A contribution to the understanding of the social construction process of the Social Security Food Service (SAPS) (1936 to 1940).
Worker; Public Policy; Food Services; History.
State actions related to food problems have been recorded in several Latin American countries. The discussions held by the International Labor Organization (ILO) contributed to the insertion of food in the state agenda not only in Brazil, but also in other countries such as Chile, Peru and Argentina. In Brazil, the Serviço de Alimentação da Previdência Social (SAPS) was a policy instituted by the State in 1940, which had as its predecessor the Serviço Central de Alimentação (SCA), whose debates for its construction began in 1936, being implemented in 1939 and transformed into SAPS in 1940. In the transition process between SCA and SAPS, it was possible to notice changes and continuities that contributed to the expansion of the policy. Thus, based on the Bourdieusian framework, the present study sought to analyze the historical period that preceded the SAPS and, especially the SCA, from the analysis of the trajectories, positions and positions of the agents involved with the formulation and management of SAPS, seeking to break with mechanistic conceptions in the formulation of State policies. It identified that the constitution of a space on the problem of the feeding of formalized workers within the Brazilian State resulted from the convergence of the trajectories of agents with similar points of view, but with diversified interests. Thus, it was not an achievement only of agents of the State or of a single individual, but of a set of agents from the different fields that collaborated for its construction.