Um Rio de perigos e medos: o aspecto ameaçador da violência

Abstract

This thesis presents a perspective on the relationship between fear and urban violence, highlighting the contemporary features of this association within the context of Rio de Janeiro. This urban fabric is approached as a qualitative case study, with temporal and situational variation, aiming to observe the interaction between these elements through social practice. Accordingly, the beliefs that construct a threatening aspect in certain dangers associated with this type of violence constitute the object of the research, making it possible to identify a specific — and simultaneous — process of sedimentation and recognition of that which becomes subject to manifestations of fear in everyday life. The general objective of this research is to understand how a set of beliefs weaves together dangers and fears in the construction of a particular interpretive framework regarding urban violence, also seeking to understand how individuals make use of this framework in their everyday lives. This dissertation argues that such a framework — referred to as the threatening aspect of violence — is the result of processes inherent to the social accumulation of violence, especially those that transform the phenomenon into a sign of diffuse danger, a specter that symbolizes urban chaos. Positioned within this perspective as an auxiliary tool, the threatening aspect of violence is identified as a specific repository of meanings, grounded in threats that qualify the significance of violence, capable of structuring ways of inhabiting the city, relating to others, and occupying space on a daily basis. The enactment of actions embedded in the interplay between ways of thinking and modes of acting within this framework is mediated by manifestations of fear, which recognize the established consequences of threats and guide protective strategies for the continuation of life.