Problem and Power: Informal Commerce Between Repression and Enterprisation

Abstract

More often than not, the idea of 'informal commerce' is associated with precariousness, informality, illegality, and poor product quality. This is the common representation of this market historically and systematically built based on everyday conversation, official discourse, and the media, which also tends to reinforce the aspects of insecurity and disorder of the spaces and marginality of those involved to describe it. Based on interviews, media coverage, and ethnographical observation of business practices carried out by a group of traders, the objective of this paper is to analyze the transformations this market has gone through in recent years and reflect upon the reasons for, and the effect of, new regulatory strategies that were put in place. I shall discuss this transformation in light of the concept of enterprisation of informal commerce (i.e., the application of enterprise models to such business activities), which have been transforming spaces, regulations, and even workers' conducts, perceptions, and expectations. I hereby argument that regulatory strategies have been set forth based on a double narrative that responds to both economical exploitation interests and the discourse against certain illegal activities, and that this resulted in a process of labor gentrification.1 Once a predominantly rural area, Brás turned into a working-class neighborhood, then a center for Italian immigration, and afterward a destination for intense migration from the northeast of Brazil, which gave rise to one of Latin America's largest and most important informal markets. Factories fled from Brás in 1970, which led to fewer job opportunities, reduction in population, physical deterioration, and abandonment of industrial barns. Thanks to the permanence of clothing manufacturers in the area, this shift resulted in the intensification of economic activities related to services, wholesaling, and retail. There was also an increase in the number of street vendors, who took advantage of the great circulation of people between train, metro, and bus stations. This is a quick overview of how Brás came to be. For practical reasons, I opted for keeping this description short, even though I believe knowing its history is important to understand the current setup and dynamics of the informal commerce in the area. For additional information regarding the neighborhoods' development, refer to the following references: For a historic background of Brás as a prominent industrial district, see Torres (1981); for the impact of Italian immigration in the area, see Andrade (1994); for the migration from the northeast of Brazil and its relation to the informal commerce, see Gomes (2006). 2 In 2017, the homicide rate in Brás was 38.76 per 100,000 inhabitants overall and 133.45 per 100,000 inhabitants for youngsters.This makes it the subdistrict with the highest number of homicides in São Paulo, according to Rede Nossa São Paulo's Inequality Map. However, Brás' population density is among the smallest in the city, which makes it necessary to r...

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