A cidade que cresceu à sombra da usina: sobre o habitar das famílias eletricitárias na cidade de Candiota/RS.

Abstract

This study is the result of an ethnographic research among electric power families in the city of Candiota (RS) and seeks to reflect on their relationship with the Presidente Médici Thermoelectric Power Plant. It is based on the dialogue with workers, electricians, retirees and their families, in order to understand the daily practices and narratives of the interlocutors (ECKERT and ROCHA, 2011), considering the dwelling (CERTEAU, 1998) the Residential and Worker Villages. The urban space in Candiota started with the implementation of the Thermoelectric Power Plant, a large thermoelectric enterprise that uses coal as a source of obtaining electricity. In the account of the retired electrician, the “district grew up in the shadow of the thermoelectric plant”, highlighting how much the daily life of workers' villages is controlled by the plant (FOUCAULT, 1987), which is a State Company. In a process agreed upon by the silence in the relationship between the families, the city and the power plant, the benefits of employment, housing, education and the power plant bring to electric families are observed, while the implementation of the thermoelectric complex entails a series of environmental impacts (AGIER, 2011 and MAGNANI, 2002). Those families live close to the plant, in an environment disciplined by work and live with the smoke emitted by the thermoelectric chimneys (LOPES, 2006). The techniques applied for data collection were participant observation, interviews (BRANDÃO, 2007), photographic plates (SAMAIN, 2004), and drawings (KUSCHNIR, 2012) with field diary records, carried out from 2019 to 2020 while walking through the city (INGOLD, 2015).