Banca de DEFESA: EMILIA JOMALINIS DE MEDEIROS SILVA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : EMILIA JOMALINIS DE MEDEIROS SILVA
DATE: 05/07/2022
TIME: 14:30
LOCAL: Sala de defesa CPDA
TITLE:

 A carioca "supermarketism": notes on the soccio-spatiality of food retailing in the capital of the State of Rio de Janeiro

KEY WORDS:

Supermarket networks, Rio de Janeiro, socio-spatial.

PAGES: 385
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Sociologia
SUBÁREA: Sociologia Urbana
SUMMARY:

The present work analyzed the current configuration of the main networks of the
supermarket sector in the city of Rio de Janeiro and the interrelation between its socio-
spatial distribution with other dynamics of the city. The research was based on the
construction of a database with information of the 20 supermarket networks of main
presence in the capital of Rio de Janeiro as well as fieldwork encompassing all its
Administrative Regions. The study is carried out from a double movement, in the light
of the understanding of spatiality as a crossroads of trajectories. The dynamics of the
sector is a constituent part of socio-spatiality and the analysis of food retail helps to
understand the urban space. So, on the one hand, I present the history of supermarkets
in Brazil and especially in Rio de Janeiro, pointing out the main current trends in the
sector, such as a significant expansion to regions where supermarkets were less
expressive before. This expansion is characterized not only by the presence of large
networks called corporations but also by the so-called regional networks and associative
networks. On the other hand, the study apprehends the capital of Rio de Janeiro in its
socio-spatiality, since understanding the previous dynamics of the locations contributes
decisively to the understanding of the current socio-spatialization of companies and
food retail in different manifestations. As a result of the analysis, the supermarket food
retail actors are distributed differently across the territory of Rio de Janeiro and
establish different commercial practices with potential implications for the population's
eating habits. This model spreads as a product and inducer of inequalities in food
supply, given the spatial selectivity of private supply actors and their practices. This
expansion movement is related to previous dynamics of socio-spatial segregation,
marked by the dimensions of center-periphery, slum processes and the existence of
multicentralities in regions far from the central core of the Rio de Janeiro capital. When
analyzing the advance of private control over food supply in parallel with the current
organization of public provisioning policies or ordered by it, the result is the insufficient
and unequal availability of public equipment and supply policies, such as fairs,
including the organic and agroecological ones. As in other spheres of the urban
question, here the predominance of an entrepreneurial logic of the city is increasing and
the way in which food is marketed must be understood as one more element of the
privatization of urban space. Finally, we also sought to apprehend the relationship
between the socio-spatial organization of supermarkets and informal food retail
practices, it being important to highlight that informal expressions of food retail remain
manifest, as part of a “lower economic circuit”, which interact socio-spatially with
formal equipment. Although theoretical approaches that privilege the macro scale in
their analysis help to understand the supermarket movement in the city as part of a
global process of food retail and the corporate food regime, they do not explain in
isolation the set of verified elements, given the specificities of both the supermarket
sector and the capital of Rio de Janeiro, which reveals the need for a multis-scale
approach, that looks at food inequalities guided by an intersectional approach, and that
incorporates “local” and “territorial” dynamics in the analysis, without, however,
associating them to ethical and alternative dimensions as suggested by part of the
Global North literature.

 

BANKING MEMBERS:
Presidente - 387054 - RENATO SERGIO JAMIL MALUF
Interna - 1432841 - CLAUDIA JOB SCHMITT
Interno - 387237 - JOHN WILKINSON
Externo à Instituição - JUSCELINO EUDÂMIDAS BEZERRA - UnB
Externa à Instituição - EVE ANNE BUHLER - UFRJ