“Viração” or “sev­irologia”? work and urban culture between pragmatism and reflexivity

Abstract

The term “viração”, first coined by Maria Filomena Gregori in her classic 1990s study on street children, has become a commonplace concept in Brazilian urban and labor sociology. However, its current usage has drifted from the meaning Gregori originally intended, risking the loss of its explanatory power. Moreover, when the term is transposed from the reality of street children, whose horizons rarely extend beyond mere survival, to the families of workers (and, in many cases, "entrepreneurs") in urban peripheries, the crucial element of reflexivity and life projects centered on social mobility is lost. As an alternative, I discuss the notion of “sevirologia”, a native category used by some of my interlocutors that originated in peripheral cultural movements. This term seeks to reclaim the reflexive dimension inherent in the ways residents of urban peripheries get by (“se virar’).