Do lado de cá & do lado de lá: tempos e espaços dos conflitos da “política” em Santana do Acaraú - Ce

Abstract

Santana do Acaraú's (Ceará, Brasil) power dispute becomes tense during local elections. To the population, this period is identified as “the time of politics”. It is a festive time, manifested in various rituals: motorcades, marches, lunch, dinner and political speeches. As well as it is a period of conflict, expressed in the new social groups which oppose people that otherwise would be united by relationships of kin, friendship and/or neighborhood. However, it is not always that the conflicts peculiar to "the time of politics" ends with the counting of votes or after to take up office. The way campaign was made, accusations of fraud and requests for vote recounting may risk the “closure of the time of politics” and take confrontations beyond elections period. Departing from the native meanings of politics, I examine how political conflicts are lived with by the Santanians in three different times: elections, everyday life and "political time” sui generis, when the conflicts persistence acquired other dimension. With this thesis I try to understand the way politics is socially constructed in terms of a specific time, space and language where it is permitted, and how it builds and strengthens the policy and the place of professional politicians.