Experiência e vivência, percepção e cultura: Uma abordagem dialética das manifestações culturais em bairros populares de Salvador-Bahia

Abstract

This article explores the analysis of cultural processes at three neighborhoods in the suburb of Salvador, Bahia. Consideration is given to the role of culture in inhabitants' social life on the basis of the contributions made by Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas and Pierrre Bourdieu as well as of structured interviews accomplished with residents of the suburb of Salvador. The cultural manifestations were examined as proposed by Denis Cosgrove (classified as dominant, residual, emergent or excluded) to bring forth new information about the different types of popular culture and to emphasize the confrontation between popular and official culture. The results have shown that neighborhoods become microcosms with their own cultural manifestations and social rules, that represent many interests (political, commercial, promotion, etc.), remaining, as a differential, the interests of the neighborhood associations, that accomplish cultural activities on behalf of the preservation and maintenance of their tradition and identity.