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Paper short abstract:

The paper presents a new form of interpretation for what has been studied under the state-civil society relation’s frame. Using data collected from ethnographical research within Brazilian agrarian reform bureaucracy it explores a number of connections that transcend categories used on the state civil society approach.

Paper long abstract:

This article discusses the different forms by which state bureaucracy relates to social movements on the realm of agrarian reform policies in Brazil. There are a number of possible connections and very complex relations that have been going in for the last 30 years. Possible connections include institutional spaces for discussion but also a number of informal sites and forms of relations between bureaucrats and social movements mediators. I argue that participatory democracy literature is not the best approach to analyze this great scope of connections insofar as it assumes the existence of two different and separate actors, the state and the civil society, and two separate spheres of participation, representative democracy and deliberative democracy. The diversity of possible formats by which social movements relate to state bureaucracy can be apprehended more fully by the actor-network approach as it gives the researcher tools to account for connections taking place in different sites and with a multiplicity of formats, as well as tools to analyze its effects on actors' agency during the political process. Data that supports this argument is drawn from an ethnographical research within Brazilian State institution in charge of implementing agrarian reform policies. Focused on how the bureaucracy understands and reacts to one of the most organized and mobilized beneficiary publics in the Brazilian political arena the investigation presents some interesting findings regarding the complexity of networks in which bureaucrats are entangled and its effects on negotiation and implementation of policies claimed by rural social movements.