“Fazer a vida” nas ruas do centro: das políticas de morte ao saber-fazer-viver e habitar a cidade

Abstract

This thesis addresses some aspects of how life in the streets comes to be perceived as a resource, or a viable attempt, to a better life in the city, through ethnographic anthropological research with adult men and women who are in a condition of a “person experiencing homelessness” in the center of the city of Cabedelo/PB. What interested us here was to understand a particular form of inserting with and relating to street space, which permeates the possibilities of living and inhabiting the city, rather than a specific social segment. To this end, we sought to identify and characterize the types of experiences on the streets of the city center, based on the particularities of the municipality, local dynamics, territorialities, conflicts, interests, practices, and daily interactions. For this purpose, listing the main perceptions of people regarding their experiences in the world and highlighting, in their narratives and life trajectories, the complaints of suffering, demands, expectations, and motivations associated with the insurgency of these bodies on the streets of the city. From this, it was intended to identify and analyze forms of action, tactics, and resources for dealing with life's adversities, revealing means of urban resistance and persistence in the pursuit of a good life and inhabiting the city. At the same time, as a specific objective, we sought to make a theoretical-methodological reflection on the ethnographic practice in anthropological research, especially concerning the theme of street experiences. From the ethnographic data, it is observed that "make a life", an expression used by one of the interlocutors, would refer to an inventive, procedural, singular, and political know-how-to-make-live. It is characterized by a chain of tactical movements, using one's own body, tangible elements, and favorable situations in an attempt to transform and surpass the condition of precariousness and policies of death, towards new experiences in the city. The street emerges here as a locus of life production in an environment of death production. Thus, the occupation of public spaces by these interlocutors implies that they are not only claiming the city itself, but also the right to life itself.