Agribusiness, digitalization, and new forms of exclusion in Brazil

Abstract

Digital technologies have profoundly transformed various spheres of society, including how public policies are formulated and implemented. Although the topic of digitalization has gained increasing attention in the social sciences, analyses that explore the risks and implications of the digital transformation of public policies remain limited. This article examines the digitalization of environmental regularization policies in Brazil, with a focus on the Rural Environmental Registry (Cadastro Ambiental Rural – CAR), highlighting the emergence of a sociotechnical imaginary centered on productive intensification.We analyze its implementation in the state of Pará through three specific case studies: the livestock sector in southeastern Pará, mining in Canaã dos Carajás, and grain production on the Santarém Plateau. Methodologically, the study is based on a literature review, systematization of secondary and cartographic data, and fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2025, including 46 interviews with actors from various sectors and institutions. The findings indicate that digitalization is not limited to the migration of analog records to digital databases but entails a reconfiguration of the very logic of public policy. In this sense, the CAR reinforces a sociotechnical imaginary centered on productive intensification, reshaping the dynamics of territorialization in policymaking. While digital technologies hold potential for reducing costs and enhancing transparency and territorial monitoring, their appropriation by hegemonic groups can produce significant effects of exclusion, invisibilization, and the expropriation of traditionally occupied territories, resulting in a disconnection between digital documentation and territorial realities.