[ABGESAGT] Geographies of critical social reproduction in a Brazilian periphery

Abstract

The dynamics of social reproduction in the periphery face a series of adversities. Peripheral subjects, therefore, must organise themselves – through different expedients – to ensure their survival. In this paper, I analyse the conditions of social reproduction of a periphery in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. This territory is formed by different types of occupation of space, contiguous to each other. Based on this observation and on an ethnographic insertion research in the territory, I identify different strategies of social reproduction. These strategies are linked to the dynamics of space production in peripheral territories. In addition, I consider that the contemporary reality of capitalism is marked by a context of crisis that has a profound impact on the dynamics of social reproduction, producing what I call in the text “geographies of critical social reproduction”. The aim of the article is to analyse social reproduction in this periphery and its transformations in the current moment of crisis. Drawing on, on the one hand, the theory of social reproduction and, on the other, the theory of critical value-dissociation, I present a framework for analysis and interpretation of the complex and heterogeneous reality of the Brazilian peripheries. The article, in this way, highlights the importance of understanding the dynamics of social reproduction in the peripheries as a way of understanding the crisis of capitalism and the survival strategies of the peripheral populations.