A ética do cuidado como uma gramática da ação: uma análise do consumo crítico em um mercado alternativo

Abstract

This article is part of a study that addresses the emergence of critical consumption in southern Brazil. Contemporarily, critical consumption is understood as a multifaceted phenomenon which means the materialization of moral concepts and worldviews on the basis of critical positions in relation to consumption. This study investigated that phenomenon, based on the consumption practices developed within the solidarity economy. Through the contributions of the pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot (1991), we analyzed the axiological rationality that underlies the actors’ preferences in alternative markets. Based on these assumptions, from a field research conducted at the fair of solidarity economy of Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, we highlight the motivations and justifications that lead to the constitution of an ethics of care, anchored in the bonds of community membership with an emphasis on primary sociabilities considering the choice of a healthy diet. Thus, in relation to the results of this research, we came across the prevalence of arguments grounded in a moral which privileges the care for the members of the household community. In relation the methodological procedures, we made use of a qualitative approach, and used the techniques of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with people who go to this alternative market. Keywords: critical consumption, grammar of action, ethics of care, solidarity economy, health.