Thomas Pynchon’s novel, The Crying of Lot 49, details Oedipa Maas’ quest to unearth a possibly centuries-old clandestine mail system, the Trystero. Oedipa is immersed in notions of sociality and she must navigate the social landscape, searching for clues as to the existence of the social system. In her quest she assumes the role of a detective who searches for meaning, as she looks for clues and questions others who might potentially be privy to the secrets of the Trystero. She necessarily performs the process of symbolic exchange with those she encounters in an attempt at ascertaining some greater meaning within the world that she thinks might lie behind the Trystero. In this, the nature of the circulation of meaning is revealed as a cultural construct.

Thomas Pynchon’s novel, The Crying of Lot 49, details Oedipa Maas’ quest to unearth a possibly centuries-old clandestine mail system, the Trystero. Oedipa is immersed in notions of sociality and she must navigate the social landscape, searching for clues as to the existence of the social system. In her quest she assumes the role of a detective who searches for meaning, as she looks for clues and questions others who might potentially be privy to the secrets of the Trystero. She necessarily performs the process of symbolic exchange with those she encounters in an attempt at ascertaining some greater meaning within the world that she thinks might lie behind the Trystero. In this, the nature of the circulation of meaning is revealed as a cultural construct.

Informal social networks have been established as instruments to combat poverty in slums, supplying the ineffectiveness of the State to provide basic assets necessary for the survival of its population. Under this logic, the Urbe research group developed, in “Conjunto Vitória” - Maceió-AL, a methodology for identifying social-spatial networks in order to legitimize them in the face of public housing policies. Inserted in this context, this dissertation aims to characterize the exchange relations that occur in socio-spatial networks that support the permanency in self-managed slums, it is a qualitative and descriptive research, with an exploratory character, in which was used the Case Study. As a criterion of choice of the empirical object of this study, was sought, among the total households surveyed by Urbe, one who possessed the most nominations and presented greater representation for the “Conjunto Vitória”. The Domicile 52D was presented in a position of centrality in the set and its sociability’s network was used for application of semi-structured interviews in order to get answers on the main questions of the research: the history of that occupation and the different levels of social interaction and exchanges relations that occur there. It is known that trust, equality shortages, lack of resources and residence’s proximity are important requirements for interactions in disadvantaged environments, in this way, the construction of habitus helps to understand the reasons why individuals helps each other in every day’s life. Thus, for the analysis and data’s interpretation, types of values described by Baudrillard were used to categorize, seeking to identify expressions in the interviewed person’s speeches that characterizes them. As a result, it was observed that the sociability’s network, of the Domicile studied, that relations of its participants can be governed by three types of values investigated by this research: Exchange Value, Symbolic Exchange and Sign Value. / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas / As redes de sociabilidade informais têm se constituído como instrumentos de combate à pobreza em assentamentos precários, suprindo a ineficácia do Estado em conceder ativos básicos necessários para a sobrevivência de sua população. Sob esta lógica, o grupo de pesquisa Urbe desenvolveu, no Conjunto Vitória em Maceió-AL, uma metodologia para identificação de redes socieoespaciais a fim de legitimá-las frente às políticas públicas de habitação. Inserida nesse contexto, esta dissertação objetiva caracterizar as relações de troca que ocorrem em redes socioespaciais de apoio à permanência em assentamentos precários autogestionados, trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva, de caráter exploratório, na qual foi utilizado o procedimento de Estudo de Caso. Como critério de escolha do objeto empírico deste trabalho, buscou-se, dentre a rede total de domicílios estudados pelo Urbe, aquele que possuísse o maior número de indicações e apresentasse maior representatividade para o Conjunto Vitória. O Domicílo 52D foi apresentado em condição de centralidade no conjunto e sua rede de sociabilidade foi utilizada para aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas, a fim de obter respostas sobre as principais questões da pesquisa: o histórico daquela ocupação e os diferentes níveis de interação social e relações de trocas que ali ocorrem. Sabe-se que a confiança, a igualdade de carências, a falta de recursos e a proximidade de residência são requisitos importantes para as interações em ambientes precários, neste sentido, a construção de habitus ajuda a entender as razões pelas quais indivíduos se ajudam na vida cotidiana. Desta forma, para a análise e interpretação dos dados, foi utilizado como critérios de categorização das relações de troca os tipos de valores descritos por Baudrillard, buscando identificar expressões nas falas dos entrevistados que os caracterizassem. Como resultado, observou-se que na rede de sociabilidade, do domicílio estudado, as relações de seus participantes podem ser regidas pelos três tipos de valores investigados por esta pesquisa: valor de troca, troca simbólica e valor de signo.