The wide spread of cooperated and self-managed ways of work, not only in the urban but also in rural areas, makes relevant the debate on the contributive potential of these experiences for the solution of social problems. This article tries to reflect on the way this organizational logic is able to improve life and health conditions of rural workers. Studying the organizational process of a rural settling, I have tried to understand the meaning given to health-illness by these workers and the health practices being developed. Considering the objective and subjective aspects involved in the concept of life condition and starting from a perspective which deals with the process of knowledge production as social construction, I analyzed and compared information obtained from documentary analysis, interviews and observation of the daily routine of life and work in the settling. The contrast between urban and rural life way is a strong feature in the meaning of health-illness. Between idealized concepts and feasible practices, the attempt to solve problems and make health a social right, came up against the fragmentary and inarticulate way that public policy involved in the land reform has been implemented by the state.
Life and health condition; Work and cooperation; Rural settling; Social movements and health
