When farm work disappears
Labor and environmental change in the Brazilian sugar-ethanol industry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13084385 |
|---|---|
| Authors | I Carrillo (0000-0002-8468-0992, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 42-53 |
| Publication date | 2016-09-30 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2325-1042 • E-ISSN: 2325-1042 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/23251042.2016.1221172 |
| OpenAlex | W2525939143 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 37 |
What factors drive labor substitution in the biofuels sector? Can labor substitution engender positive environmental outcomes, such as decreasing carbon emissions? Using the Brazilian sugar–ethanol industry as a case study, this article examines the motivations and consequences of substituting machine harvesters for cane-cutters and ending field burning. Not only does this article interrogate key claims from techno-optimistic and sociological theories of environmental change on how and why producers adopt new practices, but it also highlights the role of labor in processes of environmental change. Using a multi-sited ethnographic method, I collected data in 3 ethanol-producing states in Brazil, where I interviewed 61 mill managers, variety breeders, consultants, and producer syndicate officials and conducted observations at 9 mills. Two main findings emerge. First, labor challenges with farmworkers, not environmental authority, were the primary motivations for changing production practices. Second, although new practices generated positive environmental effects locally, such gains are likely to vanish at the regional level since an expanding industrial sector, with its new employment opportunities, undergirded and made viable mechanization in the biofuels sector. Overall, this article is an empirical account of how an emerging market economy seeks to balance climate change mitigation with an active development agenda
Agency (philosophy · Business · Climate change · Economics · Economy · Production (economics · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Work (physics · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Engineering · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Mining and Resource Management · Ecology
The Environmental State Under Pressure
Globalization and the Race for Resources
The treadmill of production and the environmental state
Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America
Governing Environmental Flows
Environmental Sociology and the Explanation of Environmental Reform
Interrogating the Treadmill of Production
How Ecologically Uneven Developments Put the Spin on the Treadmill of Production
The Planetary Rift and the New Human Exemptionalism
New Labor
Key Challenges to Ecological Modernization Theory
The Capitalist World-Economy
On the Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation
Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour
Unequal carbon exchanges
Green Technology and Ecologically Unequal Exchange
Greening global consumption
Pioneer countries and the global diffusion of environmental innovations
Ecologically Unequal Exchange and the Resource Consumption/Environmental Degradation Paradox
The Division of Labour in Society
Zero-Sum World
Environmental authorities and biofuel controversies
Footprints on the Earth
Capitalism, nature, socialism a theoretical introduction∗
Por que morrem os cortadores de cana
Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America. Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil
The Economy, Military, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange Relationships in Comparative Perspective
Parallel Paths to Enforcement
An Environmental Sociology for the Twenty-First Century
Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |