“O desvio no olhar”: o fenômeno da invisibilidade social das pessoas em situação de rua no espaço urbano de Belém.

Abstract

Social invisibility is described as a phenomenon of denial about the existence of an individual through a stigma, a prejudice: it exists physically, however it does not exist socially. Thus, as it is not being seen as part of society, he cannot be considered a citizen, thus enjoying his rights. The research aims to investigate, from the sociological point of view (BOURDIEU, 2002; SENNETT, 2004; HONNETH, 2006; SOUZA, 2003), how social invisibility happens and how a homeless person is socially “erased” to the point of not having documentation that guarantee their well-being in the midst of public space. The Ver-o-Peso Market region, in Belém do Pará, is the research location. It is an environment of intense commercialization and tourism, in which a significant portion of these homeless people transit. The methodology will be qualitative, involving informal and semi-structured interviews with homeless people, local marketers and volunteers from the Sopão – a charity group; survey of quantitative data and bibliography to analise the case study on the theme of social invisibility in the city of Belém. Invisibility, as well as visibility, are ramifications of the same root, since the decision of what is or is not socially visible is established depending on what society, called here as normative, establishes in what is desirable to exist or not, when the the presence of the different offers threats to this society, ranging from: simple visual discomfort to the denial of the right to exist of an individual in public urban space, thus coerced through symbolic and physical violence.