Adriana Schneider Dallolio.

Makeshifting is a practice whereby consumers use materials and recycled objects at hand to adjust, improve, or invent products. This widespread practice is often associated with improvised designs that address immediate needs. Prevalent in developing countries, makeshifting is situated at the intersection of needs and creativity that generates popular innovation. In India, makeshift solutions are known as jugaad; in Brazil makeshifting is called gambiarra. The practice is so widespread in Brazilian society that it is linked to the national identity and celebrated as a form of artistic expression. The business literature often assumes that makeshifting represents ?quick fix solutions that address acute customer needs? thus expecting that consumers engage in this practice because they lack financial resources or access to commercial solutions in their market, for example, argues that makeshifting is prevalent in developing countries because this practice ?is a product of widespread poverty and underpins path dependencies stemming from dilapidated infrastructure, unsafe transport practices, and resource constraints?. However, evidence abounds suggesting that makeshifting promotes rather than hinders social development, given its association with creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Researchers have simultaneously praised makeshifting for its capacity to generate creative low-cost solutions for pressing issues, and criticized it as a perverse effect of the neoliberal ?embrace of creativity?. Both perspectives place excessive emphasis on the limitations faced by people living in unfavorable economic conditions. Consequently, extant literature has paid little attention to the cultural meanings supporting consumers? engagement in the practice of makeshifting. This study adopts a design anthropology perspective to examine the Brazilian manifestation of makeshifting practices, gambiarra. Gambiarra is a relevant empirical setting to examine consumer creativity because, in Brazil, makeshifting is a widespread social practice that cuts across social classes, allowing for the exploration of how consumers from different socio-cultural backgrounds attribute meaning to it

A pesquisa proposta visa em linhas gerais compreender a dinâmica de transformação de produtos commodities em itens valorizados pelos atores de mercado, ou seja, a criação e a manutenção do mercado de apreciação de produtos alimentares e como os atores destes mercados, tais como consumidores, profissionais, associações, empreendedores, se mobilizam para desenvolver o consumo de apreciação e como as redes sociais são usadas neste processo. O trabalho tem como objetivo fornecer as bases para o desenvolvimento e ampliação do mercado de apreciação de produtos e ingredientes alimentares, apresentando elementos que permitam posicionar parte da produção alimentar brasileira de forma mais valorizada no cenário nacional e internacional e contribuir com as comunidades produtoras dos ingredientes.