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Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela: Urban Violence and Daily Life
Roger Hargreaves
€ 52.56
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Description for Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela: Urban Violence and Daily Life
Paperback. .
The residents of Caxambu, a squatter neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, live in a state of insecurity as they face urban violence. Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela examines how inequality, racism, drug trafficking, police brutality, and gang activities affect the daily lives of the people of Caxambu. Some Brazilians see these communities, known as favelas, as centers of drug trafficking that exist beyond the control of the state and threaten the rest of the city. For other Brazilians, favelas are symbols of economic inequality and racial exclusion. Ben Penglase’s ethnography goes beyond these perspectives to look at how the people of Caxambu themselves experience violence.
Although the favela is often seen as a war zone, the residents are linked to each other through bonds of kinship and friendship. In addition, residents often take pride in homes and public spaces that they have built and used over generations. Penglase notes that despite poverty, their lives are not completely defined by illegal violence or deprivation. He argues that urban violence and a larger context of inequality create a social world that is deeply contradictory and ambivalent. The unpredictability and instability of daily experiences result in disagreements and tensions, but the residents also experience their neighborhood as a place of social intimacy. As a result, the social world of the neighborhood is both a place of danger and safety.
Although the favela is often seen as a war zone, the residents are linked to each other through bonds of kinship and friendship. In addition, residents often take pride in homes and public spaces that they have built and used over generations. Penglase notes that despite poverty, their lives are not completely defined by illegal violence or deprivation. He argues that urban violence and a larger context of inequality create a social world that is deeply contradictory and ambivalent. The unpredictability and instability of daily experiences result in disagreements and tensions, but the residents also experience their neighborhood as a place of social intimacy. As a result, the social world of the neighborhood is both a place of danger and safety.
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2014
Publisher
Rutgers University Press
Condition
New
Number of Pages
224
Place of Publication
New Brunswick NJ, United States
ISBN
9780813565439
SKU
V9780813565439
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1
About Roger Hargreaves
R. BEN PENGLASE is an associate professor of anthropology and Latin American studies at Loyola University, Chicago.
Reviews for Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela: Urban Violence and Daily Life
"Penglase draws the reader's gaze toward dimensions of urban violence often eclipsed by accounts of dramatic events. In doing so, he crafts a compelling ethnography that will surely become required reading for students and scholars interested in violence, urban space, and contemporary Latin America."
American Anthropologist
"Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela is a worthy addition to an ever-expanding ethnographic literature on life and death in Rio de Janeiro's famous shantytowns… This is a book that students of urbanization, informality, and violence in Brazil (and elsewhere) will value for its ethnographic richness and vigorous analysis."
Luso-Brazilian Review
"This is a vibrant and engaging book that provides valuable insights on violence, social exclusion, and daily life on the urban margins in Brazil and elsewhere."
Daniel M. Goldstein
author of Outlawed: Between Security and Rights in a Bolivian City
"Penglase’s is the...standard anthropological account, focused primarily on residents’ daily routines and infused with the same moral and ethical reflections about conducting ethnographic research in a context of violence."
Latin American Research Review
American Anthropologist
"Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela is a worthy addition to an ever-expanding ethnographic literature on life and death in Rio de Janeiro's famous shantytowns… This is a book that students of urbanization, informality, and violence in Brazil (and elsewhere) will value for its ethnographic richness and vigorous analysis."
Luso-Brazilian Review
"This is a vibrant and engaging book that provides valuable insights on violence, social exclusion, and daily life on the urban margins in Brazil and elsewhere."
Daniel M. Goldstein
author of Outlawed: Between Security and Rights in a Bolivian City
"Penglase’s is the...standard anthropological account, focused primarily on residents’ daily routines and infused with the same moral and ethical reflections about conducting ethnographic research in a context of violence."
Latin American Research Review