Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro

Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro is a book by Janice Perlman published by Oxford University Press in 2010.[1] It primarily documents the experiences and history relayed through conversation by locals to Perlman during her time living in the informal settlements surrounding Rio de Janeiro. The author also provides her own interpretation of social relations within these communities, and discusses the manner in which residents have shaped their collective destinies through the formation of associations.[2]

Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro
AuthorJanice E. Perlman
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date
2010
Media typePrint
Pages412
ISBN978-0-19-536836-9

Synopsis

Favela is effectively a sequel to The Myth of Marginality (1976), in that much of the book consists of Perlman attempting to retrace the steps she took while living among favela residents between 1968 and 1969.[3] However, she begins this particular narrative with a more detailed history of the favelas and other variants of the "informal city" surrounding Rio de Janeiro: including the loteamentos, a vast community of squatter plots on the western outskirts of the city; and the conjuntos, characterized as cement, prism-shaped apartment complexes built by the government to accommodate evicted favela inhabitants.[4] Additionally, Perlman contextualizes mass-migration to Rio de Janeiro in the early twentieth century as a precursor to the unprecedented urbanization and the formation of mega-cities across much of the developing world in later decades, along with the further outgrowth and increased population density of the favelas since 1990.[5]

Perlman then describes her experiences revisiting the communities and individuals she had come to know during her previous year of study in Brazil, addressing specifically how conditions in the neighborhoods have changed and remained constant over the past 40 years. She is only able to locate and contact 41 percent of the 750 respondents to the original study, and one of the three favelas, Catacumba, has been entirely razed since she lived there with a host family. In order to compensate for this, Perlman gathers a significant quantity of information regarding how community and family structures have withstood the combined tests of time and geographic displacement.[6]

The next portion of the book concerns itself with the roots of contemporary violence in the favelas. Perlman presents a list of ten central factors, which she believes to be the largest contributors to the high rates of violent crime in Rio de Janeiro based on her personal observations. These can be collectively summarized as the confluence of endemic structural inequality, a lucrative drug market, vigilantism, divisive media outlets, and a well-armed but corrupt and undisciplined police force. Perlman exclaims that together, these harmful actors wage a "war against the poor" through their lack of concern for those caught in the crossfire of the conflict between them.[7]

Perlman attempts to establish an accurate representation of favela residents' rates of civic engagement and faith in government, specifically comparing current survey responses with those provided by favela residents living under the Brazilian military government. She finds that since the period of military dictatorship, interviewees' belief in the importance and validity of their own civic engagement has grown exponentially; however, faith in government has declined at roughly the same rate. Moreover, actual reported civic engagement has remained comparatively unchanged over the 40-year period.[8] Upon incorporating the responses of the children and grandchildren of her original interviewees into this poll, the author finds younger Brazilians to have, on average, a far more pessimistic outlook on their democracy. This finding is suggested to be the product of many youths living at home or joining gangs instead of working or receiving higher education, and the continued ineffectiveness of public officials in addressing the problems raised to attention by their constituents.[9]

Critical Reception

Writing for the May-June 2010 issue of Foreign Affairs, Richard Feinberg stated that Perlman wrote "with compassion, artistry, and intelligence, using stirring personal stories to illustrate larger points substantiated with statistical analysis."[10]

The book was also heavily praised in the journal Social Forces, where Alessandro Angelini called it an "invaluable achievement" that had earned its popularity among scholars of urban issues.[11] Angelini also criticized Perlman's approach on certain fronts, however, including her alleged failure to quantify political and social activism among young people on criteria other than voter registration and formal organizational membership.[12]

References
  1. Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 2010-06-10. ISBN 9780195368369.
  2. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  3. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 12-8. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  4. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 24-36. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  5. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 41-58. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  6. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  7. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 173-87. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  8. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 210-3. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  9. Perlman, Janice (2010). Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 217-8. ISBN 978-0-19-536836-9.
  10. "Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro; Ordinary Families, Extraordinary Lives: Assets and Poverty Reduction in Guayaquil, 1978-2004". Foreign Affairs (May/June 2010). 2010-04-20. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  11. Angelini, Alessandro (1 March 2015). "Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro". Social Forces. 93 (3): 3. doi:10.1093/sf/sos164.
  12. Angelini, Alessandro (1 March 2015). "Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro by Janice Perlman". Social Forces. 93 (3): 2. doi:10.1093/sf/sos164.
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