Os filhos da vila: um estudo etnográfico sobre o processo de gentrificação na Vila dos Pescadores de Jaraguá, Maceió, Alagoas

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to reflect on the impacts of the gentrification process between the residents of “Vila dos Pescadores de Jaraguá”, one of the oldest housing complexes of the capital and that in 2015, after decades of conflict with the Maceió City Hall, was removed from its place of origin to make way for the construction of a fishing center. Specifically, the study sought to investigate the way social actors, especially the old residents of the village, resignified their reality in the face of one of the largest and longest urban resistance movements in Maceió. Thus, we sought to understand the phenomenon of gentrification, where an unoccupied area goes through a process of valorization, receiving infrastructure and becoming a privileged consumption space for other population segments, based on concepts such as reurbanization, uses and counter-uses, public space, commodity city and enterprise city, anthropological place and non-place. To achieve the objectives of the research I used participant observation as a methodology, which allowed me to experience more closely the daily life of the community, knowing above all how they relate to a new universe of symbols. Besides, open interviews were conducted with audio and video recording, photographic record of the spaces of Jaraguá and Sobral and the application of a Demographic and Social Census that sought to investigate the current living conditions of that community after four years of removal, mainly regarding it concerns your income, education, occupation, among other aspects. Throughout the study, it was possible to observe changes in their work activities, as well as in the transmission of knowledge between generations, the emergence of diseases and the increase of drug traffic as central effects of gentrification in the community. However, in the face of a process that had become inevitable, the survey also found that, despite state removal and enforcement, fishermen found ways to resist oppressive situations through education, art and culture, breaking limits the conflict had imposed on them.