Espaços, dinheiros e afetos: ganhar a vida como revendedora por catálogo no Complexo da Maré (RJ)

Abstract

This dissertation investigates ethnographically how catalog sales make up the life strategies and social arrangements of women living in the Complexo da Maré, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The structure of this analysis is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, I describe how catalog retailing participates in the plural commerce of Maré, based on what I call retail spaces, the circulation of retailers throughout the territory and the particular relationship they establish with magazines between the online and physical formats. In the second chapter, I analyze the uses and meanings of what I identify as resale money. To do this, I look at money flows to understand how life strategies and sales strategies are intertwined. The third chapter looks at the emotional investment made by resellers in carrying out this activity, based on specific emotions and sensations: pleasure and headaches. I conclude that catalog resellers in Complexo da Maré produce and reproduce diverse and complex ways of making a living on a daily basis, which are crossed by material and subjective issues.