Identity and social technology: a study on the craftsmen of Esperança Rural Village

Abstract

The world and its people are in a state of continuous transformation, construction and constitution by which the agent and the environment reciprocally affect one another through several established roles. This essay investigates the way in which social technology contributes to the process of construction and constitution of the Esperança Rural Village craftsmen’s identity by their insertion of transformation technology (both social and human) in their milieu and its incorporation during the execution of the Seda Justa project. The themes, such as social technology and identity, are currently debated and give rise to an interdisciplinary dialogue. All types of transformation and form of entrepreneurship/organization leave their significant marks on professional and personal relationships with regard to labor. Consequently, this fact requires further studies and research. Identity is always affected by cultural meanings and varies according to the situation that is experienced and the history of the subjects’ lives. The method of life history for data collection and hermeneutics as an interpretation basis were chosen. Through the participants’ reports and memories, this study produced the exteriorization of their experiences and feelings: what they value, what they think, feel and do, and thus the construction process of their identities and their constitutive elements.