Comércio popular: um olhar participante sobre o Pop Center em Pelotas, RS

Abstract

The present work has as its object of study the POP Center Pelotas, a popular mall opened at the end of 2012, which was born from a PPP (Public-Private Partnership), with the intention of replacing the old ‘Camelódromo’ and expanding the space dedicated to popular commerce in the city. The work seeks, from a characterization of the POP Center, to analyze the place destined to popular commerce in the city and the role of the merchant and other actors in this process. Through a historical analysis, it seeks to understand past organizations of the Pelotas commercial space to better understand the current place, always having as a basis for this analysis the focus on the actions and intentions of the merchants with the place, both in terms of the formation of space, through the repetition of commercial practices known to the general public and that permeate these spaces. In addition to this characterization and historical analysis, the work seeks, through research carried out with traders, to outline the profile of these workers, characterizing them and giving voice to their opinions and complaints about the commercial space in which they are inserted. And, finally, to understand how the covid-19 pandemic affected merchants and changed their relationship with the POP Center, officials and municipal bodies. The problematization is inserted in the thematic context of the Geography of Commerce and Consumption. The work was done through case study and participant observation, as well as interviews with the merchants involved.