Publications by Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti
Several chapters that make up a large part of this book began life as papers presented at a 'Sout... more Several chapters that make up a large part of this book began life as papers presented at a 'Southern Perspectives' one-day research seminar at the University of Brighton in the early Summer of 2019. The purpose of the day was to draw together several academic/theoretical research and network connections to explore a range of emerging concerns relating to 'Southern Perspectives' in criminology and existing scholarship on colonialism and the decolonisation of the criminological imagination-or, in Agozino's terms-developing a critique of 'imperialist reason' (Agozino, 2003).
The recent extensive fires in the Amazon and Pantanal regions have alerted the global community t... more The recent extensive fires in the Amazon and Pantanal regions have alerted the global community to an unparalleled loss of biodiversity alongside irreparable damage to forest areas that are crucial to the world's climate regulation. Amid this ecological crisis lie the loss of human lives and new forms of political authoritarianism, state and corporate harms that go under-criminalized. According to Global Witness' latest report (2020), 212 land and environmental defenders were murdered in 2019, making it the deadliest year of killings on record. Over half of these reported killings occurred in Colombia (64), the Philippines (43) and Brazil (24) (2020, 9). Despite scientific and political recognition of the important role played
In recent years, Brazil has experienced rising violence against activists and increasing deforest... more In recent years, Brazil has experienced rising violence against activists and increasing deforestation levels in the Amazon. The processes leading to those events are not new. However, various discourses and events have intensified and underpinned extractive interests during Bolsonaro's government. Hence, this article analyses the relationship between the State and activists in the Brazilian Amazon region between 2019 and 2022. It focuses on three regional paradigmatic case studies: (1) the ongoing gold miners' (garimpeiros) invasion of the Yanomami territory; (2) the arrest of four environmentalists accused of setting fire to the forest in 2019; and (3) the murder of the journalist Dominic Phillips and the Indigenist Bruno Pereira in 2022. The case studies utilise publicly available data from reports, interviews, press releases and newspaper articles. Our main objective is to provide an overview of the characteristics of an increasingly antagonistic relationship between activists and the State. Drawing on those cases, the article builds on mobilisation theories, particularly Political Process Theories. Our central argument is that there are evident differences in the forms of repression activists face during far-right governments. This context shapes activism distinctively in the Amazonian region because violence routinely challenges social and environmental justice activism. Moreover, the current violence points to broader social questions and struggles between activists and agents of repression.
The struggles of our contemporary moment, the deepening of social inequalities around the world, ... more The struggles of our contemporary moment, the deepening of social inequalities around the world, the rise of authoritarian governments, the routine violence of corporations, state institutions, and state agents, as well as the contestation of these circumstances from grassroots groups and social movements-all inspired our initial symposium at the University of Brighton in 2019. Since then, the world entered the global COVID19 pandemic, and international struggles against racism, police violence, and structural political and economic exclusions have gathered momentum trying to disrupt the continuum of interlocking forms of oppression. More recently, new wars have started, reminding us that as we move from one conjuncture to another, this dialogue around repression and resistance is unfinished, it is a beginning, rather than an endpoint to moments of change.
Several obstacles and challenges interfere with the process of conducting research with police ag... more Several obstacles and challenges interfere with the process of conducting research with police agencies, particularly since these agencies are traditionally closed to the public. This chapter draws on the experience and development of a project on police perceptions of legitimacy and authority in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It introduces the Brazilian context, reflecting on the fieldwork with civil and military police organisations. Such research requires negotiating issues relating to trust and access to deeply hierarchical institutions and navigating questions of secrecy and silence inside state institutions, which can complicate research outputs. Once we gained access, our immersion in the field for conducting a mixed method research project transformed into an accidental ethnography of policing. Our reflection on field notes provides insights into a wider range of practices and perceptions that would otherwise remain obscured through our initially proposed methods, including surveys and interviews. The approach of analysing researchers' observations in the field indicates that a range of social inequalities and vulnerabilities affecting both researchers and those being researched are revealed through immersion. This analysis sheds light on broader questions pertaining to the social and cultural context within which the police operate in Brazil.
This article examines how the persecution of dissenting and marginalized populations in Brazil ha... more This article examines how the persecution of dissenting and marginalized populations in Brazil has intensified under the banner of crime control since the rise of the far-right to mainstream politics. Through decolonial lenses (Walsh and Mignolo 2018; Dimou 2021), it explores the ways in which anti-human rights discourses and Brazil’s myth of racial democracy relate to the legacy of colonialism in the experiences of urban poor and racialized communities. The aims of this work are to interrogate social relations and critically engage with the intensification of authoritarian neoliberal forms of governance. Reflecting on examples, such as the persecution and criminalization of political opponents, this article sheds light on examples of how coloniality is continuously reproduced in the politics of backlash that have become globally prevalent. The politics of backlash, as a variant of contested politics, often fuelled by anger and resentment, are central in the construction of retrograde and discriminatory transformations (Alter and Zürn 2020). By examining cases in Brazil, the article offers an analysis of how ‘coloniality’ (Quijano 1992; Walsh and Mignolo 2018) enriches critical understandings of the inequalities and discourses that operate to dispossess, silence, persecute and criminalize thousands of people.
