STREET MARKETS AS PLACES OF MEMORY. A case study of the city of Rio Claro – SP

Abstract

The research seeks to understand the conditions of street markets in the interior of the state of São Paulo, in particular, based on the study of three Streets Markets that regularly take place in the municipality of Rio Claro and are located in the Metropolitan Region of Piracicaba. A conceptual discussion is proposed on the nature and role of street commerce in the daily life of the inhabitants, as places of memory and identity. It is proposed to study them in different temporalities, as a manifestation of a tradition of certain work and production relations that bring together the rural and the urban, with a strong appeal to local and family horticultural production. Despite globalization, new means of production and marketing technologies, street markets remain resilient, adapting to new demands. The applied methodology was historical-critical, seeking to understand the ancestral and current attributes of the fairs, trying to trace its trajectory as an event, both from the socioeconomic point of view, as well as the cultural and territorial one.

Keywords: Street Markets, Production Landscapes, Public Area, Sites of Memory.