The subversive practice of counting bodies: Documenting violence and conflict in rural Brazil

Tensions concerning environmental governance have increased in Brazil since the far-right came to power in 2016. We offer insight into this process by analysing the first two years of Jair Bolsonaro’s (2019-ongoing) environmental policies—namely, how Brazil’s environmental protection arrangements are being dismantled. We find that the Bolsonaro administration centralises environmental governance in Brazil through complementary authoritarian and populist means. First in restricting participatory decision-making spaces such as the National Environmental Council (Conama) and the National Council of the Legal Amazon (CNAL), and, second, by attacking indigenous and traditional peoples, NGOs, scientists, and other environmental defenders. To illustrate the authoritarian dimension of Bolsonaro’s environmental governance, we carry out a political-institutional analysis of contemporary Brazilian environmental politics and then exemplify the ways and extent to which attacks against environmental defenders is a constituent part of Bolsonaro’s environmental populism. We hold that such attacks are not merely rhetorical but a political tactic to legitimise Bolsonaro’s authoritarian environmental governance in the promotion of ‘total extractivism’ while maintaining a populist appeal.

show abstract

“… 12 For more on religious leaders’ engagement with environmental and land rights in Brazil, see Barbosa Jr and Roriz ( 2021 ). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental governance under Bolsonaro: dismantling institutions, curtailing participation, delegitimising opposition

Menezes

Barbosa

2021

Z Vgl Polit Wiss

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our analysis into the actual and potential role of the state in agri-food systems can perhaps be understood as more closely aligned with Gramscian Marxism (see also Dale, 2021) which recognizes the co-constitutive relations between the state and civil/political society as struggle and conflict (Fontana, 2002). Conceivably, our perspective also bridges between Gramscian and Foucauldian conceptions to reach the more relational approach we intend (Hansen & Stepputat, 2001), as such derived from political economy but also allowing space for post structuralist preoccupations (see also Barbosa Jr & Roriz, 2021).…”

Section: The State Corporate Influence and The Possibility For Social...mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…While here we draw specific attention to the far-right's effect on food policies it is also important to recognize that alongside these processes there was increased deregulation of environmental and land protection(Sparovek et al, 2019;Menezes & Barbosa Jr, 2021) as well as an increase of violence and conflict in the countryside(Barbosa Jr & Roriz, 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting just food futures through the state

Barbosa

Coca

2022

CanFoodStudies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The state is an important, if sometimes overlooked, terrain of struggle for food activists. To explore the ways and extent to which just food futures can be enacted through the state, we present the experience of Brazil. We argue that activists should seek to advance food policies that have broad social appeal to weather political changes in administrations. Our argument is informed by an extensive review of scholarship on the state, corporate influence, and the possibility of promoting progressive agri-food change through the state, as well as the contradictions of doing so. Drawing on (agrarian) political economy we analyse institutional procurement as exemplifying the state’s role not only in ‘stabilizing’ and ‘growing’ the economy but also in enacting ‘redistribution’. Through our research in Brazil, we compare how the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Meal Program (PNAE) have been impacted by the far-right’s rise to power since 2016. When mobilizing the power of institutions to change food systems by leveraging the purchasing power of the state, beyond institutionalization, food policies must be participatory and framed as collective gains for society more broadly, rather than for specific social groups. This would keep such policies from becoming the target of competing administrations, as evidenced by the Brazil case.

show abstract

“…Roughly from 2010 until 2018/2019, the lefts began to lose their place and to be replaced in power through elections or subversive processes by right or centre-right leaders. As rightwing authoritarian populists reached positions of power across the globe (Rydgren 2018, Scoones et al 2018), Latin America entered a new wave contrary to the trend that stretched the beginning of this millennium and Brazil's right turn has become a source of concern (Escobar 2018, Abessa et al 2019, Barbosa Jr. and Roriz 2021.…”

Section: Paradigmatic Model -Conservative and New Progressive Wave In The Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2022

AJSS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ATINER is an Athens-based World Association of Academics and Researchers based in Athens. ATINER is an independent and non-profit Association with a Mission to become a forum where Academics and Researchers from all over the world can meet in Athens, exchange ideas on their research and discuss future developments in their disciplines, as well as engage with professionals from other fields. Athens was chosen because of its long history of academic gatherings, which go back thousands of years to Plato"s Academy and Aristotle"s Lyceum. Both these historic places are within walking distance from ATINER"s downtown offices. Since antiquity, Athens was an open city. In the words of Pericles, Athens"…is open to the world, we never expel a foreigner from learning or seeing". ("Pericles" Funeral Oration", in Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War). It is ATINER"s mission to revive the glory of Ancient Athens by inviting the World Academic Community to the city, to learn from each other in an environment of freedom and respect for other people"s opinions and beliefs. After all, the free expression of one"s opinion formed the basis for the development of democracy, and Athens was its cradle. As it turned out, the Golden Age of Athens was in fact, the Golden Age of the Western Civilization. Education and (Re)searching for the "truth" are the pillars of any free (democratic) society. This is the reason why Education and Research are the two core words in ATINER"s name.

show abstract

The subversive practice of counting bodies: Documenting violence and conflict in rural Brazil

Cited by 9 publications

References 53 publications

Environmental governance under Bolsonaro: dismantling institutions, curtailing participation, delegitimising opposition

Environmental governance under Bolsonaro: dismantling institutions, curtailing participation, delegitimising opposition

Enacting just food futures through the state

Untitled

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About