Browsing by Author "Saaristo, Saila-Maria"

The topic of this research is the residents' associations of two favelas/slums of Rio de Janeiro. These associations have been significant agents in improving the conditions in the favelas and the position of their residents in the society. In my work I introduce this process and the different strategies the residents' associations have used to achieve these goals. From a wider point of view my research deals with power and the power structures of the Brazilian state and the values that the state represents as a kind of a hegemony in the Brazilian society. I did my fieldwork from July 2007 to June 2008, living in the favela of Babilônia and doing at the same time an intership at UN-Habitat, which has the regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Rio de Janeiro. My research material shows that the active members of the residents' associations have been able to mould the politics of the state, invert their impacts and that they have also shaped the picture of a favela resident in the society. However, the agency of the favela residents and their associations faces serious limitations: an active agency becomes almost impossible due to external factors. At the moment, the violence related to drug trafficking prevents many activities in the favelas. The Brazilian clientelistic political culture and the corrupt practices of both the police forces and the politicians do not contribute to solve the problem of the violence. The fact that the youth often join the drug gangs can be analyzed as resistance identity. Reforms in order to improve the political system, the police forces and the justice system to a more democratical direction would be necessary to start to solve the current violent situation. The conscience of the people of their situation is closely related to their capacity to act. The cultural capital created by education contributes to challenge the lack of economical, physical, or social capital. People who have worked in the residents' associations for longer periods gain cultural capital, and through that they are recognized as legitimate experts of the favela life also in the contexts outside of the favelas. The cases of Babilônia and Chapéu Mangueira seem to prove that the power structures in the favelas have been moulded more successfully with peaceful tactics. The more radical tactics have only contributed to alienate the favela residents even more from the wider society.