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The purpose of this paper is to describe further developments on a novel formulation of the boundary element method (BEM) for inelastic problems using the dual reciprocity method (DRM) but using object-oriented programming (OOP). As the BEM formulation generates a domain integral due to the inelastic stresses, the DRM is employed in a modified form using polyharmonic spline approximating functions with polynomial augmentation. These approximating functions produced accurate results in BEM applications for a range of problems tested, and have been shown to converge linearly as the order of the function increases.

A programming class named DRMOOP, written in C++ language and based on OOP, was developed in this research. With such programming, general matrix equations can be easily established and applied to different inelastic problems. A vector that accounts for the influence of the inelastic strains on the displacements and boundary forces is obtained.

The C++ DRMOOP class has been implemented and tested with the BEM formulation applied to classical elastoplastic problem and the results are reported at the end of the paper.

An object-oriented technology and the C++ DRMOOP class applied to elastoplastic problems.

Major pillar of Via Campesina in Brazil, the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST) political platform combines land reform and agro-ecology, claiming for a profound change in the hegemonic agriculture model in the country, hoisting the ‘food sovereignty’ flag. However, this was not a linear trajectory. Focusing on events that took place in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the birthplace of the MST, this chapter aims to analyse the different path followed by MST there in order to consolidate the ‘conquered’ settlements. The organization approached, initially, a network of technicians and social organizations critics of the technological package of the Green Revolution in Brazil. Afterwards, choose to support the deployment of conventional agriculture in the agrarian reform settlements, prioritizing collective organization of labour through cooperatives of production, practicing an agriculture based in the intensive use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and commercial seed varieties. Thanks to the growing international connections of the MST, that paved the way for the creation of Via Campesina, and to the proximity to ‘militant technicians’ coming mainly from the agronomy student movement, in the end of the 1990s, MST resumed its dialogue with alternative agriculture strands, particularly with agro-ecology, campaigning for an agriculture based on principles of environmental conservation and valorization of the peasant way of life.