Os sentidos do real e do falso: o consumo popular em perspectiva etnográfica

Abstract

Based on two ethnographies among low income groups in the city of Porto Alegre, we deal with the issue of consumption in a national context which suggests the rising participation of lower classes in the market. We focus our analyses on the choices between genuine or fake goods. Trying to avoid prejudices surrounding the field of popular consumption, as well as the practical reason commonly tied to this issue, the ethnographies seek to understand the meanings of such goods in a given affective network. Our goal is not to build a closed model about consumption among lower classes, but mainly to show the multiple meanings which are involved at the moment of the choice between genuine and fake goods. This choice is an act that negotiates and balances, in a relational scope, cost-benefit ratio, symbolic and practical reasons, money and love, long term and ephemeral duration.