{"id":227028,"date":"2016-11-22T18:11:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T20:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=227028"},"modified":"2016-11-22T18:30:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T20:30:32","slug":"division-of-power-on-the-periphery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/division-of-power-on-the-periphery\/","title":{"rendered":"Division of power on the periphery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Military

M\u00e1rio \u00c2ngelo \/ Folhapress<\/span>Military police helicopter conducts a search operation in S\u00e3o PauloM\u00e1rio \u00c2ngelo \/ Folhapress<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In Brazil today, areas on the urban periphery are run by three forms of \u201cgovernment\u201d or normative regimes: that of the State, organized religion and the criminal world. They coexist despite their different internal dynamics. This is the finding of a research project entitled \u201cOn the Margins of the City,\u201d under the coordination of Gabriel de Santis Feltran, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar) and a researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). \u201cOutside of the State-run legal system, there are norms that emanate from the criminal world and religious authorities, which are very present and operate in marginal urban areas,\u201d says Feltran. \u201cIf someone is ill, he goes to the clinic; if their son is using drugs, the parents try to convince him to convert; if his house is robbed, he turns to crime to make things right. Therefore, in a certain way, criminal activity also plays a role in the legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researcher says that the clash among these different dynamics is one of the main reasons that violence takes hold. \u201cThe research shows that people who live in these peripheral areas view all three as legitimate,\u201d says Feltran, whose project was carried out at the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM), one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP.<\/p>\n

For religious believers, for example, the \u201cgovernment\u201d of organized religion may be more important than that of the State. The influence of religion on daily life in the periphery areas is reflected mainly in the growth of Pentecostal Christianity, commonly referred to as Evangelical Christianity. Life is defined for the faithful from a religious viewpoint, whether in their daily habits such as the use of conservative dress or in their outlook on the world.\u00a0 \u201cWhen a religious believer does something wrong, it is the Devil at work. When he does something good, God is present. This way of thinking becomes a norm in daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A

Vinicius Pereira \/ Folhapress<\/span>A neighborhood on the periphery of the city\u2019s east zoneVinicius Pereira \/ Folhapress<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

For members of the largest criminal organization in S\u00e3o Paulo, the Primeiro Comando da Capital<\/em> [First Command of the Capital] (PCC), the main concern is with their peers, who, according to Feltran, look like them: young, black, poor and inhabitants of the periphery.\u00a0 Established in 1993 after the massacre at Carandiru prison, the PCC emerged as a means to survive in prison, whereby detainees seek the protection of faction members to protect themselves from torture by prison guards or other prisoners and guarantee access to meals and showers, the right to which is sometimes denied by prison officials as a form of punishment. The PCC\u2019s activities include organizing rebellions and ordering criminal acts from prison like robberies, drug trafficking, kidnappings and murders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn view of the predominance of these forces, the principle of legality plays only a small role,\u201d Feltran explains. \u201cViolence is a result of the misalignment between the two worlds because laws that do not derive from the State will always be stifled by the State, and this leads to acute social conflict.\u201d In an article published in late 2014 in the Caderno CRH<\/em>, a social science journal published by the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Feltran says that the three \u201cgovernment\u201d regimes \u2013 that of the State, organized religion and the criminal world \u2013 regulate legal and illegal markets and promote economic growth. \u201cUnder organized religion, for example, followers tithe at least 10% of their income to the church. In the case of the State, it is direct and indirect taxation that we are all required to pay. And, when it comes to the criminal world, young people earn commissions of up to 50% selling drugs and then spend the money on legal goods in shopping centers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In general, the goal of the research project is to gain an understanding of current social conflict from the perspective of groups that are highly marginalized, most of whom have also turned to criminal activity: street people, the incarcerated, drug users and prostitutes, among others, along with their family members. Feltran concluded that from the stand point of the marginalized population, all three of these regimes are operating at the same time. And State-imposed norms are not always predominant, especially in the case of the most marginalized, like drug users and prostitutes.<\/p>\n

\"Missionaries

Raimundo Pacco \/ Folhapress <\/span>Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the periphery of the southern zone of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo in search of new convertsRaimundo Pacco \/ Folhapress <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The project employs 17 ethnographic researchers in all, working in eight cities of varying sizes in different states \u2013 with more emphasis on Rio de Janeiro and S\u00e3o Paulo. In rural cities, the areas where research is being conducted cannot be identified because of the work being done with children and adolescents. \u201cIn conjunction with a broad network of national and international collaborators, we are working to formulate new theories to understand issues like violence, criminality, marginality and drugs,\u201d the sociologist says.<\/p>\n

