Territorial Development Policies and the Fight against Social Exclusion

This work corresponds to the master's thesis developed in the Postgraduate Program in Planning and Analysis of Public Policies at UNESP/Franca. The research that gave rise to this dissertation deals with three main themes: territorial development, the fight against social exclusion and public policies as a means of achieving development and better levels of social justice. In order to analyze these issues, a study was carried out on the experience of promoting Fair Trade in Poços de Caldas, a municipality in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais. In order to achieve the objectives set, we investigated - from the perspective of territorial development - the process of Fairtrade certification of coffee production in a rural community in the municipality and also how the project was implemented, involving the whole city, its inclusion on the political agenda of the municipal administration in question, the participation of other entities and also the dynamics of this type of management (which includes public and private bodies as well as volunteers from the community).