THE WEB OF VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE: A COMPLEX DYNAMIC OF FARMER SUICIDE IN BRAZIL

Bruna Peres Teixeira; Sandra Gemma; Ana Maria Galdini Raimundo Oda; Adelaide Nascimento; Iracimara de Anchieta Messias

Todos os Trabalhos

Trabalho

DOI

10.29327/9786527226680.1442029

Título do Trabalho

THE WEB OF VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE: A COMPLEX DYNAMIC OF FARMER SUICIDE IN BRAZIL

Autores

Bruna Peres Teixeira
Sandra Gemma
Ana Maria Galdini Raimundo Oda
Adelaide Nascimento
Iracimara de Anchieta Messias

Modalidade

IRSA - Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (01/10/2025 a 20/01/2026)

Área temática

IRSA 29 - Work, Migration, and Violence in the Contemporary Rural World

Data de Publicação

06/08/2026

País da Publicação

Brasil

Idioma da Publicação

pt-BR

Página do Trabalho

https://www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1442029-the-web-of-violence-in-the-countryside--a-complex-dynamic-of-farmer-suicide-in-brazil

ISBN

978-65-272-2668-0

Palavras-Chave

farmer suicide, workplace violence, chemical colonialism, psychodynamics of work, workers health.

Resumo

This study analyzes the relations between work and suicide among farmers in Brazil, the occupational category with the highest suicide mortality rate (16.5%). Methodologically, this narrative literature review grounded in the Psychodynamics of Work, a clinical discipline analyzing the relationship between work organization and mental health, and in the concept of Chemical Colonialism. The analysis challenges the neoliberal logic individualizing suffering, identifying a determining web of violence. First, while pesticide exposure is a global hazard, in Brazil it reflects capitalist contradictions where agribusiness is a central economic pillar. This dynamic is exacerbated by Chemical Colonialism, a geopolitical asymmetry where corporate profit reduce the nation to an exporter of nature, sustaining permissive regulations for highly hazardous substances. This exposes farmers to neurotoxic risks in a dual dimension: as a physiological driver, where chronic intoxication disrupts the central nervous system, inducing severe depression that precipitates suicide, and as a lethal means, serving as an accessible weapon. Second, economic violence reflects global agribusiness pressures, specifically subordination to integrated systems. Under neoliberal rationality, which frames failure as a personal flaw, chronic indebtedness strips the producer of autonomy. This imposes a trap where structural economic subordination is internalized as personal incompetence, generating profound feelings of guilt and impotence. Third, social and racial violence exacerbates vulnerabilities, placing historically marginalized Black and Indigenous populations in precarious roles, notably highlighting alarming suicide rates among Indigenous men. From the perspective of Psychodynamics of Work, these dimensions, acting recursively, dismantle psychological defenses. This context annihilates recognition by denying judgments of utility and beauty, and severs solidarity networks essential for giving meaning to work. It is concluded that rural suicide is not a private tragedy, but the toxic residue of a productivist model: while nature is exported to sustain global markets, the territory retains body exhaustion, mass illness and systematic silencing.

Título do Evento: 16th World Congress of Rural Sociology and 64th Congress of the Brazilian Society of Rural Economics, Management and Sociology
Cidade do Evento: Porto Alegre
Título dos Anais do Evento: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA)
Nome da Editora: Even3
Meio de Divulgação: Meio Digital
DOI

Como citar

TEIXEIRA, Bruna Peres et al.. THE WEB OF VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE: A COMPLEX DYNAMIC OF FARMER SUICIDE IN BRAZIL.. In: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA). Anais...Porto Alegre(RS) UFRGS, 2026. Disponível em: https//www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1442029-THE-WEB-OF-VIOLENCE-IN-THE-COUNTRYSIDE--A-COMPLEX-DYNAMIC-OF-FARMER-SUICIDE-IN-BRAZIL. Acesso em: 22/09/2026