Modo de vida, imaginário social e cotidiano

This study investigates the role non-formal education (i.e., vocational training) plays in increasing the probabilities of upward socio-occupational mobility of the Brazilian workforce. The field research was conducted in 60 firms in the two largest urban centers of Brazil--Greater Sao Paulo and Greater Rio de Janerio--from February to August of 1978. The firms were selected from those branches and sectors of economic activity which most frequently use training courses of the National Services for Industrial, and Commercial, Apprenticeship known respectively as SENAI and SENAC. The sample includes 15 textile industries, 15 mechanical industries, 15 sales businesses and 15 hotels. From each of the 60 firms, 12 employees were selected (totaling 720 employees) regardless of personal or professional characteristics. Two types of questionnaires were administered: one to the employees (labor supply); one to each of the 60 employers (labor demand). The main observations derived from the field research are as follows: (a) The non-formal educational system rather than being a second alternative for those who do not have access to the formal system of schooling constitutes a second strong social mobility barrier, with its own explicit and implicit selection criteria. (b) Firms establish criteria to select potential candidates for vacancies or promotions. Among these criteria, education--latu sensu--does not rank high, and non-formal education is among the least important. The significant criteria are: sex, race, age, level of formal schooling, previous professional experience and references, recommendations from direct supervisors, "good" personality traits (docility, obedience, assiduousness, respect for authority, personal appearance, relationship with co-workers and supervisors), productivity, etc. (c) Firms make limited use of existing fiscal incentives for labor training under existing laws, partly because they were unaware of these incentives and partly because bureaucratic and administrative costs severly limit the access of smaller firms. (d) Less than half of the employees in the sample had had any vocational training. Thirty-two (out of 720) had been promoted because of courses taken. (e) The study also includes an analysis of the major shortcomings that both employers and employees report in their experience with vocational training institutions. (f) The data from this sample suggests that firms may benefit more from vocational training investments than do workers. To the extent workers' skills are upgraded this may translate into increases in productivity on the job. But workers' wage increases seem sharply limited.

This research studied the inner experiences of 30 Brazilian women in their 40s and 50s, living in the city of Sao Paulo, with a university level of education, who identified themselves as having participated in the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This study probed the lived experiences of these women in various aspects of their lives, for example, physical, sexual, psychological, affective, and their inner mythologies about older women, aging, and this passage. Furthermore, this research probed whether the set of values, beliefs, and practices experienced in the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s overweighed for them the social charge of negativity and prejudice concerning older women and menopause, that is, if these women presented forms of rupture or continuity in relation to the way society's cultural mythology relate to this period of a woman's life. For data analysis and the thematic method were used in a combined manner with a basic phenomenological attitude. The procedure involved individual interviews and workshops oriented by the Gestalt approach and the Personal Mythology perspective. In addition to the oral accounts of the participants, plastic and poetic experiments based on Gestalt art therapy were also utilized as ways for self-expression and the further elaboration of experiences. Results indicate that while countercultural values and practices were still pervasive in many areas of the participants' fives, for most of them their self-esteem and self-perception as women were imbued with the negative values and beliefs of Western societies' widespread cultural mythologies regarding older women and menopause. Most of them go through this passage misinformed and lonely, with feelings of loss, shame, and denial. However, the workshop experiences served as awareness-raising groups for these women, helping them to retrieve their countercultural values and experiences, and to start extending their scope to this area of their lives questioning the mores of the social milieu where their experiences occur. This outcome of the workshops' experience attests to the therapeutic relevance of women's groups in helping them deal with the conflicts and changes of this passage in life. The Gestalt therapy approach to group work enriched by the perspective of Personal Mythology proved to be of value in this process and suggests a very practical way of supporting women during this phase of their lives. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This study analyzed the professional values of Brazilian journalists and their perceptions of foreign influences in their work. A sample of 402 journalists working for 12 leading news organizations of São Paulo, Brazil, participated in this study through a self-administered survey conducted in May of 1998. The questionnaire included questions on job satisfaction, media roles, and ethics. It partially replicated similar surveys conducted in the United States and in France. The study was complemented by personal interviews with editors and reporters. Professional values held by Brazilian journalists were compared to professional values of American and French journalists. Brazilians perceived themselves as highly influenced by the American journalistic style. They were less satisfied with their jobs than Americans and French journalists and were more willing to accept questionable journalistic practices.

