The social construction of the civil construction market in the years 2000: housing and the role of the State

Abstract

Considering the growth of the civil construction sector in Brazil in the first decade of the 2000s, this article studies, on the basis of this large market, the social construction of the housing market between 2002 and 2012, and argues that it might be rooted in social variables, in particular considering the role of the State. Taking as a hypothesis the importance of the State in the construction of the housing market in that decade, the article identifies several initiatives such as the creation of the Ministry of Cities in 2003, the investment in housing made by the Growth Acceleration Program and the creation of a specific program for housing, the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program. We conclude these constitute a political choice by the ruling party in power at the time. The article’s theoretical inspiration comes from concepts of economic sociology, a discipline that has sought to link socalled economic phenomena, such as markets, to sociological analyzes.