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BETWEEN DREAMS AND SURVIVAL: The (Dis)Embeddedness of Neoliberalism among Entrepreneurial Workers from São Paulo's Peripheries

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  • Leonardo Fontes

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the desire of residents on urban peripheries in Brazil to have their own businesses has grown. Consequently, several authors have critically pointed out the advance of neoliberal ideas among the urban popular classes. In this article I discuss the origins of this ‘entrepreneurial disposition’ and its relationship with neoliberal discourse that seeks to encourage ‘entrepreneurialism of oneself’. The analysis presented in this article is based on ethnographic research carried out among entrepreneurial workers on the outskirts of São Paulo through in‐depth interviews focusing on life histories and participant observation in strategic spaces (online and in person) during 2020 and 2021. I explore adherence and opposition to and resignification of neoliberal entrepreneurial ideology from different cultural and material backgrounds by retelling the history of five entrepreneurs from three different families. I argue that rather than neoliberal ideas being an ideological conviction, they are embedded in social practices that are quite common in the periphery of São Paulo. Therefore, they should be analysed in the light of these previously existing practices and moralities. From a peripheral point of view, ethnographic analysis also allows us to examine the limits of this embeddedness and shed light on possible forms of resistance.

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  • Leonardo Fontes, 2024. "BETWEEN DREAMS AND SURVIVAL: The (Dis)Embeddedness of Neoliberalism among Entrepreneurial Workers from São Paulo's Peripheries," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 506-522, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:48:y:2024:i:3:p:506-522
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13218
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jones, Gareth A. & Rodgers, Dennis, 2016. "Standing on the shoulders of giants? Anthropology and the city," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67929, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Mariana Fix & Pedro Fiori Arantes, 2022. "On urban studies in Brazil: The favela, uneven urbanisation and beyond," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 893-916, April.
    3. Rangel, Felipe, 2019. "Problem and power: informal commerce between repression and enterprisation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101078, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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