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This paper aims to demonstrate the existence of viable margins for the construction of rural development projects that take advantage of the small gaps in the configuration of the current economic system. The paper supports the idea that policies can serve as instruments for democratic appropriation of the State and markets, favoring the social reproduction of family farming, a central segment from the perspective of development herein adopted. The methodology employed relied on theoretical reflection and interviews with farmers, extension workers and public managers in the municipality of Pelotas-RS, Brazil. From the analyses of the empirical setting of this work and other spatial contexts, the paper discusses examples where the use of public institutions and markets led to advances or mitigated problems faced by historically deprecated segments, such as family farming in Brazil. This demonstrates the potential of local contexts to act as protagonists in coping with a structurally imposed unequal logic. The study concludes that there is no need to break with the economic system to then pursue the construction of future alternatives, and the multiple open possibilities in places may be a starting point for the construction of new projects towards the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to bring the theory of reciprocity closer to the rural networks analysis methodology, in the context of endogenous rural development in mountain environments. The main idea behind the concept of rural networks is to give a new meaning to the expression 'rural development'. This re-signification arises from the observation of the diversity of territories and populations that exist in regions that are making the border between rural and urban increasingly invisible. Moreover, from this finding, the authors identify the need for a new methodology that can, at the same time, look at the spaces through the concept of networks and think rural development as something beyond mercantile exchanges. The proposal to approach the theory of reciprocity is to better understand, and hence justify, a differentiated look within social organizations, their functioning and the interconnections that can coexist within groups. It was found, in both theories, points of convergence; one of them is to make increasingly the formulation, application and analysis of public policies. A second point is the perception of spaces from the concept of social networks. Thus, it is in the junction of very close thoughts that the article proposes the analysis of these new forms of territories occupation, especially those that are in mountainous regions and are destined to the rural production in sustainable bases, with the objective of contributing with the construction of knowledge in the scenarios of public policies and endogenous rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]