Development in the south of Brazil: remarks for the analysis of the economic and territorial dynamics found in Rio Grande do Sul state

Abstract

Rio Grande do Sul state, which is the southernmost federative unit in Brazil, has a representation in the Brazilian social formation that includes its subtropical condition and signs that approximate it to countries that comprise the so-called Platina America or to some European characteristics with emphasis on the hegemony of its rural past whose core was the large pastoral property. Theses are based on certain determinism (the location in relation to Earth’s climate zones) and on the distortion of History (in the Farroupilha Revolution, insurgent leaders declared themselves Brazilian and denied having got help from the platinos to fight against the Empire; Portugal is an European country like Germany and Italy and, with the expulsion of part of their populations in the 19th century, they collaborated to develop some areas with small mercantile production). Both ignore the condition of a state economy integrated with the nation, with strong industrial participation, based on urbanization with a dynamic tertiary sector and submitted to the logics of financial hegemony. This text analyzes some recent transformations that have taken place in the economy and in the state territory in their contradictory combinations with national dynamics by taking into account its performance in the whole group of federative units and of companies, as well as results of formal job creation.