A “guia” como modo de vida: trabalho de rua e cidade por mulheres negras no centro de Salvador

Abstract

Built from the street, observation, encounter and dialogue, this research sought to apprehend the dynamics established in the woman-work-city relations, focusing on the street work practiced by black women in the streets of downtown Salvador/BA, with the the aim of discuss the processes of everyday " making-city", the occupations, uses and urban dynamics, disputes and tensions, urban relations, as well as the ways of life that cross the trajectories of these women, such as: work, housing , family, considering the intersection of race, gender and class relationships in these processes. The research had three main women interlocutors, and it was from the field research of an ethnographic character that there was an approximation with the city, the women workers and the practices of street work. “Research meetings” and “implied research” were adopted as theoretical-methodological, epistemic, ethical and political tools, with a view to producing knowledge together, from and with street women workers. The trajectories and narratives of the interlocutors were the guides for the construction of the reflections outlined here, as well as the images and fragments - textual, documentary and empirical - were tools for thinking and narrating the city through other means of language than just writing. From these daily and subjective exchanges, the dissertation moves along three axes of discussion: occupation and dispute; networks of relationships and street politics; and management of everyday life, addressing the complexities and ambiguities that exist in these discussions. Finally, I shift the perception adopted by some approaches referring to street work, which determine it solely by the bias of lack and precariousness, thus seeking - without disregarding that it is also a precarious, criminalized work and deprived of social rights -, to analyze from and together with these dimensions, the trajectories and narratives of the interlocutors in the “making-city”, which emphasize the importance of these work practices in urban life and in their own lives. Working on the street allows these women, from the margins, to plan and imagine a future, to have perspectives of change and access to the city, having their “guia” as a fundamental element not only of street work, but of a way of life for these women.