AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY AND RURAL WORKERS' UNION ACTION

Abstract

This paper considers rural worker's different perceptions about the technology they deal with. Data refer to sugar cane workers in Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco and soybean workers in Rio Grande do Sul. Small farmers' perceptions differ from rural wage-workers and trade-union leadership's perceptions also differ from rank and file ones. Even within such groups there is no homogeneous view of technology. Considering the whole group, rural workers show a complex view of technology that combines negative and positive evaluations of its different aspects. This view hardly goes beyond an everyday life recreation and is only beginning to develop into a political answer to that question.