Violência

Este artículo analiza cuestiones teóricas de la economía informal e ilícita a partir del estudio etnográfico de las redes del crimen organizado en la ciudad de Río de Janeiro. El narcotráfico es considerado aquí como un segmento de la economía ilícita, cuyo funcionamiento está basado, de acuerdo con la interpretación del autor, en el uso racionalizado de la violencia, los vínculos de parentesco y afectivos, así como la corrupción.
Resumo em inglês: This article analyzes theoretical issues concerning the underground economy on the basis of an ethnographic study of the networks of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro. In this paper, drug trafficking is regarded as a sector of the illegal economy, based, according to the author's interpretation, on the rationalized use of violence, kinship and affective links and corruption.

In preparation for a series of mega-events culminating in the 2016 Summer Olympics, the state has been reclaiming select favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Territories that have been controlled by drug gangs and largely off-limits for as long as thirty years are being colonized through a series of aggressive government programs that involve military occupation, infrastructure provision, beautification and selected removal. Following James Scott I argue that the production of "legibility and simplification" associated with these programs is necessary for residents to fully participate in modern society, but that these measures expose residents to predatory aspects of the state and capital.
Resumo em português: Durante os preparativos para uma série de megaeventos, inclusive os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016, o Estado tem recuperado o controle de certas favelas do Rio de Janeiro. Territórios que foram controladas por traficantes durante mais que 30 anos, tornam-se agora colonizados por uma série de programas governamentais que envolvem a ocupação militar, a provisão de infraestrutura, embelezamento e remoção seletiva. De acordo com o pensamento de James Scott, eu argumento que a produção de "legibilidade e simplificação" associada a esses programas é necessária para que os moradores possam participar plenamente na sociedade moderna, mas que estas medidas expõem os moradores a aspectos predatórios do Estado e do capital.

This article examines the politics of how drug traffickers resolve disputes and maintain order in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Much popular discourse and some scholarly studies argue that drug traffickers play a major role in controlling crime and minimizing conflicts there. This article shows that traffickers enforce community norms under a variable political calculus in which well-connected and respected residents are less likely to be punished for rule violations than are individuals who are marginal to the life of the community. This allows many favela residents who conform to local norms to feel a degree of control over their own safety, a "myth of personal security" in otherwise violent neighborhoods.

The concept of ‘structural violence’ dates back at least to the 1960s when it was first used by Latin American liberation theologians to refer to ‘sinful social structures characterized by poverty’ (Farmer, 2004, p. 307). A strong connection between ‘spaces of poverty’ and ‘structural violence’ is often taken for granted in most discussions around the latter concept. This article critically examines the constitution of Brazilian favelas as spaces belonging to a broader structure of urban violence. I concern myself with questions such as: what approach to the question of violence can do greater justice to the experiences and aspirations of people with whom I shared my life in one of the largest shantytowns of Latin America? The discussion explores violence as a multifaceted phenomenon in the city of Rio de Janeiro and raises questions regarding the specific type of violence that is generated by urban scholars themselves through their constitution of certain urban spaces as belonging to assumed structures of violence. People living in favelas themselves do not always appreciate or agree with the classificatory structures deployed by scholars. What is the least violent position that one can take when it comes to the study of favelas and urban violence? Based on ethnographic experiences, I come to the proposal that more desirable studies of violence should give priority to the daily experiences of people argued to be the victims in our narratives.

Based on fieldwork in Rocinha, one of the largest favelas of Rio de Janeiro, this paper discusses the formal/informal binary in relation to the city. Ethnographic material illustrates the daily relationships of businesses and lives in this favela and shows that they are clearly enmeshed in both what is usually considered the formal and the informal parts of urban life. Through the work of Beatriz Jaguaribe and Loic Wacquant in particular, we suggest that what is perceived as informal is not just a construction of the formal but also serves as a dangerous basis for policies such as the 'Shock of Order'. The informal, as the 'other' and the 'unknown', needs to be better understood ethnographically to challenge the formal/informal binary in the face of the complex hybrid relationships of the contemporary city.