Classes médias brasileiras: equidade, “des-ordem” e conflito no Brasil contemporâneo

Abstract

The main goal of this thesis was to investigate in what extent the mobilizations for and against President Dilma Rousseff, which had significant portions of the middle classes, were related to structural changes these classes underwent throughout the 2000s in Brazil. This research, based on the Bourdieusian theory, assumed that consumption is an important component for the social distinction between classes. Based on this, it carried out comparative analyzes between the POF databases of 2002 and 2008 that have consumption profile of the Brazilian population. The analysis, using the Multiple Correspondence Analysis methodology, showed that consumption patterns of the lower class and lower middle class has improved. It has represented, at the same time, the popularization of higher class and higher middle class lifestyles and a relative decrease of its economic and symbolic capital. The results obtained allowed a synoptic theoretical explanation, based in the antagonistic feelings of relative deprivation of the classes, generated as a result of theses changes . These feelings formed the core argument in the explanaition of the anger expressed in the protests for and against the President Dilma Rousseff impeachment process and partially also of the rise of the extreme right-wing in Brazil.