A Braz é (e) quem ‘a faz’: paisagens de poder, experiências e apropriações na avenida Braz de Aguiar, em Belém (PA), Amazônia

Abstract

In this research, I observe some subjects' experiences on Avenida Braz de Aguiar, in the neighborhood of Nazaré, which is considered destined for the middle bands of Belém do Pará, Amazon. Taking into account that landscapes are procedural constructions (SANSOT, 1983; SILVEIRA, 2004; ECKERT, 2009; ECKERT and ROCHA, 2013), I paid attention mainly to the establishment of “power landscapes” (ZUKIN, 1996), which are attractions and / or are consistent with the subjects' practices. Such powers, especially the economic one, are expressed by habitus (BOURDIEU, 1983), perceptible throughout Ethnography of Street (ECKERT and ROCHA, 2013) and Ethnography of Duration (ECKERT and ROCHA, 2013). At the street, services were and still are aimed for financially privileged layer of the city, with greater purchasing power and status, something fundamental in building and maintaining a certain “distinction” in the context of Belen. Braz, then, becomes a “socially hierarchical geographic space” (BOURDIEU, 2007), in which leisure (VEBLEN, 1965) seems to be more achievable, but not for everyone. Together, this points out to the establishment of specific processes of sociability and sociation (SIMMEL, 1983) in the urban world of Belen, in which it is also necessary to discuss the “aristocratic” way in which some individuals adhere/(re)create such contemporary urban physiognomy and how the avenue is referred to and represented on social media.