Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil

• Main Author: Buckley, Eve E
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina Press 2017; University of North Carolina Press
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: agronomists in Latin American history; Belissário Penna; Book Industry Communication; Brazil, North; Brazil, Northeast; Brazil. Inspectoria Federal de Obras contra as Secas; Brazilian cordéis; Brazilian environmental history; Brazilian sertão; Celso Furtado; civil engineers in Latin American history; Development studies; DNOCS Brazil; drought and regional development; drought and social marginality; drought in Brazil; drought in the sertão; Drought relief; Environmental; environmental history of Latin America; Environmental Science; Environmental Science (see also Chemistry; Environmental science, engineering & technology; Environmental science, engineering and technology; Getúlio Vargas; HISTORY; History and Archaeology; History of the Americas; Humanities; Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; Interdisciplinary studies; Irrigation Engineering; José Américo Almeida; José Guimarães Duque; Latin America; Latin American Studies; Latin American technocrats; literatura de cordel and drought; Miguel Arrojado Lisboa; Northeast Brazil; Political aspects; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Regional & national history; regional development in Brazil; SCIENCE; sertanejos and drought; Social aspects; Sociology; South America; Sustainable Development; technocrats and development in Latin America; technocrats in Brazil; technology and public health in Latin America; Technology, engineering, agriculture; Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes; thema EDItEUR
• ISBN: 1469634325; 1469634295; 9781469634326; 9781469634296; 9798890852465; 9781469634302; 1469634309
• DOI: 10.5149/9781469634319_Buckley

Eve E. Buckley's study of twentieth-century Brazil examines the nation's hard social realities through the history of science, focusing on the use of technology and engineering as vexed instruments of reform and economic development. Nowhere was the tension between technocratic optimism and entrenched inequality more evident than in the drought-ridden Northeastsertao, plagued by chronic poverty, recurrent famine, and mass migrations. Buckley reveals how the physicians, engineers, agronomists, and mid-level technocrats working for federal agencies to combat drought were pressured by politicians to seek out a technological magic bullet that would both end poverty and obviate the need for land redistribution to redress long-standing injustices.Scientists planned and oversaw huge projects including dam construction, irrigation for small farmers, and public health initiatives. They were, Buckley shows, sincerely determined to solve the drought crisis and improve the lot of poor people in thesertao. Over time, however, they came to the frustrating realization that, despite technology's tantalizing promise of an apolitical means to end poverty, political collisions among competing stakeholders were inevitable. Buckley's revelations about technocratic hubris, the unexpected consequences of environmental engineering, and constraints on scientists as agents of social change resonate with today's hopes that science and technology can solve society's most pressing dilemmas, including climate change.