Favela Associations: Agency between Repression, Violence and Politics

The article analyzes the dynamics and structures of oppression and marginalization of favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as well as the modalities of agency that members of favela residents’ associations have used to respond to the changing situation. I analyze the spatial differentiation to favela and the formal parts of the city, and how this is reflected in notion of how the favelas and its residents are characterized. Some single elements, such as violence, have been taken as markers to define the whole space of the favelas as well as its residents. In the state policies, the views as well as the agency of favela residents has often been ignored, treating the favela residents as only subjects of different politics and measures. I will present the analysis the members of the favela associations make of state politics, and how their own modalities of agency have contributed both to maintain the structures of oppression as well as challenged it. The focus is on the favela residents’ associations in two favelas of Southern Rio.