The Spectacular Favela: Violence in Modern Brazil

by Erika Mary Robb Larkins

In Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, traffickers assert power through conspicuous displays of wealth and force, brandishing high-powered guns, gold jewelry, and piles of cash and narcotics. Police, for their part, conduct raids reminiscent of action films or video games, wearing masks and riding in enormous armored cars called “big skulls.” Images of these spectacles circulate constantly in local, national, and global media, masking everyday forms of violence, prejudice, and inequality. The Spectacular Favela offers a rich ethnographic examination of the political economy of spectacular violence in Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela. Based on more than two years of residence in the community, the book explores how entangled forms of violence shape everyday life and how that violence is, in turn, connected to the market economy.

Erika Robb Larkins shows how favela violence is produced as a marketable global brand. While this violence is projected in disembodied form through media, the favela is also sold as an embodied experience through the popular practice of favela tourism. The commodification of the favela becomes a form of violence itself; favela violence is transformed into a commercially viable byproduct of a profit-driven war on drugs, which serves to keep the poor marginalized. This book tells the story of how traffickers, police, cameras, tourists, and even anthropologists come together to create what the author calls the “spectacular favela.”

Genres: Anthropology, Academic

252 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2015

Reviews

[Britt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it for a course on Violence and Security, but even without the course I would have read it. It is nicely written and definitely understandable for non-anthropologists/students, without it getting boring. Robb Larkins nicely mixes vignettes and stories with theory and she discusses an interesting context.
However, I would have liked more from the perspective of the police/state, because I felt that was missing.
Overall, great, interesting read.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

solid!! it was really thought-provoking, i can honestly say that i learned a lot and that it made me consider a lot of things. my favorite chapter was probably the one on tourism and how it affects favela residents and local economies, but the epilogue where robb larkins reflects on her own relationship to the favela is also really really interesting and good. it also felt quite accessible!