Uma etnografia na Comlurb: as adaptações corporais dos garis para o trabalho de limpeza urbana

Abstract

Through an ethnography conducted between 2023 and 2025 at Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb) locations in the northern part of the city of Rio de Janeiro, this research seeks to understand the process of preparing the body, adaptation, and sensoriality of street cleaners for work with urban waste. As a starting point for investigation, interviews and conversations were conducted with workers from different offices in order to understand their entry into this profession based on the Physical Aptitude Test and, subsequently, their effective work in the institution. In this research, the focus of analysis is, within the vast work of street cleaners, to understand how direct contact with waste, through sweeping and collection, allows these workers to have unique experiences and perceptions in this profession. In this work, it was also important to investigate how the perception of the presence of waste in the city is important to understand the performance of these cleaning professionals. Finally, this research also aims to present some of the social markers of difference such as social class, race, gender, and age to instigate questions about this profession, as well as to present how health and care are understood by these professionals.