In this paper, our main goal was to present a discussion about small familial organizations inside Mercadão de Madureira (in Rio de Janeiro). The discussion is based on a study of multiple cases. We intended to comprehend how families could survive facing contextual changes along almost a century. We wanted to know which tactics and strategies were used by managers and other subjects involved in familial organizations in order to guarantee their survival. We worked, in this case, with the concept of strategy as practice, which is associated with the perspective of everyday life and influences individuals' practical knowledge. We also based on social representations as a way to relate representation and action. In order to reach our goals, we chose a qualitative methodological approach, because this would be the most appropriate one, considering our theoretical perspective of strategy as practice and process. Qualitative approach allows better observations, arising from associations between research subjects, research locus and researcher. Empirical work was developed by in loco interviews. Conversations were recorded, transcripted and then analyzed according to elements proposed by Discourse Analysis area. Data analysis took into account the identification of implicit ideas (presupposed and inferred), thematic courses and polyphony. From interpretation of collected data, we could comprehend that strategic processes performed by organizational managers are metamorphosed in an everyday basis, continuing carving and polishing practical knowledge and space itself. In addition, we could understand that strategic practices are not delineated only inside familial organizations, because they are never alone in everyday practices. Tactics and strategies are supported by each other. In this way, they all together end up building the Mercadão de Madureira organization. In a nutshell, we observed that, besides all perspectives pointed by spatial representation literature, it is necessary to focus on such representations (physical and symbolical). Indeed, symbolical space was considered a key-element to our research. The paper's originality resides on the way we have studied strategy. We avoided the perspective that subjects (managers of their own organization) cannot develop social practices with strategic and tactic senses in order to maintain their businesses and their families.
Strategies; Tactics; Space; Social representation; Mercadão de Madureira