In late April 2016, professors and researchers from all over the world met at the USP School of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences (FFLCH-USP) for a meeting focused on the topic of sources of power in the urban periphery to discuss standards of government and governance in large metropolitan areas like S\u00e3o Paulo, Paris, London, Milan and Mexico City. This was the fourth international seminar of the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM), whose goal was to identify similarities and differences among these cities by using case studies. Researchers identified one commonality in their research: the low level of federal involvement in public policies that have a direct impact on security in the cities analyzed.<\/p>\n

Different paths<\/strong>
\nDuring the 1990s, S\u00e3o Paulo was the first state to implement a policy of mass incarceration and create a system of maximum security prisons in addition to being the first state to witness the growth in the largest and most organized criminal faction in the country, the PCC. More than 20 yeas later, Feltran emphasizes that this model, rather than reducing criminality, led to its growth. At the same time, previous studies conducted show that in the 2000s, leaders from the criminal world were responsible for a significant reduction \u2013 almost 70% in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo, between 2000 and 2010 \u2013 in the murders of young black Brazilians (defined as both dark-skinned and light-skinned according to IBGE classifications) and slum dwellers, protecting communities and preventing murders to settle scores between members of the PCC.<\/p>\n

\"Members

Marcos Arcoverde\/AE<\/span>Members of the group Marcha da Periferia<\/em> protest against police violence in Rio de Janeiro in 2013Marcos Arcoverde\/AE<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Researcher Nancy Cardia, adjunct coordinator at USP\u2019s Center for the Study of Violence (NEV), another RIDC, says that the PCC\u2019s relationship with the surrounding community on the periphery of S\u00e3o Paulo is more complex and affects only one segment of the population. \u201cThe homicides continue, which shows that the PCC does not determine who lives and who dies.\u201d Cardia also says incarceration contributes to the problems of the State by creating a network of vulnerability \u2013 including the detained and family members \u2013 removing these people from close family relationships that could help with the prisoner\u2019s reintegration and thereby reduce their rates of recidivism in the prison system as well as criminal activity. \u201cWe have created a perverse system in which we guarantee recidivism with the emergence of these organizations and the management of these locales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feltran says that the way the \u201ccriminal world\u201d operates varies with the context. In S\u00e3o Paulo, for example, there are more similarities between the capital city and rural areas than there are between S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. \u201cPublic safety policies are determined on a state level,\u201d he points out. \u201cIn Rio, with a different local history and more emphasis on military control of territory \u2013 whether by criminal groups or the State \u2013 there are at least three important criminal factions, in addition to the militias.\u201d While the PCC monopolizes the state of S\u00e3o Paulo and from there spreads to other states, Rio is controlled by an oligopoly: the drug market is lead mainly by the Comando Vermelho<\/em> [Red Command] (CV) faction, Amigos dos Amigos<\/em> [Friends of Friends] (ADA) e Terceiro Comando<\/em> [Third Command]. \u201cThis was why, unlike in disputes in S\u00e3o Paulo, no pacification was achieved in Rio\u2019s disputes,\u201d explains Jo\u00e3o Manoel Pinho de Mello, a professor of economics at the Institute of Education and Research (Insper) in Rio, who studies criminality and public policy.<\/p>\n

Another peculiarity of Rio is the occupation of favelas by the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs), which has put security at the top of the list of State policy priorities, thereby requiring other social actors in these areas to readjust to the possibility of military occupation. \u201cFor example, the sale of drugs continues to take place in all of the favelas in Rio occupied by the UPP,\u201d according to Feltran. \u201cHowever, it can no longer be carried out with handheld rifles.\u201d Cardia says that relationships on the periphery of Brazilian cities are more complex and need further study to clarify the issues. \u201cIt is a challenge to find one simple explanation for what is happening on the periphery of Brazilian cities. This is a situation in transition, where both society and the city are being formed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nCEM \u2013 Center for Metropolitan Studies (n\u00ba 2013\/07616-7<\/a>); Grant mechanism\u00a0<\/strong>Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center (RIDC); Principal Investigator\u00a0<\/strong>Marta Arretche (FFLCH-USP); Investment <\/strong>R$ 7,124,108.20 (for the whole project).<\/p>\n

Scientific article<\/em>
\nFELTRAN, G. S. Valor dos pobres: A aposta no dinheiro como media\u00e7\u00e3o para o conflito social contempor\u00e2neo<\/a>. Caderno CRH<\/strong>. V. 27, pp. 495-512. 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crime, religion and State define relationships on the margins of major cities ","protected":false},"author":609,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[256,261],"coauthors":[1614],"class_list":["post-227028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-public-policies","tag-sociology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/609"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227028"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=227028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}