The cartography of firearms in Brazil: borders, devices, and vulnerable populations.

• Grant number: 21/05451-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2023
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2025
• 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

Abstract

Through the perspective of Economic Sociology, taking into account the statement that markets are social constructions, (SWEDBERG, 2004; BOURDIEU, 2000; ABRAMOVAY, 2004; JARDIM, 2012) this project aims to analyze the cartography of exchanges (STEINER, 2016) of the firearms market, considering that it is a contested market, in other words, that moral elements impact on the very possibility of market existence (STEINER and TRESPEUCH, 2014). This cartography implies the existence of seemingly sealed divisions or borders between a series of objective and symbolic elements (legal/illegal; moral/immoral; "good citizen"/"criminal", right to self-defense/public safety, etc.), capable of creating "dangerous dualities" (ZELIZER, 2009) that we intend to apprehend, analyze and, when possible, overcome. To this end, we selected some empirical disputes that provide privileged situations in which the market moves, the design of the exchanges becomes clearer and the borders become more explicit, such as: the enactment of the Disarmament Statute in 2003, during the first Lula Administration, the Referendum on the prohibition of the sale of firearms and ammunition that occurred in October 2005 and the changes promoted by Jair Bolsonaro Administration, since 2019. Furthermore, we will extend our bibliographical and legal review to the United States and France. Our originality is to analyze the deep structures of the firearms market, both in its objective and symbolic aspects, and therefore to understand, beyond a dual reading, both the tone of the gun movements and the social markers they carry.