Reflexões sobre o desenvolvimento do semiárido cearense

Abstract

This study is a sociological analysis of development in the semi-arid region of Ceará. A territory marked in the Brazilian imagination by drought and poverty, Ceará at the end of the 20th century and in the early years of the 21st century was the scene of a series of public policies that sought to change the state's socio-economic conditions. However, the attraction of new enterprises and the implementation of infrastructure works were not enough to eliminate persistent poverty in Ceará, nor to reduce the state's inequality in relation to other Brazilian states and regions. Using the CenterPeriphery theories that emerged in Latin America in the 1970s, the paper pointed out that the causes for the persistence of poverty and underdevelopment stem from the fact that development strategies are carried out within the framework of a periphery of the capitalist system, which seeks to serve the market of the central regions of capitalism, which contributes to a situation of overexploitation of the region's workers. This becomes evident through a comparative approach to four cities that have emerged in the last decade among the twenty cities with the highest GDP per capita in Ceará. The work shows that, although the cities have generated a lot of wealth, this has not brought improvements for the people who live there, increasing inequality between social classes. In addition, the current development model in Ceará has failed to make equal progress throughout the state, deepening the inequality between municipalities.