"Vai trabalhar Vagabundo!": a marginalização dos artistas circenses do semáforo

Abstract

The circus artists at the traffic light are present in the daily scene of cities and in academic works. This article aims to understand the work of the circus at the traffic light from the artists' view. The work draws on the theory of outsiders and on a critical perspective of the neoliberal reasoning on work. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, I conducted 18 interviews, online, with a semi-structured script. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The interviews content was checked by the respective interviewees, as proposed by the life story / narrative method. The data analysis reveals that the circus art of the traffic light is not seen as a work whereas it goes against the established capitalist logic. Artists are marginalized, being associated with dirt and begging, during their work activity and also in academic articles.