Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela

Penglase, R. Ben

doi:10.36019/9780813565453

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…This is very similar to the law of the favela or the policy of boa vizinhança (neighborliness) as enforced by dealers (cf. Dowdney ; Penglase ), which forbids committing a crime against anyone within the community under the threat of harsh punishment.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ethnographers of Rio's favelas have extensively documented what these local power relations look like in practice (cf. Arias ; Dowdney ; Goldstein ; Penglase ). The boca , the point of drug sales, carries out functions that extend beyond selling drugs.…”

Section: Favelas As Margins: Myth and Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Auyero and Berti () argue, based on their study of the urban margins of Buenos Aires, that the situation of violence is not perpetuated by state absence but rather by convoluted forms of state presence such as police corruption. Others working in Rio's favelas have likewise observed that the forms of police presence include violent operations and payoffs to continue business undisturbed (Penglase ). In a comparative study of Rio's favelas, Arias () found that local organizations sometimes act as brokers between the state and drug dealers, controlling access during election times and funneling state resources to be distributed locally by drug gangs.…”

Section: Favelas As Margins: Myth and Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, the more stable type of police presence involves taking bribes from dealers and other corrupt practices (cf. Arias ; Machado da Silva and Leite ; Penglase ). Police involvement in the favela disrupts social life, altering everyday discourses, which are in turn used by dealers to build local support (Penglase ).…”

Section: Favelas As Margins: Myth and Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pacification of Rio's Favelas and the “Pacification of the Pacification Police”: The Role of Coordinating Brokerage in Police Reform

Souza

2019

Sociological Forum

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Rio de Janeiro's drug dealer–dominated favelas are territories where the state lacks the monopoly of violence. They have historically been sites of sporadic and violent police operations. Rio's favela “pacification” program aimed to consolidate state control via the establishment of a Pacification Police Unit (UPP). This proximity policing program initially experienced mixed results in different “pacified” favelas. I take advantage of this state intervention at the urban margins to ask, what explains the positive reception of this policing initiative in some communities but not others? I concentrate my fieldwork in two communities sharing a UPP that represented extreme cases of success in terms of the program's reception by residents. I find that the coordinating brokerage of respected local organizations helps acculturate police to the community and minimize offensive police behavior, thereby “pacifying the Pacification Police.” Residents are receptive to these resocialized police who comply with local norms of respect. This police‐reforming brokerage is possible due to the high level of closure in the local network and due to a vibrant local community with a strong history of organizing. My findings emphasize the importance of considering the role of local civil society in police reform at the urban margins.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Favelas As Margins: Myth and Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Favelas As Margins: Myth and Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Favelas As Margins: Myth and Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Pacification of Rio's Favelas and the “Pacification of the Pacification Police”: The Role of Coordinating Brokerage in Police Reform

Souza

2019

Sociological Forum

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“…Scholars document how residents navigate the laws of the favela, assemble informal systems of mutual support and social resilience, and negotiate the tensions of dependence on, and distrust for, neighbors believed to be involved in clandestine political networks. 30 In a rare effort to attribute some agency to favela residents, Donna Goldstein suggested that joking about oppression was a subtle but important form of resistance. 31 However, we have yet to theorize nonviolent residents in favelas or other gang-controlled territories as political actors.…”

Section: Politics and Violence In Rio De Janeiromentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Favela Governance: Nonviolent Politics in Rio de Janeiro’s Gang Territories

Fahlberg

2018

Politics & Society

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Since the 1980s, when drug gangs became embedded in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, or poor urban neighborhoods, much has been written about the violent regimes that govern these spaces. This article argues that a nonviolent political regime run by activist residents also plays a critical role in favela governance by expanding the provision of services, promoting social development, fighting for their citizenship rights, and inserting favelas into political networks across the city. This claim is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2017 in the City of God, one of Rio’s most dangerous gang-controlled neighborhoods. Paradoxically, in activists’ efforts to improve the neighborhood and fight for their rights, the nonviolent political regime in the City of God not only subverted violent politics but also helped to provide the conditions for its survival. Nevertheless, scholarship must account for nonviolent political actors in order to fully theorize favela governance.

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Urban Ethnography

Kusenbach¹,

Brown–Saracino²

2021

Companion to Urban and Regional Studies

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Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela

Cited by 19 publications

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Pacification of Rio's Favelas and the “Pacification of the Pacification Police”: The Role of Coordinating Brokerage in Police Reform

Pacification of Rio's Favelas and the “Pacification of the Pacification Police”: The Role of Coordinating Brokerage in Police Reform

Rethinking Favela Governance: Nonviolent Politics in Rio de Janeiro’s Gang Territories

Urban Ethnography

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