Between “Us” and “Them"

• Main Authors: Charles Klein, Milena Mateuzi Carmo, Alessandra Tavares
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2020-06-01
• Series: Revista de Antropologia
• Subjects: Political Subjectivities; Urban Peripheries; Race Relations; Intersectionality; Social Markers of Difference; Moralities
• Online Access: http://www.revistas.usp.br/ra/article/view/171482

This article examines political subjectivities, community engagements and voting practices among residents of São Paulo’s Zona Sul peripheries in the three years preceding Brazil’s 2018 presidential election. Building on a 398-person household survey, 46 in-depth interviews, and extensive participation observation over the course of a four-year study, we argue that although most residents of our study communities across the political spectrum are disenchanted with institutional politics, many maintain political engagement through their everyday lives, including activism centered on intersectional identities and state-sponsored violence/genocide. Our discussion combines statistical analysis and auto-ethnographic inflected vignettes and is in dialogue with two common themes present in recent analyses of the Brazilian political landscape: the role of urban periphery voters in the election of Bolsonaro, and the complex connections between moralities and political subjectivities. In conclusion, we reflect on opportunities and challenges for progressive political engagement in the (post)Bolsonaro era.