Viewing society from the periphery

The article examines the cultural values and representations of the dwellers of the urban periphery, covering three middle-sized cities in the State of São Paulo: São José dos Campos, Rio Claro and Marília. It relies on the results of a research carried out at CEBRAP in 1982, and it also draws much ethnographic information from other dispersed sources dealing with the city of São Paulo itself. The way people living at the periphery conceive their life in the city, their visions of the labor market, the way they see their own social progress or the social improvements available to them, as well as their images of public services and policies (from both the local and federal governments) are the main themes studied in the article. The thrust of the article is how the public and private realms emerge and interact in these people's "weltanschauung"