Between the utilitarian and the hedonic:

a brief reflection on consumption in the informal market

Abstract

This article is the result of observation and analysis of verbal communication produced by informal traders in the center of Recife, which was opposed to concepts of the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (2008) and relativized by considerations by anthropologist Everardo Rocha (2006) related to the phenomenon of consumption. In order to understand the productions in the informality and the culture in which they operate, we observe directly the merchants who work with exclusively utilitarian products and we approach the classifications and meanings, essential for the consumption, assigned to objects in this market. In the context of this study, there is less appeal for desires filled with emotion, spectacular representations and aesthetic resources that draw pictures and silence the product. In popular communication, traders turn to the object and its main functions, contrary to the predominant logic of communication and market that emphasizes the dimension of hedonism and distinction.