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 9(2): 102-118, 2020
What is the connection between the university strikes, transparency and male entitlement?
Few studies have examined the relations between urban marginalised youth and the public security ... more Few studies have examined the relations between urban marginalised youth and the public security system in the northeast of Brazil. This article addresses this gap in the literature through an examination of youth perceptions of a security programme aimed at reducing violence. It also analyses the effects of this security program by interrogating the hegemonic discourses of state-actors in the region, namely, agents of the criminal justice system. The analysis draws on ethnographic data collected between 2012 and 2016 in Recife, the capital city of the state of Pernambuco in the northeast of Brazil. This approach permits an examination of the nature of new security interventions, and a comparison between two distinct narratives about this new securitisation agenda. One overarching narrative focuses on young people’s vulnerabilities, the other on claims of successful securitisation. An analysis of these narratives widens understandings of the effects and risks of security interventions, contributing to a debate about their impact on young people’s lives and society at large.
Gender Studies Network Occasional Working Paper, 2017
This article contributes to the literature on feminist methods (Alcoff 1991, Kirsch 2005, Ryan-Fl... more This article contributes to the literature on feminist methods (Alcoff 1991, Kirsch 2005, Ryan-Flood and Gill 2010, Sharp and Kremer 2006) by analysing gendered aspects of conducting research in understudied low-income communities in the northeast of Brazil. The paper provides reflections on the experience of being a female researcher embodying reproduction and production while doing fieldwork. From a feminist perspective, the article draws on auto-ethnographic field notes written during the first data collection period of the study (June-October 2013) in Recife. In addition, I explore gendered and class-based attitudes towards my status as a pregnant researcher. An investigation of the methodological and gendered challenges I faced allows for an analysis of the ways in which patriarchal relations currently manifest themselves in some academic field work sites. It exposes some of the ways in which masculine hegemony affects female researchers’ experiences in the field. The evidence presented reveals that the experience of being a woman, and pregnant, in the Global South, can expose researchers to extended dimensions of existing social inequalities, beyond the gender, class and racial inequalities that are visibly apparent in the landscape and demographic statistics of divided cities and workplaces. This paper suggests that further research is necessary to examine how gender relations manifest during fieldwork and how the problems they cause can be addressed.
This article analyses the factors behind the paradoxical result of the Brazilian gun-control refe... more This article analyses the factors behind the paradoxical result of the Brazilian gun-control referendum. It adopts a qualitative approach to explore the dissemination of ideologies surrounding crime, gun control and security. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with activists involved in the referendum's campaign. The results reveal that ideologically driven campaigns in a context of corruption scandals, high levels of violence and fear influenced the result. The neoliberal discourse of individual freedoms played a role, as did the phrasing of the referendum's question, fragile confidence in public institutions and unequal campaign funding and regulation.
Criminal Justice Matters, Aug 19, 2013
Cavalcanti, R., Goldsmith, C., Lea, J., Measor, L., Squires, P. & Wolff, D. (2011). Youth and Community: Connections and Disconnections. AHRC. (Online) This literature scoping project engaged with a series of issues concerning the ‗connectedness&... more This literature scoping project engaged with a series of issues concerning the ‗connectedness' of young people with their communities and community agencies. We consulted research which has explored the life-worlds of young people in materially poor ...
Papers by Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti
Bristol University Press eBooks, May 18, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Mar 19, 2020
Bristol University Press eBooks, May 18, 2023
Pocos estudios han examinado las relaciones entre la juventud marginada en las urbes y el sistema... more Pocos estudios han examinado las relaciones entre la juventud marginada en las urbes y el sistema de seguridad pública en el noreste de Brasil. Este artículo aborda esta brecha en la literatura a través de un examen de las percepciones juveniles en una agenda de seguridad dirigida a reducir la violencia. También analiza los efectos de este programa de seguridad al interrogar los discursos hegemónicos de actores estatales en la región, a saber, agentes del sistema de justicia penal. El análisis se basa en datos etnográficos recopilados entre 2012 y 2016 en Recife, ciudad capital del estado de Pernambuco en el noreste de Brasil. Este enfoque permite un examen de las nuevas intervenciones de seguridad y una comparación entre dos distintas narrativas sobre esta nueva agenda de securitización. La primera narrativa se centra en las vulnerabilidades de los jóvenes, la otra en los reclamos de securitización exitosa. Un análisis de estas narrativas amplía la comprensión de los efectos y riesgos de las intervenciones de seguridad, contribuyendo al debate sobre su impacto en la vida de los jóvenes y la sociedad en general. INTRODUCCIÓN Ha surgido una literatura importante que identifica el tema de la violencia juvenil en las comunidades urbanas pobres de todo el mundo (Feltran, 2011; Hagedorn, Davis y Ebrary, 2008). En Brasil, estas comunidades a menudo se denominan favelas (barrios marginales y asentamientos informales) y periferias (áreas periféricas). Los extraños tienden a percibir estas comunidades como lugares indeseables para vivir. Son barrios de clase trabajadora donde viven trabajadores
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Publications by Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti
Papers by Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti