O futuro ameaçado: o mundo rural face aos desafios da masculinização, do velhecimento e da desagrarização

Abstract

This article analyse the importance of family farming in the Southern Region of Brazil and the changes that took place at the rural areas associated with the pattern of modernization, focusing on masculinization of rural societies and ageing of farm occupiers. Such phenomena are related with agrarian decline in the economic role of agriculture. According to the authors this can not be understood as a decline in rurality affecting spaces not heavily urbanized. Technological, demographic and economic changes can modify the agricultural sector as a whole mainly the peasant families, villages and institutions.