Reaching an agreement through Brazilian way of dealing with problems

Abstract

“Jeitinho brasileiro” (Brazilian way of dealing with problems) has been described, in anthropological studies, as a usual practice in Brazilian culture to circumvent bureaucratic and legal impasses. This article offers an interactional perspective on this practice. Focus here is on how mediators use jeitinho to conclude an agreement between the complainant and complained in conciliation hearings involving consumer relations, by analyzing recorded and transcribed oral speech data. In light of the contributions of studies of talk-in-interaction, we examine how this strategy be discursively accomplished in this type of activity. The results show that even in the legal context, the jeitinho emerges, within a continuum, as a kind of action that is sometimes seen close to corruption sometimes close to favor exchanges. Key words: mediation, talk-in-interaction, consume relations, jeitinho.