Ambientalização e politização do consumo e da vida cotidiana: uma etnografia das práticas de compra de alimentos orgânicos em Nova Friburgo/RJ

Abstract

The practices that may characterize a potential greenerism and politicization of consumption arise from the perception of the impact of standards and levels of consumption in the global environment. From the 1990s, certain practices of consumption started being socially and environmentally responsible. This research had as general objective to reflect on greenering processes and the politicization of consumption and everyday life in the contemporary Brazilian society, emphasizing the multifaceted field of food. The shopping practices of organic food, especially from those individuals who are not organized collectively in social movements configure the object of the research. The main reason for its development was the gap in Brazilian social science in relation to studies on the consumers perspectives while social actors and the different uses they perform on their practices of consumption, especially the political use. The main questions included issues such as: Are the shopping practices of organic food perceived and experienced by consumers as a form of political action? In what ways do consumers deal with the discourses and responsibility charging for the environmental crisis? When seeking to answer them through an ethnography of the shopping practices of organic food in the city of Nova Friburgo/RJ and conducting in depth interviews with consumers, this research has identified an increased political autonomy of the individual against the public and private spheres, which occurs in the field of consumption. The shop of organic food is perceived and used as a repertoire of "romantic-individualistic" political action in the public sphere. These practices prove themselves capable of feeding bridges to citizenship, enabling the emergence of new collective engagement periods in a context of social reflexivity and global risk society.