Feiras Livres e Cidade: Experiências Urbanas Contemporâneas na cidade do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The thesis understands the street market as a whole, that is, both a stage and an agent in the production of sociabilities and subjectivities in the public spaces of Rio de Janeiro that have now become markets. To this end, it analyzes the potentialities and limitations of the act of “going to the market” in the contemporary city of Rio de Janeiro, presenting the market “beyond the market”. From this perspective, Rio’s street markets are spaces of exchange, interaction, conflict, tension, work for some and leisure for others, developing a relational space where city dwellers meet and are also affected by these spaces, which tell the story and produce the life of the city itself. In addition, it analyzes the possible impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on Rio’s street markets. In this sense, the research brings to light the relationship between the public policies undertaken by the municipality in the neighborhoods analyzed in the thesis, which affect the production of the markets located there, in dialogue with the daily use of the city dwellers and what they do in these spaces when appropriated for consumption, work and leisure. The markets of Grajaú, Glória and Lavradio were chosen due to the diversity of activities developed there, that is, by typology, in order to understand their potential with regard to the possible social actions in these spaces. Street ethnography was the main method, which allowed us to read, “with a camera in hand,” the urban landscape of Rio de Janeiro and the street markets as an intentional act, based on the production of urban space by its social agents. In addition to street ethnography, interviews were conducted with street vendors, customers, and important social actors to understand the forms of use and appropriation in these markets and in these public spaces in Rio de Janeiro. A bibliographic survey was also conducted on the markets and the neighborhoods where they are located, both yesterday and today; an analysis of urban legislation and public policies, journalistic articles, and also of social media content and the social actors involved in them. Between 2021 and 2025, I conducted participant observation in these three markets and located myself in three “stalls,” with three female street vendors, who were the main interlocutors during the research, one in each market. The thesis revealed several activities at the “fair beyond the fair” and the use of the streets in its surroundings, which became “spreads” for sociability and leisure. However, it showed that this use of the street is in dispute over who produces it, especially the State and Real Estate Capital, and who resists the model of the city seen as a commodity, such as urbanites who produce culture, street vendors and informal workers, such as street vendors, in the fight for their right to the city. In other words, the street market in Rio de Janeiro produces culture, develops sociability and subjectivities, but also disputes and resistance over who and what can be on the street in this contemporary city.