Por uma sociologia das instituições políticas locais: o sentido das representações biográficas na construção social do cargo de secretário municipal

Abstract

This article explores the resources mobilized for the legitimization of municipal secretary appointments in the last 70 years in a city in upstate Paraná. Taking as object the relation between the biographical representations of those appointed and its dynamics of legitimation, I seek to articulate the data concerning that set of biographies with the local dynamics of the representations that classify groups, institutions and reputations. I pursue the hypothesis that the historical sedimentation of the representations that classify certain institutions operates a repositioning effect of the biographical representations in the process of public production of "authorized" figures to occupy the position of municipal secretary. Collected from a wide variety of sources (the local press, academic production, legal documentation, etc.), the analysis of biographical repertoires explored, through frequencies and network graphs, three main variables: occupation, educational background and associative filiation. The results point to a relationship between the establishment of links in common spaces of sociability and the possibilities of converting the representations of prestige linked to these spaces into the qualification for the occupation of positions in the elected mayor's mandate.

Keywords

• local power
• appointments for office
• political elites
• municipal secretary
• political recruitement