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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]