- Sociology, Rural Development, Environmental Sociology, Brazilian Studies, Rural Sociology, Sustainable Rural Development, and 31 moreAmazonia, Poverty (Sociology), Semiarid Ecosystems, Political Science, Social Sciences, Development Studies, Latin American Studies, Political Sociology, Climate Change, Drought, Nordeste do Brasil, Smallholder Farmers & Poverty Alleviation, Semiárido, Environmental Sustainability, Climate Change Adaptation, Brazil, Perception, Politics, Clientelismo, Poverty, Programa Bolsa Família, Social Policy, Pobreza, Political Clientelism, Voting Behavior, Citizenship and Identity, Politics Of Social Policy, Poverty and Inequality, Pauvreté, Social Inequality, and Street-Level Bureaucracyedit
- Flávio Eiró is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Radboud University (Nijmegen, Netherlands) at the Anthropology a... moreFlávio Eiró is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Radboud University (Nijmegen, Netherlands) at the Anthropology and Development Studies department. He is a researcher in the ERC-funded project "Participatory urban governance between democracy and clientelism: brokers and (in)formal politics"(2017-2020), which entails an ethnographical comparison of four cities: Recife, Medellín, Manchester e Rotterdam.
He holds a B.A. in Sociology (2009) and a M.Sc. in Sustainable Development (2012) from the University of Brasília. He also holds a M.Sc. (2012) and a Ph.D. (2017) in Sociology from the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS-Paris). He has received a Master and PhD grant from the CAPES Foundation - Brazilian Ministry of Education.edit
In a context where personal relationships play a central role in structuring political life—some kind of personalist politics that is often identified as “clientelist” or as “patronage politics”—how do you make the distinction between... more
In a context where personal relationships play a central role in structuring political life—some kind of personalist politics that is often identified as “clientelist” or as “patronage politics”—how do you make the distinction between “normal” and “deviant” political behavior? Which, and under what circumstances, illegal activities are considered a normal part of the electoral process? This chapter addresses these questions from a socioanthropological perspective, analyzing the use of anti-poverty programs for vote-buying purposes in Northeast Brazil. More specifically, the goal of this chapter is to describe the mobilization of a political machine involving anti-poverty programs during election times. The aim here is to describe the dynamics of vote buying in Northeast Brazil in order to identify the actors involved and how they take part in the political machine.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This thesis’ object is the poverty regulation in Brazil within the framework of the ‘Bolsa Família’ Programme, a conditional cash transfer social policy assembling several elements of the debate and the experience of poverty in Brazil.... more
This thesis’ object is the poverty regulation in Brazil within the framework of the ‘Bolsa Família’ Programme, a conditional cash transfer social policy assembling several elements of the debate and the experience of poverty in Brazil. This work explains how the mechanisms of poverty regulation interact with local citizenship practices. In effect, the access of the poor to social rights and the exercise of their political rights are both object of a process of regulation by family values in a context of strong social inequalities. Beyond the fact that social assistance depends on family organisation, the implementation of the ‘Bolsa Família’ Programme is based on informal rules, reflecting the dominant social representations of poverty in Brazil. In addition, the allocation of social benefits depends in part on personalised rapports between the programme’s beneficiaries and political candidates and elected representatives. This work is based on a case study in the Northeast region of Brazil—in a middle-sized municipality of the Ceará state. An ethnographic approach allowed the identification of the logic of operation of a political machine involving social assistance, elected officials, social workers and beneficiaries. More generally, this thesis examines the interactions between the poor and the society as a whole, from a local perspective of contemporary issues of poverty regulation and contributes to the study of the political and electoral use of social assistance.
