The implementation and operation of the UPPs is outlined in the context of the militarization of Rio’s spaces, and especially of its urban poor regions, within an analysis of what assumptions about favela residents the UPPs imply. Intending to problematize the reasoning behind this stated goal in order to question the UPPs’ very foundations, this article examines the political and sociospatial background in which they were introduced. The Pacification Police Units – UPPs – implemented in Rio de Janeiro since 2008 have as one of their stated goals the promotion of the integration between the pacified favelas and the ‘formal’ city, aiming to overcome the view of Rio as a ‘divided city’. In considering these hidden politics of digital reproduction, my theoretical discussion informs anthropological scholarship concerning violence, a modern information society, and democracy in marginalized urban communities. I recount several examples of digital inclusion’s hidden politics including technology corporations that used a discourse of disruption to promote middleclass consumerism in the favela and police who appropriated the rhetoric of social media activist to distract from human rights abuses. Rather than disrupting the pacified favela’s social conditions, as proponents of digital inclusion suggested, technology disguised and reproduced longstanding forms of oppression. During my observations of these programs, I found what I call a hidden politics of digital reproduction. Among the social projects associated with pacification were a number of “inclusão digital” (digital inclusion) programs that combined technical literacy with critical political literacy in the hope of disrupting exclusionary conditions. Alongside supporting a permanent police force that destabilized a powerful drug faction, pacification policy endorsed a wide range of social projects and dramatically reshaped the relationship between the Brazilian State and its marginalized citizens. I describe three years of ethnographic research concerning a community policing program called “pacificação” (pacification) in a Brazilian favela (shanty town). This dissertation addresses the connections between everyday violence and digital technology. ‘Vida pulsante’ (pulsating life) is therefore a dedication to the quotidian sprightliness of life in favelas. Lastly, this case-study reflected upon the wrestled control over favelas, questioning the future of urbanisation and pacification plans, and the favelados fights for rights, trusting in Imagens do Povo (Images of the People) as a sign of hope and resistance. Specifically, Imagens do Povo photographers showed in words and pictures their vocation for the empathetic portrayal of daily life over shocking, stigmatising depictions of favelas. Mega-event footprints and resistance were thus explored looking at Maré artists. Mega-events were therefore the stage of this inquiry into the interplays of Rio and its favelas, reflected in the case-study of Maré, which was also framed in the context of South Zone real estate speculation, and North Zone military occupations. organisations and collectives positioning themselves as resistance in the dynamics of oppression. by crimilitarisation (militarisation of repression coupled with criminalisation of poverty and social movements), pacification and gentrification – it also revealed the rise of transversal and overlapping networks – e.g. Indeed, while the position of favelados (favela residents) might be seen as disconnected or threatened – e.g. How are mega-events leaving a footprint, affecting Maré – a set of favelas in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone – and its artists’ activities and ways of resistance? This research made a case of critically contrasting the geography of globalisation and capital (Harvey, Sassen) with the bio-political and state of exception theories (Klein, Agamben), in order to localise the magnitude of mega-events, global trends, media and aesthetics disputes (Jaguaribe, Rancière) in the daily lives of contextually adverse favelas. This research, conducted during the interval between the two happenings, questioned their alleged ‘legacy’ by instead investigating the negative impacts, hereby conceptualised as ‘footprints’. Rio de Janeiro was chosen for 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, the last ones of a long series. Mega-events constitute crucial happenings in the life of a host city.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |