A Reinvenção da Economia Popular Informal, Uma Proposta de Estudo e Reflexões Metodológicas

Abstract

This article proposes as an object of study the informal popular commerce of the Alcântara neighborhood in the city of São Gonçalo (RJ), considering the accentuated growth of informality and the precariousness of labor in the urban econimy of metropolitan regions. Starting from the spatial and organizational practices of the main social actors of informal trade in this center, we want to understand how they adapt to the conditions imposed by neoliberal policies. We will analyze the extent to which these actors have appropriated the wide supply of credit for consumption, describe the struggle for the right to work in the streets of the city, and develop forms of socio-spatial solidarity. Methodologically, we will work with participatory observation techniques, interviews, literature research, social cartography and geoprocessing tools. Thus, observing the categories of workers made invisible by research institutes, identifying their claims vis-à-vis the State, increasing the vision of popular territories and contributing to the development of public policies.