Rural Studies against the Grain – An Interview with Maria Aparecida de Moraes Silva

Abstract

In this interview, the sociologist Maria Aparecida de Moraes Silva discusses her trajectory, the transformations in the rural world from the 1970s until the implementation of neoliberalism and their environmental impact, her activities among rural academic groups in Latin America, and the dialogue with post-colonial literature. She also highlists the importance of peasant culture and utopias, the timeliness of agrarian reform and, finally, the continual (super) exploitation and expropriation of rural workers in the context of “accumulation through plunder.”