Public Policies in the Rural Area of São João del-Rei: An inhabitants’ view

This work aims to investigate the view the inhabitants of the Rural Area of São João del-Rei have about the environment surrounding them and about the public policies for the region. The methodology used is founded on Qualitative Epistemology, focusing on the participants’ subjectivity. Interviews were made with eleven participants from six rural communities based on their life history. The analysis of the data was performed based on concepts from Environmental Psychology and from the Bioecological Model of Human Development. The results indicated that the inhabitants see themselves as inhabitants of rural areas; they described the existing public policies and pointed out the needs found in this context. The need of formulating adequate public policies for the scenario presented is considered.