Local development and social exclusion

surprises and curiosities in the case of Ceará

Abstract

This text is the synthesis of a research carried out in 1998 by the authors for the International Labor Organization - ILO / FORD Foundation entitled: “Social Exclusion in the Labor Market: the case of Ceará, Brazil”. The investigation aimed to understand two of the policies against social exclusion that materialize in government actions to support family farming and integration into the labor market. To this end, we carried out an analysis of two of the main projects of the self-titled “Government of Changes” that focused on the rural environment and that intended to include workers, namely: the “São José Project”, and the Employment and Employment Generation Program Income for the construction of a “dam city”. Both projects pointed to the possibility of including the population, either in the job market or in the more general dynamics of social life. However, the results point to a successful experience of growth of the State with the permanence of the social exclusion framework.