A "cultura cervejeira" em Ribeirão Preto (1996-2016): entre uma prática transformadora e um recurso conservador

Abstract

The main purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the practices and representations linked to the current brewing movement in Brazil, which fights for the dissemination of what is commonly called "beer culture", demarcating for analysis the years between 1996 and 2016. Our approach privileges the city of Ribeirão Preto, which currently stands out as one of the main centers of craft beer production in the country - both for the performance of local microbreweries and for the home's production of the beverage - and also has a relevant brewing tradition dating back to the 19th century. We tryed to study our object through an ambivalence: on one hand understanding that the practices of the movement in question can be conceived as transforming and counter hegemonic, since they promote the conscious and critical beer consumption, the bond between small enterprises and local population, the fight against industrialization/massification of beer made by the great conglomerates of the branch, the resumption of narratives about the drink (like tales, myths and other stories), among other aspects. On the other hand, we link the effervescence of craft beer to the general "gourmetization" of goods recently occurred in Brazil, as well as the search by certain groups for the maintenance of the social distinction. The methodological procedure is associated to the use and cross-linking of oral, textual and imagery sources, as well as to a discursive analysis on the brewing movement. As a theoretical support we will use the contributions of authors whose works deal with the symbolic character of food, craftwork, strategies of social distinction, production and control of discourses, hegemony and counter hegemony, among other topics dear to our text.