GEOGRAPHISMS AND POPULAR CULTURE

ABSTRACT The peripheries of cities and their inhabitants are represented by stigmas which are (re)produced as marks of an immutable stereotype, through derogatory values that blame them for the maladies of the city. However, it is important to investigate whether the culture of these populations is made up solely by poverty and violence as this single discourse about such communities would have us believe, in a type of geographical prejudice, geographism. From this point of view, this article examines the perspectives of the Rubem Berta neighborhood in Porto Alegre. This work uses the approach of Cultural and Humanistic Geography to investigate the concepts of geographism, speech, identity, place and landscape through local and non-local reports to comprehend the different meanings which social actors attribute to the place, by means of the Discourse Analysis method. The reports helped to recognize that in many cases topophilic experiences coexist with topophobic ones. This study allows an understanding of the Housing Estate not only as expressed by the single discourse, but rather as a locus of pluralities, cultural experiences, thoughts, ideas and ideals, evidencing heterogeneity in terms of place and landscape.