Abstract
The renewal of the analysis of commercialization processes by anthropology and economic anthropology in terms of the social construction of markets has led to the re-mobilization of the issues of moral economy (James Scott, 1976) and of reciprocity (Marcel Mauss, 1924, 1950; Claude Levi-Strauss, 1967; Karl Polanyi, 1944), through the notions of "solidarity economy", "fair market", "short circuits" or "proximity markets". The article examines the contribution of these theoretical-methodological contributions to analyze the efforts made in Brazil in the area of fair trade, solidarity economy and social certification of the quality of agro-food products. If these commercialization processes confirm Polanyi's (1944) proposal of “embededdness”: that is, the insertion of economic and commercial benefits in social acts and codes, little is known about the way in which that insertion operates concretely, in what conditions and according to what principles. I advance the hypothesis that these processes of social construction of fairer or more humane markets come from modes of interaction between principles of commercial exchange and principles of solidarity or economic and social reciprocity. The analyzes conducted in Brazil and some other countries indicate that this interaction goes beyond that proposed by Eme and Laville (1996), Laville (2002), Gaiger (2005), Girard (2007) and others, of the hybridization between categories. plural economic. This interaction is dynamic and dialectical due to the tension between the logics of commercial exchange and reciprocity analyzed by Alberti, Fonseca and Mayer (1974) and Temple (2003). The article is divided into three parts. The first proposes a brief conceptual tour on solidarity economy, fair trade and reciprocity. The second examines the case of Brazil's solidarity economy and fair trade policy. The third part extends the analysis of other forms of articulation between principles of exchange and reciprocity in the field of trade in agricultural products in Brazil