RURAL HOUSING POLICY AND PEASANT HOUSING IN MARANHÃO

Abstract

This text analyzes the limitations and consequences of local public policies when they use national programs that were developed for other socio-spatial realities. The analysis is based on a survey of the recent rural housing policy of the Government of Maranhão, which, inspired by the National Rural Housing Plan (PNHR), is part of the state development plan for municipalities with low human development index (HDI), aiming to address the situation of precarious housing of the State. From the point of view of the social division of labor and the law of unequal and combined development, the first section analyzes the disparate regional results of the PNHR and contextualizes the reality of the Maranhão peasant, who, living outside the economic system, practices extractivism and has the housing as a way of survival. Based on the specificities of the state rural housing deficit of the State and based on research in the villages selected by the program, the third section evaluates the production processes and the appropriation of the housing by the families contemplated, observing the failure of the physical and social objectives of the State’s proposals. It concludes that the program is not compatible with the traditional ways of life and self-construction practices, opposes local development goals and doesn’t contribute to the cultural affirmation of marginalized social groups, with large population presence in the State.

Keywords: Rural housing policy; peasant house; Maranhão/Brazil