Informal street food workers in Duque de Caxias, Baixada Fluminense

reflections from the perspectives of (de)coloniality and intersectionality

Abstract

This text refers to a master's research in development that starts from the interest in mapping the silent powers of peripheral women who act as informal workers in the street food trade in Duque de Caxias, a municipality located in Baixada Fluminense/Rio de Janeiro. It aims to know the survival strategies that these workers produce in a territory crossed by violence that often impact the work carried out in the home environment and/or close to life and housing, the challenges of reconciling productive and reproductive work and how the difficulties of work without guaranteed access to basic social and labor rights contribute to the development and/or worsening of their physical and mental health. To carry out this discussion, this chapter contextualizes the informal work of these women from the perspective of decolonial feminism and intersectionality.