Small arms and light weapons market in Brazil: the functioning of a contested market

• Grant number: 17/09791-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): December 21, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Maria Aparecida Chaves Jardim
• Grantee: Mateus Tobias Vieira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/27119-9 - Social construction of the small arms and light weapons market in Brazil: a contested market, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

From the perspective of Economic Sociology, taking into account the statement that markets are social constructs, (SWEDBERG, 2004) the present project intends to analyze the market of small arms and light weapons in Brazil, looking at the ways of development, maintenance and growth of this market, especially considering that it is a contested market, in other words, a market where its logic penetrates sensitive areas such as people's privacy, integrity, health, or the ability to maintain public order (STEINER and TRESPEUCH, 2016, in press). We will understand the small arms and light weapons market as a contested market where agents constantly act to manage social, political, economic, and legal issues in order to enable the expansion or retraction of that market, creating justificatory discourses that make the trade possible. The theoretical inspiration is in the reflexive sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and the concept of contested market from Phillipe Steiner and Marie Trespeuch. The methodology will be the study of the legislation of the firearms market and the collect of speeches produced by the market in order to minimize criticism, considering two specific moments: when the Disarmament Statute referendum, that was realized in 2005, and, at the same time, the creation of "Parliamentary Front for the right to self-defense", in the National Congress. (AU)