A symbol power plant: new forms of management and protection in Pernambuco power plants

Abstract

During the 1990s, the Mata Sul area of Pernambuco was the setting of important social transformations, which included the bankruptcy of sugar mills, mass layoffs of workers and land occupations aiming at agrarian reform. Centring on a case study, this article analyses attempts to overcome this crisis through the modernization of the sugar mills’ management and practices of environmental protection. The effects of these initiatives on local social relations will be contemplated as well.