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O artigo se propõe a discutir as diferentes formas de mal uso de recursos públicos ligados ao programa de construção de cisternas P1MC. Se tal programa é responsável por uma transformação material radical na vida da população mais pobre... more
O artigo se propõe a discutir as diferentes formas de mal uso de recursos públicos ligados ao programa de construção de cisternas P1MC. Se tal programa é responsável por uma transformação material radical na vida da população mais pobre da região, seus efeitos sobre as estruturas tradicionais de dominação não são claros. A questão principal que orienta este trabalho é: transformadas as condições materiais, como evolui a dependência em um contexto marcado pela dominação de uma elite que utiliza a pobreza como meio de reprodução? Se a restrição hídrica continua a servir os interesses de uma elite local para se manter no poder, pode-se falar em clientelismo no caso do P1MC? Para responder tais questões, o artigo baseia-se em pesquisa de campo realizada em oito municípios de Pernambuco e Bahia, combinando entrevistas institucionais e visitas a domicílios rurais. Em uma perspectiva histórica, e através da análise das entrevistas realizadas, o artigo demonstra como o P1MC não promove o fim de práticas clientelistas, mas em conjunto com outras políticas existentes, contribui para uma mudança radical na situação dos mais pobres, não só material, mas também em relação aos patrões e demais atores que controlam o acesso a recursos públicos no Nordeste.
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Resumo: Este artigo tem por objetivos testar a aplicabilidade da teoria da sociedade de risco de Ulrich Beck para a sociedade brasileira contemporânea e analisar a distribuição social da percepção de risco associada às mudanças climáticas... more
Resumo: Este artigo tem por objetivos testar a aplicabilidade da teoria da sociedade de risco de
Ulrich Beck para a sociedade brasileira contemporânea e analisar a distribuição social da percepção
de risco associada às mudanças climáticas e ao aquecimento global. Para tanto, é feita
uma revisão de teorias de risco, além de uma discussão crítica de sua aplicação ao caso das mudanças
climáticas. Em seguida são apresentados resultados de pesquisa, verificando o efeito de
diferentes variáveis sociodemográficas na percepção de risco. Os dados advêm de pesquisa de
opinião pública em território nacional, com amostra estratificada por conglomerados. O principal
resultado alcançado diz respeito à homogeneidade da percepção de risco, por meio de diferentes
categorias sociais ou contextos geográficos. As únicas categorias que apresentaram influências
significativas na avaliação da percepção de risco foram renda familiar e escolaridade, ambas com
relação positiva.
Ulrich Beck para a sociedade brasileira contemporânea e analisar a distribuição social da percepção
de risco associada às mudanças climáticas e ao aquecimento global. Para tanto, é feita
uma revisão de teorias de risco, além de uma discussão crítica de sua aplicação ao caso das mudanças
climáticas. Em seguida são apresentados resultados de pesquisa, verificando o efeito de
diferentes variáveis sociodemográficas na percepção de risco. Os dados advêm de pesquisa de
opinião pública em território nacional, com amostra estratificada por conglomerados. O principal
resultado alcançado diz respeito à homogeneidade da percepção de risco, por meio de diferentes
categorias sociais ou contextos geográficos. As únicas categorias que apresentaram influências
significativas na avaliação da percepção de risco foram renda familiar e escolaridade, ambas com
relação positiva.
Research Interests:
Percepção, vulnerabilidade e adaptação formam o tripé conceptual dos estudos recentes sobre o impacto social da Mudança Climática. Considerando sua interdependência, e relativa deficiência de estudos do primeiro destes termos, esse... more
Percepção, vulnerabilidade e adaptação formam o tripé conceptual dos estudos recentes sobre o impacto social da Mudança Climática. Considerando sua interdependência, e relativa deficiência de estudos do primeiro destes termos, esse trabalho se concentra na construção social de risco associado à mudanças do clima de produtores rurais familiares do Semiárido brasileiro, a partir da teoria da “sociedade de risco” proposta por Ulrich Beck. A pesquisa é apoiada em pesquisa de campo realizada em quatro municípios do Sertão do São Francisco baiano em 2011. O principal resultado alcançado diz respeito à homogeneidade da percepção de risco através das diferentes categorias sociais. Esse fato é atribuído ao caráter imperceptível dos riscos modernos, e ao papel da mídia de massa na construção dessa percepção de risco. A percepção de risco é associada com a intensificação de fenômenos já conhecidos, limitando adaptações nos sistemas de produção agrícola. Não sendo identificados processos de maior abrangência, e que poderiam ser irreversíveis, não existem novas adaptações difundidas motivadas por uma nova condição climática.
