"An industrial cluster in check": field, habitus and symbolic capital in a furniture industrial cluster in Minas Gerais

Abstract

The Local Productive Arrangement of Ubá and Region (APL of Ubá) generates about nine thousand jobs and has the seat of the largest steel furniture company of Latin America, besides three other large companies. However, this arrangement is marked by dispute relations that worries the local entrepreneurs. The investigated problem is, to what extent, these disputes, especially between manufacturers and suppliers, endanger the furniture APL. The objective of this paper is to present an understanding of how power relationships occur between local entrepreneurs, who are furniture manufacturers, and suppliers of these companies, discussing its implications for the researched APL. The results show that there are problems in the relationship between manufacturers and suppliers mainly due to the unequal accumulation of symbolic capital, to the predominance of different interests at stake (illusio), as well as to the different and opposed principles that guide the agents' practices (habitus). The esults show the risks that this nature of relationships brings to the APL of Ubá.