Forms of violence in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

This dossier emerged from discussions held at the Center for Studies on City, Culture and Conflict (NUC) and from concerns raised by my return to the field in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The changes in the repertoires of violence — not only in the favelas of Rio, but in broader issues after 2018 — were shared with Vera Telles when I began my postdoctoral studies under her supervision at the University of São Paulo (USP). Our dialogue began in 2017 with reflections on the configurations of the periphery in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Since then, I have been strengthening ties with São Paulo’s literature on the subject of these territories and the forms of life present there. I have been trying to locate, in the everyday plots, changes and continuities in the struggles, losses, injustices, forms of order and disorder, and so many other issues that arise when we are conducting our field research. It was the doubts and concerns raised by this dialogue that made it possible to construct this dossier.