Paper short abstract:

Future orientation among peasants in northeast Brazil not only mitigates radical uncertainties, but assimilates into people’s life expectations the fact of rural old age pensions, a non-contributory benefit for rural workers and small-scale farmers.

Paper long abstract:

The future orientation of peasants along the north-eastern coast of Brazil could be captured by the concept of 'esperar' – to wait while hoping . The specific future orientation captured by this polysemic concept not only mitigates uncertainties (L’Estoile 2014). Rather, it assimilates into people’s life expectations the fact (a certainty, if they live that long) of rural old age pensions (aposentadoria rural) – a non-contributory benefit for rural workers and small-scale farmers . Those shortly before their retirement imagine that when they start receiving pensions, a kind of good life finally begins. For most, this is indeed the first time that their monthly income becomes stable, regular and reaches minimum-wage levels. It is spoken of as a right and does not depend on a boss: Those imagining their retirement say that they will work for nobody anymore and ‘they will finally work for themselves’. Once their pensions are approved, people also invariably apply for consigned loans, which marks their entry into the mass-consumption society as ‘financially-included’ citizens and turns them into new centres of financial flows within their households and communities.