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Based on the “risk society” theory proposed by Ulrich Beck, this work examines the social construction of risk associated with climate change and global warming. Following the theoretical overview and a discussion on its application in... more
Based on the “risk society” theory proposed by Ulrich Beck, this work examines the social construction of risk associated with climate change and global warming. Following the theoretical overview and a discussion on its application in the case of climate change, two different surveys are exposed. The first in a national level, in Brazil, and the second in two rural areas in the Amazon and the semiarid Brazilians regions, taken place at the state of Acre and Bahia, respectively. The main result achieved is with regard to the homogeneity of risk perception across different social categories and geographical contexts. This fact is attributed to the imperceptible nature of modern risks, and the role of mass media in the construction of risk perception. At national level, the only demographic categories that showed significant influences on the assessment of risk perception were income and education, both with a positive relationship. Among the rural areas studied, it appears that while in Acre perception of risk is associated with local causes and events, such as deforestation and burning, in Bahia it is associated with the intensification of already known phenomena. However, the consequences of these social constructions are similar: not being seen as a process of wider scope, and possibly irreversible, no widely spread adaptation processes were found, which would be motivated by a new climate condition, as described by the interviewees. Changes in the different production activities remain punctual, from individual initiatives.
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The Semi-Arid region of Brazil (SAB) has been periodically affected by moderate to extreme droughts, jeopardizing livelihoods and severely impacting the life standards of millions of family farmers. In the early 1990s the Human... more
The Semi-Arid region of Brazil (SAB) has been periodically affected by moderate to extreme droughts, jeopardizing livelihoods and severely impacting the life standards of millions of family farmers. In the early 1990s the Human Coexistence with Semi-Aridity (HCSA) emerged as a development approach. The debate on HCSA is limited to Brazilian literature but as a technological and a bottom-up governance experience, researches on the topic could add some insights to international debate on living with drought. The present paper adopts an historical perspective on HCSA before discussing the main HCSA's rainwater-harvesting methods found in two case studies in the SAB as a local appropriate and advanced technological package for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Qualitative analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews with key local stakeholders, 29 unstructured interviews with family farmers, and surveys in 499 family farms are used. The results show that regardless the highly adaptive potential, the technologies are adopted in differ rates among them and in between case studies chosen, influenced by non-technological factors and interacting the broader public policies context. Scaling up the HCSA's technologies in the rural SAB is a development path towards the SDGs.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This gallery is one of the results of fieldwork conducted in the Brazilian semi-arid region between 2011 and 2013, in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí and Ceará. Around 1,140 family farmers were interviewed.... more
This gallery is one of the results of fieldwork conducted in the Brazilian semi-arid region between 2011 and 2013, in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí and Ceará. Around 1,140 family farmers were interviewed.
The four case studies were selected through a combination of socioeconomic and climate characteristics, in order to compose a representative sample of the micro-regional vulnerabilities of the region. This project was carried out as a part of the Brazilian Research Network on Global Climate Change’s sub-network dealing with Climate Change and Regional Development. The focus on smallholder farming in Brazil’s Northeast is important because this sector is highly sensitive to climate stimuli, has a weak capacity to deal with and prevent impacts of climate variability, and is an important source of food production in Brazil.
