The proposal of this study is part of the debate about interdisciplinarity in research and graduate study. Its objective is to analyze the approaches and interpretations of "development" and "rural" as concepts and practice in the social sciences, based on a case study. To this end, we shall take as a basis the interdisciplinary scientific production (theses and dissertations) focused on the issues of the rural world, generated by the graduate program of Social Sciences, Development, Agriculture and Society of the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro – CPDA/UFRRJ. The analysis of the construction of the Social Sciences in Brazil is significant to the understanding of the choices and interdisciplinary theoretical-methodological stances of many graduate programs, in order to elucidate their research, formulations and interpretations of social processes. As a result, we present within a broad universe of academic papers, examples of studies recognized as being interdisciplinary in their approaches to development and the rural world.