Studies of immigration, identity, and culture have recently focused on examinations of transnationalism and transnational ties. Among these, explorations of return” migration (i.e., a migration movement to one‟s ethnic homeland) are of particular importance due to its potential effects on self-concept and mental wellbeing. Though a literature is emerging, the effects of return migration are understudied and populations of “return-return” migrants (persons who migrated to their ancestral homeland and subsequently returned to their country of origin) are virtually unexplored. This dissertation begins to fill a gap in our knowledge of return-return migration by examining Japanese Brazilian returnees‟ migratory experiences and how they are associated with identity and mental wellbeing. More specifically, this dissertation explores how Japanese Brazilian return-return migrants negotiate their ethnic identities in different social contexts and stages of migration. It also examines how sociocultural and environmental factors and identity formation processes affect their mental wellbeing. To understand these issues, I conducted in-depth interviews with 38 Japanese Brazilian return-return migrants in the metropolitan region of São Paulo – home to the largest concentration of Japanese descendants outside of Japan. Findings suggest that most participants held a Japanese ethnic identity pre-migration. This identity was motivated and supported by familial socialization, involvement in ethnic activities, and ascribed positive minority status. In Japan, most participants failed to find their expected homeland and experienced disappointment, prejudice, and pressure to assimilate. In response, most developed a Brazilian counter- 4 identity, which allowed for greater psychological distance between themselves and the native Japanese. Upon return to Brazil, findings suggest that a new hybrid identity (coined the Descendente identity) emerged in response to sociocultural push and pull factors, and as the result of an accumulation of synergistic migration and identity factors. Japanese Brazilian return-return migrants encountered many common migration stressors (e.g., loneliness and isolation, linguistic challenges) in Japan; however, they also experienced stressors that are directly related to their social identity as descendants and Brazilian nationals (e.g., prejudice associated with their families‟ migration history, Brazil‟s “Third World” status, and perceived cultural inadequacy). Depression, sadness, and loneliness were among the main expressions of emotional distress cited. Post-return migration, some participants experienced elevated levels of self-esteem associated with their return to positive minority status in Brazil; however, most were adversely affected by processes of social comparison and appraisal and perceptions of the environment (e.g., lack of safety and organization). Findings suggest that these may be the product of an interaction between migration and identity factors and internalized anti-Brazilian prejudice. Participants expressed emotional distress (i.e., fear, low self-esteem) in response to the unique resettlement challenges they experienced. By addressing the identity negotiation processes and mental wellbeing of Japanese Brazilian return-return migrants, this dissertation begins to pave the way toward a greater understanding of the final third of their migration journey. In doing so, it makes significant contributions to the immigration, identity, race and ethnicity, and mental health literatures, and contributes to a general understanding of return and return-return migrant populations beyond Japanese Brazilians.

Latin American and Caribbean countries are aging rapidly. The pace of this process along with the institutional and economic contexts varies across countries, but there are common regional norms. Across the region, the family unit continues to bear significant responsibility for the well-being of older adults and within the family, there are gender differentiated expectations for the provision and receipt of support. The stability of the family and the gender roles therein, with regard to support for older adults, takes on more significance in countries where mobility among younger adults is commonplace and fertility continues to decline. Using data from the 2000 Survey of Health Well-Being and Aging of Older Adults in Latin America and the Caribbean (SABE), this study provides a comparative assessment of intergenerational residential proximity and transfers of financial and functional support in the region among 9,259 older adults. It assesses the extent to which upward flows of support are conditioned by the prevailing economic and institutional contexts of aging as well as the gender systems of household organization in seven cities across the region. The findings reveal that patterns of residential proximity and support transfers in these cities generally differ according to the respective stage of demographic transition and the strength of social welfare systems in countries. Older adults in Montevideo are more likely to live further away from their children and to receive less support compared to those in Mexico City. Whereas older adults in Montevideo, Uruguay and Bridgetown, Barbados are less likely to receive financial support from children at further distances, older adults in Havana are not. Regarding gender, in all cities, except Buenos Aires, older women are more likely than men to receive support. Regional gender norms of sons being primarily responsible for economic support were not consistent across the cities. Altogether, findings reveal geographic proximity, gender systems, and macro level socioeconomic contexts shape intergenerational support.

This dissertation explores immigrant entrepreneurship in the garment industry of São Paulo, Brazil. Brazil is the fourth largest producer of garments. Most of the production is directed at local consumption, through mostly small and medium size retailing stores and producers. I research two communities in particular: Bolivians and Koreans. Entrepreneurs from both communities form the backbone of the industry, yet their activity has recently come under governmental scrutiny. Because of cases of slave-like labor involving undocumented Bolivian workers, the government has started enforcing labor laws. The impacts of those inspections on the targeted immigrant groups have seldom been researched. In fact, very little has been written about Koreans and Korean entrepreneurs in Brazil. This dissertation seeks to answer the following research questions: How do immigrant entrepreneurs in this industry perceive and adapt to a situation where they are accused of abuses by a very bureaucratic state? What factors influence their perceptions?

