Politics, economy and symbolic mediation: ethnographic notes on the constitution of social chieftainship build on the experience of Porto Alegre’s Camelódromo

Abstract

This article emphasizes on the disputes
and organization processes of a popular shopping
center – called “Camelódromo” – located in
downtown Porto Alegre/RS. Based a multi-sited
participant observation, this paper argues, on the
one hand, governmentality strategies associated to
the state’s persuasive force by relating the necessity
of sanitation and urbanization of the public space to
the spatial and identitarian displacement of informal
workers from the streets to the juridical-formal
visibility. On the other hand, questions the models
of state management underlying the public-private
partnership by contextualizing them through the
view of the camelôs vendors a.ected by the transition
process. .e ethnographic accompaniment
of their community leader – Juliano Fripp – and
the connection of the di.erent spaces of the public sphere (City Council, Prosecutor, City Hall and the
Participative Budget), both linked to the group’s
expectations; allows to see how the more broader
tensions about political and economical processes
are congured by the organization processes of the
“Camelódromo“.