FROM SHOCK TO GOVERNANCE: PATHWAYS OUT OF INFORMALITY IN BRAZIL’S WINE SECTOR AFTER THE BENTO GONÇALVES SCANDAL

DAVIDE CARBONAI

Todos os Trabalhos

Trabalho

DOI

10.29327/9786527226680.1448903

Título do Trabalho

FROM SHOCK TO GOVERNANCE: PATHWAYS OUT OF INFORMALITY IN BRAZIL’S WINE SECTOR AFTER THE BENTO GONÇALVES SCANDAL

Autores

DAVIDE CARBONAI

Modalidade

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

Área temática

IRSA 20 - Capitalist forestry, rural labor, and land injustices: towards a comparative analysis of the role of forests and tree plantations in contemporary land questions, agrarian questions and rural development

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-irsa2026/1448903-from-shock-to-governance--pathways-out-of-informality-in-brazils-wine-sector-after-the-bento-goncalves-scandal

ISBN

978-65-272-2668-0

Palavras-Chave

Rio Grande do Sul, Slave labour, Unions, winery, collective barganing

Resumo

The 2023 rescue of more than 200 Bahian workers from slave-like conditions in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul, exposed the depth of labour informality in Brazil’s wine-producing Serra region. More than an isolated scandal, it revealed the structural mechanisms that sustain informality: outsourced recruitment chains, fragmented and municipalized collective bargaining, weak unions, and a political culture that tolerates precariousness and racialized migration. This paper examines how that crisis, crystallized in the “Fênix” outsourcing case, became a turning point in the governance of seasonal labour. Drawing on inspection reports, collective agreements, official statistics, and over twenty interviews with inspectors, union leaders, employers, and rescued workers (2022–2024), it traces the evolution from chronic institutional voids to the emergence of coordinated mechanisms such as the “In Vino Veritas” operation and the tripartite Grape Pact. These initiatives signaled the first attempts to rebuild formal labour regulation and collective bargaining in a sector historically governed by informality. Three analytical contributions emerge. First, the paper conceptualizes structured informality as an institutional condition that normalizes exploitation and erodes social protection. Second, it interprets the 2023 crisis as a “policy window” that temporarily aligned public authorities, employers, and unions, allowing the creation of new compliance and monitoring instruments. Third, it assesses the reach and fragility of these governance innovations in 2024–2025, identifying the conditions under which crisis-driven reforms can consolidate into lasting forms of labour formalization. By integrating qualitative evidence and governance analysis, the paper argues that confronting contemporary slavery in agriculture requires addressing informality not as an economic residue but as a political and territorial system. The Bento Gonçalves case illustrates both how institutional erosion systematically excludes migrant workers from protection, and how crisis-induced cooperation can open genuine—though fragile—pathways out of informality.

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

CARBONAI, DAVIDE. FROM SHOCK TO GOVERNANCE: PATHWAYS OUT OF INFORMALITY IN BRAZIL’S WINE SECTOR AFTER THE BENTO GONÇALVES SCANDAL.. 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-irsa2026/1448903-FROM-SHOCK-TO-GOVERNANCE--PATHWAYS-OUT-OF-INFORMALITY-IN-BRAZILS-WINE-SECTOR-AFTER-THE-BENTO-GONCALVES-SCANDAL. Acesso em: 08/09/2026