Grammars of State: a study on state practices and "development" discourse in Atafona - São João da Barra/RJ

Abstract

The state can present itself in various ways in the daily lives of different social groups, especially those at the "margins of the state. These groups are constantly targeted by regulatory and "development" policies that attempt to discipline and regulate their practices, while at the same time, it is worth noting, the practices and way of life in these spaces shape the ways the state acts. Based on an ethnographic study carried out between the years 2012 and 2013 with the fishermen community of Atafona (São da Barra -RJ), this article seeks to analyze how the State's actions occurred in the implementation of an economic project of "development" through the implementation of a port complex and the increase in the number of oil extraction platforms.  I take this process as part of a modernizing project of the nation-state, thus describing how it is put into practice and what meanings the category "development" assumes. In the same way, I try to understand the strategies used by fishermen to maintain their practices in the disputed maritime space, where certain groups have more legitimacy than others in the appropriation of the sea, since the State particularizes the public space, legitimizing the use of those who have the role of "developing" the country.