Economia criativa no Ceará: um estudo da institucionalização do campo do humor

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the process of institutionalization of the creative economy of comedy in the State of Ceará, in the light of theorizing Tolbert and Zucker (1999), which presents the process consisting of three phases: habitualization, objectification and sedimentation. Levels of inter-linkageswere also used as the reference model, from Holanda (2003), and indicators of the degree of institutionalization proposed by Scott (1995) and DiMaggio and Powell (2001). Organizational studies in recent decades highlight the institutional theory as an approach focused on environmental influences in the forms and structures of different organizations, especially those that bring in their core valuing intangible, symbolic and cultural aspects, such as those that make up creative economy. In Ceará, comedy is set as a relevant field of economy and local culture whose process of institutionalization is configured as a salutary object of study. To reach the proposed objective, a survey was conducted qualitative and quantitative in nature, exploratory and descriptive, as to the purposes, and documentary and field as to the means. In addition to interviews with non-random sample of fifteen organizational representatives that make up the field, questionnaires were answered by 67.4% of comedians active in Ceará. The survey results indicate that comedy in Ceará has historical roots dating back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was played by different scenarios - especially Ferreira Square - and popular typesthat, through irreverence in face of the daily difficulties, strengthened humorous aspect of the image “CearáMoleque” (“Joking Ceará”). The formation of the field of humor as a creative economy business of Ceará occurred through the stimulation of market forces and eventual situations that emerged irreverent social habits in Alencarinayouth in the 1980s. In this context, individuals and organizations have innovated and adopted arrangements and joint structures, especially in pubs and restaurants, featuring habitualization phase. In the course of the ensuing decades, with the consensual performance of actors in the monitored field, the pattern of successful structures was widespread, although without formal theorizing.From the 2000s, the competition and disputes over spaces generated group formations, increased inter-linkages and geographic area of occurrence of comedy, in addition to the recent emergence of new organizational structures such as associations, trade union, forum, theaters and thematicmuseum, among others. Such characteristics associated with communication and theorizing difficulties in the field indicate that the creative economy is among the objectification and sedimentation phases of its process of institutionalization.The questionnaire results confirmed this intermediate level of the process, since six out of seven indicators of institutionalization obtained averages included in the central range. Finally, we emphasize that the comedy, rooted in the culture of the people of Ceará, is configured as an activity of the creative economy that is growing in numbers and links from actors in the field through recent interorganizational structures that generate differences between groups and aim to expand marketing among the native public of Ceará and tourists alike.