Vivendo nas ruas: A trajetória de trabalhadores de rua e a estruturação de circuitos econômicos informais em Palmas - Tocantins

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of the informal economic circuits of the city of Palmas - Tocantins, the most recent planned capital of Brazil. It is centered on fixed, street vendors that constitute one of the labor markets of the city. Starting from the description of the actors, the types of occupations and the relationships that make up the bazaars located in three selected points of great agglomeration, key aspects are analyzed for the expansion and understanding of the fixed informal street trade that allows identifying social contexts that facilitate or restrict economic action, locating the central causes that motivate the decisions of individuals who operate between legal/illegal and/or formal/informal restrictions; how to sell on the street (spatial practices and politics of space); how the plots of this market occur (the dynamics of transactions and the social organization of sales); what formal rules/laws they follow; the motivational factors of informality; coping with COVID-19. The ethnography and participant observation allowed approaching together with the participants since the entry into informality, maintenance and occupation of the urban public space, as the future perspectives for this market/work. Informal shopping centers inserted and integrated with the formal dynamics of the city. Economic circuits that are built and maintained through good intimate relationships created by the participants, are also approached from other questions on working relationships with existing subinformals. The operation and development of these bazaars thus provides relevant elements to understand the relationships between public space, economic circuit and informality in which the congruence of trust was found used as the main currency of exchange, relational work through the socialization of retail, as well as in subcontracting networks.