BETWEEN CULTURAL POPULISM AND DISTINCTION: definitions of “welfare” in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

Recent sociological research shows that, at the turn of the 21st century, investment in domestic space has become even more decisive in the social positioning of individuals, following the growth of shops, exhibitions, awards and the press dedicated to architecture and decoration. However, while the instances of inculcation of domestic tastes are multiplying, the prescriptive repertoires of the “art of living” remain little studied from the point of view of sociology. This is the problem this article proposes to explore, based on the ways of living validated by specialists struggling for the dominant definition of residential excellence. The thematic regularities detected by means of a quantitative and qualitative approach to the inventory of appreciation frameworks show that the detraction of the residences supposedly dedicated to “social ostentation” does not only discredit certain preferences advocated by “bourgeois” housing, but also promotes a reconfiguration of the logics of distinction associated with the residential space.