Security Policy, Social Networks, and Rio De Janeiro's Favelas Jason Bartholomew Scott Ph.D. Candidate D
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Pacified Inclusion: Security Policy, Social Networks, and Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas Jason Bartholomew Scott Ph.D. Candidate Department of Anthropology University of Colorado-Boulder A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosphy Department of Anthropology 2018 i This thesis entitled Pacified Inclusion: Security Policy, Social Networks, and Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas written by Jason Scott has been approved for the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado-Boulder Donna Goldstein Kaifa Roland Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB protocol # 13-0015 ii Scott, Jason Bartholomew (Ph.D., Anthropology) Pacified Inclusion: Security Policy, Social Networks, and Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas Thesis Directed by Professor Donna M. Goldstein Dissertation Abstract This dissertation addresses the connections between everyday violence and digital technology. I describe three years of ethnographic research concerning a community policing program called “pacificação ” (pacification) in a Brazilian favela (shanty town). 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. 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. During my observations of these programs, I found what I call a hidden politics of digital reproduction. Rather than disrupting the pacified favela’s social conditions, as proponents of digital inclusion suggested, technology disguised and reproduced longstanding forms of oppression. 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. 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. iii Dedication Seventy-four residents of the Complexo were killed during shootouts over the course my research. These deaths include mothers, fathers, taxi-drivers, and students. For many, neighbors only knew the nickname of the dead. Others were teenage drug traffickers who police could not identify. My friend, Betinho Casas Novas, recorded their names: Gabriel Ferreira Carvalho, Lucas Gustavo da Silva Lourenço, Dalva Arlindo de Assis, Caio Moraes da Silva, Catia Valeria Borges Alves, Antonio França, Matheus Alexandre Silva dos Santos, Anderson de Souza, Alexandre Dias, Marcus Helleno, Adriano Leite, Cesinha, Felipe, “Magrinho”, Rafael Coelho da Costa, Dona Emilia, Andre Luiz, Fernando Anselmo, Pessoa “Não Identificado”, Lucas Soares, Vanessa Abcassis dos Santos, Felipe Passos, Elizabeth de Moura Francisco, Rodrigo “Farinha”, Matheus Gomes Lima, Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira, Ramires Alencar, Jackson 'Paulista', Josimar Oliveira da Silva, “Não Identificado, “Não Identificado”, Wellington Marcelino, Fábio Monteiro, Matheus “Charope", “Meia Noite”, Pedro Henrique, Deyverson Avelino, Patrick da Silva de Souza, Carla Cristina Silva, Junior Santos, Ygor Quirino Lope, Emerson Tadeu Alvino, Aguinaldo José de Nascimento, Rafael Oliveira, Elaine Cristina, Ângelo de Oliveira Pereira, Roseli de Jesus, Edvan Melo dos Santos, Zé Bideu, Wallace Martins, Darlene da Silva Gonçalve, Babuino Luan, Davidson, Emerson Davi, “Não Identificado”, Leandro Motta Soares, “Não Identificado”, “Não Identificado”, Nilza “Tia Neném”, “Desconhecido”, “Desconhecido”, “Desconhecido”, Vinicius Freire, “Traficante Sem ID”, “Traficante Sem ID”, “Traficante Sem ID”, Ibra, “Traficante Sem ID”, Luiz Fernando de Jesus Melo, Gustavo de Souza, Bruno Silva, “Não identificado: Traficante”, Paulo Henrique de Oliveira, Felipe Farias, and Marinete Menezes Berto, and Kizumba. Alongside these names, there were an equal number of residents wounded by gunfire. The iv youngest victim was three years old and the oldest was seventy-eight years old. To borrow a phrase from the Complexo’s activist community, these individuals are “ presente ” (present) throughout my research. v Acknowledgements I thank the numerous NGOs and activists who offered me a critical space to observe Brazil. The Complexo-based NGOs Oca dos Curumins, Voz das Comunidade, and Raiz em Movimento were particularly central to my research. As a gringo from the Midwest United States, daily life in the Complexo often felt isolating. These NGOs and their members invited me into their lives and made me feel at home. Outside of the Complexo, the Committee for Digital Inclusion put me in touch with hundreds of Brazilians and international collaborators including street level activists in rural Brazil and multinational corporations. O Colectivo Digital, a São Paulo based NGO, wrote letters of support for me to government institutions and universities on two continents and in two languages. There were also dozens of other NGOs, both large and small, that opened their doors to me over the course of my research. I support their goals and hope that the world is positively changed by their vision. Countless teachers guided me through this research. Donna Goldstein inspired me to find humor in a grim place and showed me how to read the world. Rosemary Segurado gave me a chance to present my work to the Brazilian academy by writing letters of support and offering her classroom for me to present my research. My doctoral committee, including Carole McGranahan, Kaifa Roland, Rob Buffington, and Andrew Calabrese, gave me much needed notes. The Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays Program assisted this research with a generous, year-long dissertation grant. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder provided numerous small grants to help with preliminary and follow up work. Colorado’s CARTSS Program also provided me with a generous grant which vi sustained my first month of preliminary research. Graduate Teacher Program employed me, guided me professionally, and offered essential peer support while I was in Boulder. Family and friends gave me comfort during a demanding time of my life, where I relocated at least ten times in as many years and found myself challenged both professionally and spiritually. Maria Ramos opened her home to me and traveled long hours by city bus every few days to make sure I felt safe. Her love has been a constant throughout this project. There were also a number of individuals who put a roof over my head. When making monthly trip to São Paulo to meet with NGOs and academics, Lais Manzalli honored a standing invitation for me to sleep on her couch. Two hostels, LimeTime and Lisetonga, also gave me weeks of free room and board while I looked for my path off from the gringo trail. My mother and father allowed me to live with them while I waited for Brazil’s complex bureaucracy to deliver a string of research visas. vii Table of Contents Page Introduction ……………………………………............................................................ 1—33 Chapter One ……………………………………............................................................ 34—69 Chapter Two……………………………………............................................................. 70—103 Chapter Three……………………………………......................................................... 104--138 Chapter Four……………………………………........................................................... 139--174 Chapter Five……………………………………............................................................ 175--205 Chapter Six…………………………………….............................................................. 206--232 Chapter Seven…………………………………….......................................................... 233--263 Conclusion……………………………………................................................................ 264--275 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………. 276--295 viii Introduction … This dissertation looks at the relationship between digital technology and security policy in marginalized communities. I describe a group of social media activists from a favela (shantytown) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, named the Complexo do Alemão. I carried out three years of ethnographic research during a time in which the Complexo was known as Rio’s most violent and impoverished favela (2014–2016). Brazil’s federal government had recently installed a community policing policy called pacificação (pacification) that destabilized the Complexo's imperialistic drug gang, formalized a largely informal economy, and expanded social infrastructure. Inclusão digital (digital inclusion) projects played a notable role in the Complexo’s pacificação . A vanguard of online activists received backing from multinational corporations, international NGOs, and government ministries, acting as examples of digitally- included citizens who could connect a pacified favela with a global network society. Through ethnographic observation, I found that the disruptive and utopic potentials