or 7th largest
economy in recent years (Becker and Egler, 1992; Cohn, 2012). As the
economy globalized and industry decentralized away from metropolitan areas
profound changes occurred in the hinterland, which was particularly marked
in the state of Rio de Janeiro. With ample petroleum offshore Rio de Janeiro
assumed a series of new manufacturing and logistical functions which
transformed it into one of the most dynamic states in Brazil and this produced
profound impacts in the countryside.

5. Total area 43 780,172 km² (24º)
Population (2015)
Estimate 16 550 024 hab. (3º)
Density 378,03 hab./km² (2º)
Economy
GDP (2013) US$ 154,950 billion (2º)
GDP per capita
US$ 7.689,00 (3º)
HDI (2010) 0,761 (4º) – high
Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

6. Revealing the diversity of land use, new functions
and rural activities
Multifunctionality constitutes the new set of interests,
activities and functions that rural space assumes for local
society, or for society previously not present (Wilson,
2007, 2008).

7. Understanding the contradictory relationship
between new urban, industrial and global investment
and the process of rural restructuring
Global countryside is a hypothetical space, corresponding to a
condition of the global interconnectivity and interdependency of
rural localities. As this emergent global countryside is not a
uniform, homogenous space, but rather is differentially
articulated, and contested, through particular rural places
(Woods, 2007).

8. Assessing the implementation of policies to promote
rural development and rural territorial planning
• The focus on the territorial dimension is crucial for managing
and public policies in multifunctional rural space.
• From an agricultural policy focus to a rural policy focus (Woods,
2005).
• Community resilience/local level (Wilson, 2012) - how local
actors adapt and innovative in novel ways in the specific
contexts and in the process construct new rural functions and
values involving creative forms of connectivity and governance in
order to achieve their aims.

9. To assess the implementation of policies meant to
promote rural development and rural territorial
planning, the diverse level policies have been
analysed with regard to the implications for diversity
of land uses and functions, which can give rise to
multifunctional rural space.

10. References
• Becker, B.K. and Egler, C. (1992). Brazil: A New Regional Power in the Global
Economy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Ilbery, B. (ed.) (1998). The Geography of Rural Change. Longman, Essex.
• Marsden, T., Murdoch, J., Lowe, P., Munton, R. and Flynn, A. (1993).
Constructing the countryside. UCL Press, London.
• Murdoch, J., Lowe, P., Ward, N. and Marsden, T. (2003). The Differentiated
Countryside. London, Routledge.
• Woods, M. (2005). Rural Geography: Processes, Responses and Experiences in
Rural Restructuring. Sage, London.
• Woods M. (2007). Engaging the global countryside: globalization, hybridity
and the reconstitution of rural place. Progress in Human Geography 31, 485-
507.
• Wilson, G.A. (2007). Multifunctional Agriculture: A Transition Theory
Perspective. CABI, Wallingford.
• Wilson, G.A. (2008). Global multifunctional agriculture: transitional
convergence between North and South or zero-sum game? International
Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 6 (1), 3–21.
• Wilson, G.A. (2012). Community Resilience and Environmental Transitions.
Earthscan, London.
• Wilson, G.A. and Rigg, J. (2003) ‘Post-productivist’ agricultural regimes and
the South: discordant concepts? Progress in Human Geography 27 (5), 605–
631.