A political-cultural analysis of the cheese market regarding the consumer

• Grant number: 09/50676-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2009
• End date: November 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Marie Anne Najm Chalita
• Grantee: Marie Anne Najm Chalita
• Host Institution: Instituto de Economia Agrícola (IEA). Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project aims to undertake a political-cultural analysis (FLIGSTEIN, 2001) of the quality in market of cheeses considering the mutual influence relations on quality definitions that are originated from the consumer and from the main organizations and some associative actions of this market. The main hypothesis of the research is that the quality attributes that operate in the Brazilian market point an emphasis in the industrial strategy based on differentiation and not in singularization, weakening the qualification of these market, keeping it subordinated to the international market and characterizing it by a limited process of internal coordination. The project considers the theoretical economic sociology subfield and its interface with the Economic of Conventions Theory (EYMARD-DUVERNAY, 1989) and the Economic Singularities Theory (KARPIC, 2007), with the objective to understand the legitimacy and consolidation of consumption problematic (BARBOSA e CAMPBELL, 2007; WARDE, 1997; FEATHERSTONE, 2007; MCCRACKEN, 2003; DOUGLAS e ISHERWOOD, 1996) in quality markets. The empirical research will investigate the partner-cultural characterization of the consumer in three points of sales in the city of São Paulo (Street Santa Rosa, Empório Santa Luzia and Municipal Market), the processes of definition of quality by the Brazilian Industrial Association of Cheese (ABIC) and by some governmental and not-governmental initiatives of national products valorization and data from Income Familiar Research. Beyond bibliographical revision, the methodology is based on structured and semi-structured interviews and multivariate analysis. (AU)