The columnist-economists in the debate of the reforms in Brazil

Abstract

This paper analyzed the dynamics established between the positions of the columnist-economists in the field of power and their position-takings about the PEC 241 and the reforms of Social Security and Labor. The research object was the economists that are also columnists of the main general-interest newspapers of the country – Folha de S.Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo and O Globo. Outlining their positions in relation to the economic and political powers as well as to the academic field and the media, and analyzing their discourses about the reforms, it was possible to understand the symbolic exchanges that these agents establish among themselves as well as with the newspapers in which they write. We also underline the importance of these agents for the ratification and reiteration of certain projects for the country, as diffusers of a doxa constructed in places where agents from different social fields establish exchanges.