Underground Sociabilities: Identity, culture and resistance in Rio de Janeiro's favelas S. Jovchelovitch and J. Priego-Hernandez (2013). Brasilia: UNESCO. ISBN: 978-85-7652-180-8 (original) (raw)

2015, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology

With the holding of the Football World Cup in Brazil this year and the Olympics in 2016, the situation of the poor in Rio de Janeiro and the chasm between the poor and the rich in that city is receiving more attention than usual in the world press. However, it is still difficult for outsiders to understand the reality of the situation. Who controls the favelas? Why do favela dwellers not move out of their environment and settle in other parts of the city? How can one reconcile the harsh conditions inside the favelas with the popular imagery of the carioca spirit: carnival, bossa nova, Carmen Miranda and her fruit hats, and the passion for football? Are these real but separate worlds, or are they just stereotypes which an outsider employs to simplify a much more complex picture? The authors of a recent book that explores these issues are Sandra Jovchelovitch and Jacqueline Priego-Hernandez. Because of their background, experiential and academic, they are ideally placed to bring to this work the sensibility of those who know well the situation in the favelas together with the analytic gaze of professional researchers of social psychological issues. This book examines the complexities of life in a favela. The book does not provide a historical exposition of how the favelas came to be or predict the future course of events. The authors give an in-depth analysis of the situation now, which they present with some optimism without minimising the arduous tasks ahead for everyone who is working to improve the circumstance of favela-dwellers. Rio de Janeiro is a cuidad partida, a divided city. The favela-dwellers, those living in the morro, the hills, are living a life made underground through social, political and geographical exclusions. But in spite of this, the authors describe how the favela-dwellers managed to construct an intricate web of sociabilities, which is often built around the festive, gutsy and defiant carioca nature of life within the favela itself. In the preface, Jovchelovich writes that the researchers 'wanted to understand how communities living under poverty and exclusion could produce positive responses and new pathways for social and individual development'. The protagonists of the book, apart from the favela-dwellers themselves, are the NGOs AfroReggae and Central Única das Favelas (CUFA) and the Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora-Police Pacification Units (UPPs). The backdrop to the story is organised crime and the drug trade, which often replaces the State in shaping life within the favelas. Residents must always take into account rules for daily life set by drug cartels and the police. Made famous in the 2005 award winning documentary 'Favela Rising', AfroReggae is an NGO established in 1993 by an ex-drug dealer in response to a massacre in 1993 when police entered a favela and killed 21 people as a retaliatory attack against the drug trade. This NGO attracts youths from the favelas by organising workshops on ethnic dance and music such as reggae, hip-hop and percussion. It shows young residents that education offers their best opportunity for social emancipation away from a life of violence of the drug trade on the one hand and police oppression on the other. CUFA is another movement, set up in 1999, which focuses its activities on education, culture and sports in order to empower the inhabitants of favelas to be able to help themselves, rather than relying on the State or the protection of the drug barons. The research described in this book draws on various data collection techniques, such as interviews and surveys. The authors employ narrative and factor analysis, amongst other techniques, to analyse the data. They try to understand how the activities of these NGO's, which are deeply embedded in the culture of the favelas, furnish the favela-dwellers with identities that