THE INTELLECTUALS AND THE "POPULAR CULTURE" IN SAO PAULO: FROM FOLKLORE TO CULTURAL POLICIES

Since its origin the notion of "popular culture" is linked to the work of intellectuals. It was they who created the concept in the nineteenth century to embrace the set of popular, oral and traditional practices which they believed were threatened by the advance of capitalist civilization. The article aims to discuss the relationship between intellectuals and popular culture in the present time, focusing on the city of Sao Paulo. In order to do so, it recovers the fundamental trajectory of Mario de Andrade and his studies of Folklore; that of Rossini Tavares de Lima, member of the Brazilian Folkloric Movement; of his disciple and reformer of the Sao Paulo folklore, Antonio Teixeira de Macedo, until reaching the Movement of Popular Cultures and their achievements in the field of cultural policies. In this way, it seeks to analyze its actions and representations, its relations with the State, the limits and possibilities of its action in the field of "popular culture".