TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS IN THE BRAZILIAN SEMIARID REGION: GENESIS, ACTIONS AND PROCESSES

Abstract

Territorial conflicts are intrinsic parts of the territorial formation of the Brazilian semiarid region, being produced by different actors with antagonistic interests throughout history. The objective of this paper is to reflect on the historical process of production of territorial conflicts in the Brazilian semiarid region through the territorialization actions of the subjects in space. For the development of this study we used the collect and systematization of secondary data, acquisition of information about companies, public institutions and social organizations, field work and bibliographic research. It was found that territorial conflicts are produced in the Brazilian semiarid region through the violence of the dominant classes (capitalists and large landowners) and the resistance practices of the peasants. The territorializations promoted by different actors are motivated by the attempt to appropriate not the territory itself, but its dimensions (natural, economic, social, cultural, etc.) and attributes (soil, water, labor, vegetation, minerals, etc.), which must be considered in an integrated way. The geographic approach allows for an articulated understanding of the various actions manifested by different actors in the processes of territorialization, which generate territorialities with meanings that reflect the characteristics of the actors that produced them. Territorial conflicts are, therefore, the expression of the territorialization actions of the actors in space.