A Place Called Supermarket

• Authors: Maria Elisabeth Goidanich , Carmen Rial
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The objective of this study is to interpret supermarket stores as privileged spaces for the observation of social relations. The article is based on an ethnography of shopping conducted in the city of Florianópolis, Brazil, by observing middle class housewives during their daily shopping in supermarkets. These stores are seen as places, in opposition to that proposed by Augè (1995), who affirms that supermarkets are non-places produced by supermodernity. The article discusses the history of supermarkets, their role in the cultural and social transformations of the twentieth century, as well as ethnographic data, and shows that it is possible to identify many social interactions inside Brazilian supermarkets.

Keywords

EN

supermarket; place; daily practices; sociability

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: International Review of Social Research
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 143-156

Dates

published

2012-02-01

online

2015-05-04

Contributors

author

Maria Elisabeth Goidanich

• Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC)

author

Carmen Rial

• Federal University of Santa Catarina

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/irsr-2012-0010