Presenças e ausências do estado na fronteira : um estudo a partir das trajetórias das usuárias do Programa Bolsa Família em Porto Velho, Rondônia

Abstract

The present work is the result of my doctoral research and is situated within the scope of discussions about the State's performance in the lives of subjects, especially those “beneficiaries” of social policies to combat poverty. The territorial extension of Porto Velho, capital of Rondônia, allows the municipality to have a variety of territorialities, as well as a diversity of historical times coexisting within the limits of its legal territory. The municipality has thirteen districts under its administration and many of these are at a significant distance from the headquarter district (city), where the state's equipment is concentrated. Furthermore, the urban mesh is spreading in the city through a centrifugal movement in which the poor are thrown into the periphery of the city in areas without any infrastructure. These questions led me to the central question of this work: to what extent is the State present / absent in the trajectory of poor families, geographically and socially distant from the public services? In this sense, I drew a parallel between the reality of a district located more than one hundred kilometres from the city, in the riverside region of Baixo Madeira – Calama – and the periphery of the urban area of the city (headquarter district), the East Zone. Knowing the effective reach of the State with populations located on the borders is essential for science as well as for public authorities. For this, interviews were carried out with users of the Bolsa Família Program in both locations in order to focus on the life trajectory of poor families. The interviews were conducted in a comprehensive way (Jean-Claude Kaufmann), extracting life stories (Daniel Bertaux) as materials for analysing the studied social reality. From the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu and Norbert Elias on the State and based on the theoretical production of José de Souza Martins on the border in Brazil, it was possible to construct the thesis of this work. I argue that Porto Velho is a municipality that can be perceived as a place in a border situation whose specificity makes it difficult to consolidate the presence of the State as guarantor of social rights. Although present in an emblematic way in the history of the region, the life stories of Bolsa Família users reveal the absence of the State in guaranteeing social protection as a right of these women and their families.