Mudanças e lógicas institucionais: um estudo sobre trabalhos institucionais no campo da cachaça de alambique em Minas Gerais

Abstract

The alembic cachaça is considered a cultural heritage of the state of Minas Gerais. However, during its centenary trajectory, the consumption of this drink was involved in contexts of great popularity and, at the same time, negative stigmas. Since the beginning of the 1980s, a group of agents has been engaged seeking to produce changes in the institutional field that constitute this market. Considering that this arrangement is marked by different logics, shaped by institutional work, this study aimed to understand the institutional work of construction, repair and interruption of institutional logics in the still cachaça market in Minas Gerais. Therefore, qualitative research was conducted, based on an interpretive perspective, from the collection of documentary data and conducting in-depth narrative interviews with different subjects in this field. These data were analyzed following the thematic content analysis method. To understand this institutional dynamic, a demarcation of the socio-historical context of the still cachaça field in Minas Gerais was conducted, particularizing the institutional logics characteristic of this market until the beginning of the 1980s. The most prominent logics were logic of traditional production, logic of morality, regulatory logic, and logic of informality. From 1982, through the institutional leadership of some subjects interested in promoting changes in this field, several types of institutional work emerged, interested in the construction, repair and interruption of institutional logics. Notably, the

following works stand out: construction of the logic of collectivity; construction of technical- scientific logic; repair of the logic of traditional production; repair of regulatory logic; repair

of the logic of morality and interruption of the logic of informality. In conducting these efforts, several types of institutional work were undertaken, such as political, technical, cultural, educational, standardization, border work, among others. These works produced effects in the field and provoked different responses from agents. The research reveals how institutional change takes place in a typical product market. In this sense, both peripheral and central agents engaged in strategic practices. It was identified that there was a certain interdependence in the order of efforts. Some types of institutional work (especially the creation of collective and technical-scientific logics) were essential for others to be conducted (such as repair work). It is noteworthy, still, that the dynamics of this market was marked by the agency (considering a multidimensional perspective for this concept) of the subjects involved and by the materiality that allowed institutional works and logics to be promulgated. This thesis serves as a reference for advances to occur in the field of organizational institutionalism, especially from the relationship between work and institutional logics and the understanding of the work of repairing logics, as well as the constitution of market institutions. Finally, the reality of still cachaça in Minas Gerais is an important case of change, which can contribute to a more substantial understanding of these processes in other institutional fields.