ABSTRACT This research report is a critical analysis of the iconography of six HIV/Aids murals from Johannesburg and Durban, in terms of race, class and gender. The six examples are community murals which were used as a social awareness tool to disseminate information on HIV/Aids to a supposedly highly illiterate Black audience public. This research focuses predominantly on the issue of stereotypes, and how certain societal stereotypes of Others are manifested in these HIV/Aids murals. My analysis also tries to make evident, how difficult it is for muralists to visually represent HIV/Aids facts, in addressing ‘high-risk’ groups. This report also tries to show that key issues of HIV/Aids transmission are often overlooked or omitted for various reasons. I argue that, given the importance of HIV/Aids murals as educative tools, muralists have to be made aware of their role in the possible perpetuation of societal racial, gender and class stereotypes, and how such perpetuation of stereotypes can contribute to the continued stigmatization of the disease. The final chapter of this research examines my own practical work that was produced as a requirement for the MA (Fine Art) degree. It analyses my performance-exhibition Walking the Line. My commentary focuses on how the social phenomenon of street trade in the Johannesburg city centre and specifically the ‘refurbishment’ of the Johannesburg Fashion District influenced my art practice. My analysis is further extended to the use of my own body in the performance, to consciously engage notions of hybridized identity.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:15:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ricardo Agnelo de Souza.pdf: 2498271 bytes, checksum: 1d7238d7084e204e7107f66a63ff9882 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-09-21 / This dissertation succinctly reviews the formation of the national labor market, comprising historical and economical aspects referring to the transitional period from the slavery regime into the immigration and wage earnings process, pointing out the highlights for the coffee cycle, and also the beginning of the manufacturing activities in São Paulo city. Subsequently, we discuss the consolidation of the substitute industry of imports (1930-1970) that strengthened the increasing workers formalization by intense social mobility. Face with the shortcomings of national development project, from the 1980s onwards, it is verified the incapacity of the market to absorb such workers. At this moment, the unemployment begins to become a social issue, generating underemployment and informality. The neoliberal changes were occurring in countries economically advanced, and they were introduced to Brazil in the 1990s, through the following triad: trade openness, deregulation and the State diminish, all of them associated with the low economical increasing, moreover the introduction of new technologies and changes to the organizational paradigm of companies. This conjuncture restricted the employments offer, and these actions unfolded presenting the increase of the heterogeneous labor market precariousness characterized by the depth of the labor exploration rate throughout the low remuneration, the unemployment, the high turnover and the informality. Concerning São Paulo city, the change in its socio-economical trait, considerably decreased the workplaces in the transformation industry. The prevailing economical tendency in the 90s was constituted by the trade and the work section. At this moment, SãoPaulo city conquers the status as global city and metropolis of work. Face with this setting, and aiming at restoring the degraded historic centre, it is flourished the Association Viva o Centro, whose beginning goal it was the salvage the centre lost to other parts of the city and its revitalization as well. Hence, in Viva o Centro leaders opinion, it was important to expel street traders from the centre in order to restore it. Last, it was identified the political position of trade unions referring to informal street work, that is, how they articulate each other face with workers that occupied, in a vulnerable condition, public streets without the Term of Protection and Use (TPU). Therefore, laboring in an illegal way as contumacious victims of the immoral corrupt inspection, deprived of the social protection framework, designing an expressive contingent of workers without any perspective on reintegrating to the formal labor market. We also analyze how the trade union focuses on this serious social issue concerning the non-organized segment of economics that has been increased especially motivated by the extreme unemployment / Esta dissertação revê de forma sucinta a formação do mercado de trabalho nacional, abordando aspectos históricos e econômicos que se reportam ao período de transição do regime escravocrata para o processo de imigração e assalariamento, com destaque para o ciclo cafeeiro e o início das atividades fabris na cidade de São Paulo. Na sequência, discorremos sobre a consolidação da indústria de substituição das importações (1930-1970) que consubstanciou a crescente formalização dos trabalhadores com intensa mobilidade social. Com o esgotamento do projeto nacional desenvolvimentista, a partir do início dos anos 80, verifica-se a incapacidade do mercado absorver os trabalhadores. Neste momento, o desemprego começa a se tornar um problema social, gerando subemprego e informalidade. As transformações neoliberais que estavam ocorrendo nos países de economia avançada foram introduzidas no Brasil nos anos 90, por meio da tríade: abertura comercial, desregulamentação e redução do tamanho do Estado, associadas ao baixo crescimento econômico, além da introdução de novas tecnologias e mudanças no paradigma organizacional das empresas. Esta conjuntura limitou a oferta de empregos e os desdobramentos destas ações resultaram no aumento da precariedade do heterogêneo mercado de trabalho, caracterizado pelo aprofundamento da taxa de exploração da mão de obra, através da baixa remuneração, desemprego, alta rotatividade e informalidade. No que diz respeito à cidade de São Paulo, com a mudança no seu perfil socioeconômico, diminuíram consideravelmente os postos de trabalho na indústria de transformação. A vocação econômica predominante nos anos 90 era constituída pelo setor de comércio e serviços. Neste momento, São Paulo conquista o status de cidade global e metrópole de serviços. Diante deste cenário e visando a recuperação do degradado centro histórico, floresceu no início da década de 90 a Associação Viva o Centro, cujo objetivo precípuo era a revitalização e o resgate da centralidade perdida para outras regiões da cidade. Portanto, na opinião dos dirigentes da Viva o Centro, era fundamental expulsar os camelôs do espaço central para revitalizá-lo. Por fim, diagnosticamos a postura política das centrais sindicais a respeito do trabalho informal de rua, ou seja, como elas se articularam com os trabalhadores em condições vulneráveis que ocupavam as vias públicas sem o Termo de Proteção e Uso (TPU). E, portanto, laborando de formal ilegal, sendo vítimas contumazes da corrupção da fiscalização inescrupulosa, desprovidos do arcabouço de proteção social, formando expressivos contingentes de trabalhadores sem perspectiva de voltar para o mercado formal de trabalho. Também analisamos como as centrais sindicais enxergavam esta grave questão social do segmento não organizado da economia que aumentou, sobretudo, motivado pelo elevado desemprego