Presented at the 6th Conference on Latin American and European Organization Studies (LAEMOS), Viña del Mar, Chile, April 2016. ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to consider how valuation is performed within informal markets in the global south. Specifically, the paper addresses this topic with reference to empirical data garnered from an ethnographic study of urban piracy markets in Recife, Brazil. These markets are composed of piracy hawkers - street sellers using mobile piracy stalls equipped with a CD player, car battery and speakers, who walk the streets playing and selling copied CDs. Overall we seek to explain how the evaluation of music media products is entangled with the informal urban assemblages of piracy markets. We draw on Science and Technology Studies (STS) literature on assemblages and specifically moments of valuation (Antal et al 2015) and argue that the valuation of music media is spatially and temporally located and collectively performed as a contingent process that takes place within the informal assemblages of people, materials and technologies which daily emerge on the crowded sidewalks. In this context, valuation is collectively enacted and the dissonance in relation to new musical products is collectively negotiated trough the inscription of sonorous boundaries of belonging and difference that shape the spatiality and collective identity of urban daily life in Recife. ACADEMIA PROFILE: https://lancaster.academia.edu/RuiRamos

1. ValuationAssemblages withinInformal Marketsinthe Global South
The case of urban piracy in Recife, Brazil
Rui Roberto Ramos, Niall Hayes, Monideepa Tarafdar
6th Conference on Latin American and European Organization Studies, Viña del Mar, Chile, April 2016

2. Introduction
Valuation as performance has mostly been applied ‘market
societies’ (Callon)
Informal markets as ‘alternative economic spaces’ - Socio-
material embededness (Polanyi, Pinch, Gibson-Graham)
Moments of valuation (Muniesa, Stark)
Research Questions
1) What are the key elements shaping the valuation of
music media products in Recife’s urban piracy
markets?
2) Within specific moments of valuation, how do these
elements assemble valuation performances?
Theoretical Framework
Assemblage Theory (Deleuze) into Moments of Valuation
Methodology
In depth ethnography focusing on the daily workings of
markets. Interviews and observations, audio, video, picture
recordings.
Empirical Focus
Urban piracy markets, Recife, Brazil (late 2014 early 2015)

3. The Mobile Piracy Stall

4. Urban Soundscapes
“What’s that you’re playing?” This is usually the first thing a piracy hawker hears from a passer-
by. From here the dialogue usually continues as follows: “How much is it?” and often “What was
that that you were playing before?”

5. Moment #1: Contingent Valuation
Collective sonorous experience through informal ambiances
(…) She smiled and sat. Then she started singing softly to the music coming from Rafael’s (a
nearby piracy hawker) (…) Malu gave her phone back and commented on the song: “Oh God,
that is too much ’sofrência’.” The three started laughing about it and commenting how all were
tired of listening to that song on the streets every day.
Girl: “Here you go! 5 Reais right?!” (…)
Boa Vista Avenue, Recife - Friday 28.11.2014 - 10:15
Informal assemblages and enactment of urban ambiances
Urban soundscapes as elements of urban ambiances

6. Moment #2: Calculative Valuation
Valuation of future success through expected situated audiences
(…) Amando: (…) “How’s it selling? Is it ‘bombing’?” (local DJ)
Anderson: “Ahhhh, it’s ok. Sold some yesterday evening in the ‘espetinho’’, but here is not the
best place mate. You should check with Mauro. People here are more into the classics you
know?”
Amando: “Oh well, I just come from there… it’s ‘bombing’ there! (…) What new stuff you have
here?” (while checking the CDs shelf) (…)
Casa Amarela, Recife - Saturday 06.12.2014 - 13:30
Hawker calculation of future success in relation to place and time
Hawker negotiation of newness in relation to stabilised ambiances

7. Moment #3: Collective Valuation
Collective negotiation of dissonance and enactment of music media success
(…) Few minutes after we sat down, one of the couples started a discussion (…) and the piracy
hawker started playing some song with lyrics about couples always having discussions and
jealously. All of a sudden everyone was laughing about it. The couple started dancing to it,
laughing and trying to sing the song, which they’d never heard before. (…)
Mamede neighbourhood, Recife - Saturday 17.01.2015 - 23:30
Collective enactment of soundscapes and inscription of sonorous boundaries
Collective negotiation of dissonance and enactment of music media success

8. Momentary Valuing
Newness can be firstly
attached to the ambiances
by the agency of the
Hawker
Collective
Dissonance
Valuation is contingent to the
enactment of urban ambiances
Soundscapes attach and
detach to these ambiances
Calculative
Newness
Dissonance is
collectively
negotiated through
the material,
technological
assemblage and
people’s sonorous
experience
Contingent Success
Momentary
Valuing
Valuing continuously inscribes sonorous boundaries of belonging
and difference that shape the spatiality and collective identity of
urban daily life

9. rui.ramos
niall.hayes
monideepa.tarafdar
@lancaster.ac.uk
@lancaster.ac.uk
@lancaster.ac.uk