This dissertation investigates the issue of social relations among slaves, freed people, and free people of color based on analysis of records from Afro-Brazilian confraternities and black secular associations from 1850 to 1920 in São Paulo, Brazil. The project seeks to examine the circumstances and social values that governed patterns of interaction among those who participated in predominantly Afro-Brazilian associational life. Confraternities, known in Portuguese as irmandades and confrarias, functioned as devotional and mutual aid societies, which connected Africans and Brazilian born blacks in networks of mutuality beyond family ties. Nineteenth century Catholic devotional societies and post-abolition secular societies which included a Masonic lodge, an emancipation commemoration group, and beneficence societies served as unique social and institutional spaces where segments of the local African diaspora population collectively created alternative modes of blackness that went beyond the negative racial stereotypes associated with African origins. Afro-Brazilians utilized these institutional spaces to challenge their marginalization by performing their belonging in the Catholic Church and in wider civil society. Black confraternity participation in state, civic commemorations as well as religious holidays emphasized black belonging to the local municipality, the province, and ultimately the nation. Voluntary Afro-Brazilian religious and secular associations became critical sites of socialization where corporate black identities could be imagined and fashioned in ways that supported aspirations of social autonomy and societal inclusion.

How does a city become a city? This dissertation offers an answer by explaining São Paulo’s rapid transition from village to metropolis. More precisely, it examines the Brazilian city’s theaters between 1854 and 1924 to elucidate how Paulistanos adapted to their nascent mass society. As hundreds of thousands of immigrants and migrants poured into São Paulo, residents from across the social spectrum turned to theaters for entertainment, community, and social uplift. It was inside São Paulo’s theaters, the dissertation argues, that different groups began to articulate and realize their own vision for an urban public, that is, a social body fit for the crowds and visibility of city life. To understand what this social body entailed, I analyze three groups of theater producers: government officials, associational leaders, and businessmen. I show that, while no single notion of an urban public spanned all of the producers examined, most agreed on the need for the orderly juxtaposition of individuals through a shared understanding of “culture.” Theaters in this manner offered Paulistanos the possibility of rethinking social transformation: not only could culture be learned by all Paulistanos, meaning that men and women of every age and background took part in the urban public, but it could also be learned and defined outside the church and home. In other words, by taking advantage of São Paulo’s minimally regulated growth to erect their own mass spaces, theater producers situated social transformation in the secular public arena and within reach of most Paulistanos. In explaining the mechanisms by which theater producers did so, this dissertation illuminates how Paulistanos shaped on a mass scale the social categories and norms of the inchoate metropolis.

This dissertation examines the interrelationship of ethnic and national identity through the lens of the Jewish community in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This community traces its origins to over 60 different countries; the resulting diversity and blending of religious and cultural practices in the context of a country which prides itself on having an emblematic fluidity of ethnic/racial categories lends itself to experiments in Jewish identity and poses challenges to conceptions of Jewishness and Brazilianness. Based on ethnographic field research conducted in São Paulo, this dissertation focuses on the ways Jewish Brazilians negotiate the often contradictory elements of their identities. Building on the concepts of diaspora and transnationalism, I argue that these are two distinct levels of experience that overlap in the case of Jews, where the former operates at the level of identity and the latter at the level of practice. Deploying national ethnic ideologies, community institutions have been key to the integration of the multiple cultural influences that are the result of the convergence of people from diverse points in the Jewish diaspora on the city of São Paulo. Their lives are expressive of the social contradictions that characterize Brazilian society and are reproduced in tensions between inclusion and exclusion. I argue that creating community involves intertwining these many cultural strands while seeking a balance between maintaining ethnic distinction and achieving full cultural citizenship. Economic and social class intersect with ethnic identity as well; as generations following migration have deepened their participation in Brazilian society, they have become increasingly subject to the instabilities that affect the society as a whole, thereby solidifying their identification with Brazil. Urban violence and security concerns provide additional contexts for Jewish experience in São Paulo. Since Jews maintain active transnational ties and are also the potential target of hostility from abroad, being Jewish in São Paulo requires mediating conflicting desires for invisibility and visibility. The Jewish community responds to the possibility of violence in ways that are consistent with local norms. Though these external threats are a reminder of their fragile status as nationals, Jews in Brazil embrace their dual identities as Jewish and Brazilian.

In this research project I address two main issues of meaning-making among Brazilian hip-hoppers: (1) the processes and technologies by which practitioners perform and produce hip-hop (design), and (2) the articulations hip-hoppers make between hip-hop and society (mediation). My analysis is based on over four years of fieldwork in São Paulo, Brazil. I argue that Brazilian hip-hop, as developed by shantytown youth, constructs arenas for citizenship debates, educational discussions, economic development, and practices of community through the narratives it performs, the ideologies and meanings it produces, and the networks it mobilizes. I describe these hip-hop developments and demonstrate how persons “work” hip-hop culture and articulate it to a Brazilian national formation that is challenged by global processes. I delineate how Brazilian hip-hop, while influenced by the United States' version of this cultural form, significantly differs from it. It has transformed the values of the U.S. urban variant and this rearrangement has differing social effects.