Middle classes and political struggle: the distributive conflict at the center of the debate

• Grant number: 19/24469-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Henrique José Domiciano Amorim
• Grantee: Ederson Duda da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research project presented here seeks the understanding of how public policies of income distribution done by the Workers Party (PT) during its office are connected to the political activities of the middle stratas, particularly at the demonstrations in favor of the impeachment of the former president Dilma Rousseff, between 2015 and 2016. Based on the recent discussions about income concentration and the studies about "middle classes" along the 21th century, this research is composed both by a theoretical analysis, by mapping in-depth bibliographic material, and also empirical investigation through data examining extracted from income tax reports, PNAD, RAIS, official documents and researches done by Datafolha Institute, Ortellado, Solano and Nader 2015; Perseu Abramo Foundation 2016, among others done at demonstrations for and against the aforementioned impeachment process. By focusing on the income distribution investigation between 2003 and 2016, we intend to investigate the connection among the conflict over distribution and the political circumstances during the years of 2015 and 2016, specifically. For this purpose, we are going to carry out both analysis and systematization of theories about "middle classes" on Brazilian and international sociology studies, analyzing the "middle classes" and political struggle based on the conflict over distribution through the mediation between public policies of income distribution and political actions. Thus, this project is going to be guided by the following research problem: how did the middle stratas politically performed in the light of public policies of income distribution during the time the Workers Party (PT) was in office, specially during Rousseff's impeachment process in 2015 and 2016? (AU)