The four case studies were selected through a combination of socioeconomic and climate characteristics, in order to compose a representative sample of the micro-regional vulnerabilities of the region. This project was carried out as a part of the Brazilian Research Network on Global Climate Change’s sub-network dealing with Climate Change and Regional Development. The focus on smallholder farming in Brazil’s Northeast is important because this sector is highly sensitive to climate stimuli, has a weak capacity to deal with and prevent impacts of climate variability, and is an important source of food production in Brazil.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A mudança climática representa um risco relevante para a produção rural familiar, especialmente no Semiárido brasileiro, historicamente afetado pela variabilidade climática e por extremos de seca. Compreender como os sistemas... more
A mudança climática representa um risco relevante para a produção rural familiar, especialmente no Semiárido brasileiro, historicamente afetado pela variabilidade climática e por extremos de seca. Compreender como os sistemas agropecuários familiares são vulneráveis e se adaptam aos estímulos climáticos, dentro da perspectiva do desenvolvimento sustentável (DS), é uma demanda crescente nas agendas científica e política. Os objetivos deste trabalho são: analisar os impactos e a adaptação da agricultura familiar à variabilidade e aos extremos climáticos, e as potenciais relações com o DS. Para tal, toma como estudo de caso quatro municípios do semiárido baiano: Uauá, Remanso, Casa Nova e Juazeiro. Os resultados apontam impactos e respostas diferentes entre os municípios, apesar da proximidade espacial. Determinantes ambientais e tecnológicos foram centrais. Uauá, localizado distante do Rio São Francisco, sofreu os maiores impactos climáticos na série histórica considerada. Já Remanso, dispondo de grande área de vazante, beneficiou-se em eventos extremos de seca. Por sua vez, Juazeiro e Casa Nova destacam-se pelas extensas áreas irrigadas que amenizam os efeitos da seca, mas que levantam importantes questões de equidade no acesso ao recurso hídrico. Este e outros dilemas entre adaptação e DS são discutidos ao longo do artigo.
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In: Mudança do Clima no Brasil: aspectos econômicos, sociais e regulatórios
Editores: Ronaldo Seroa da Motta Jorge Hargrave Gustavo Luedemann Maria Bernadete Sarmiento Gutierrez
IPEA: Brasília, 2011
Editores: Ronaldo Seroa da Motta Jorge Hargrave Gustavo Luedemann Maria Bernadete Sarmiento Gutierrez
IPEA: Brasília, 2011
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Research Interests:
Smallholder farming is among the most vulnerable sectors due to its great social and economic sensitivity. Despite future climate change, current climate variability is already an issue of concern that justifies adaptation efforts. In... more
Smallholder farming is among the most vulnerable sectors due to its great social and economic sensitivity. Despite future climate change, current climate variability is already an issue of concern that justifies adaptation efforts. In Brazil, the Semi-Arid Region is a climate hotspot, well known for both historic socioeconomic setbacks, and agriculture failures caused by dry spells and severe droughts. In 2010, the Brazilian government enacted the National Policy on Climate Change, which states as one of its key goals the identification of vulnerabilities and the adoption of adequate measures of adaptation to climate change. The improvement of vulnerability assessment tools is a response to the growing demand of decision makers for regular information and indicators with high spatial and temporal resolution. This article aims at undertaking a comparative assessment of smallholder farming’s vulnerability to droughts. An integrated assessment system has been developed and applied to seven municipalities located in the Brazilian Semi-Arid Region (within the State of Ceará). Results show regional vulnerability contrasts driven by institutional and socioeconomic factors, beyond climatic stressors.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Thomas D. Rogers The Deepest Wounds: A Labor and Environmental History of Sugar in Northeast Brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Maria Helena Moreira Alves and Philip Evanson Living in the Crossfire: Favela... more
Thomas D. Rogers The Deepest Wounds: A Labor and Environmental History of Sugar in Northeast Brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Maria Helena Moreira Alves and Philip Evanson Living in the Crossfire: Favela Residents, Drug Dealers, and Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011.
Timothy J. Power and Matthew M. Taylor (eds.) Corruption and Democracy in Brazil: The Struggle for Accountability. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011.
Wendy Hunter The Transformation of the Workers’ Party in Brazil, 1989–2009. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
In recent years Brazil has been in the international spotlight for events ranging from Lula’s election in 2002 and the creation of the Bolsa Família program to the country’s rapid economic development and corruption scandals. More recently, attention has been given to the country’s increasing participation in the United Nations, its major economic role in the creation of the BRICS Bank, and, finally, the economic and political crises of the current year. Although these are new topics, recent work in the social sci- ences about Brazil is facing the classic question framed by Roberto DaMatta (1997): “What makes brazil Brazil?”
Maria Helena Moreira Alves and Philip Evanson Living in the Crossfire: Favela Residents, Drug Dealers, and Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011.
Timothy J. Power and Matthew M. Taylor (eds.) Corruption and Democracy in Brazil: The Struggle for Accountability. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011.
Wendy Hunter The Transformation of the Workers’ Party in Brazil, 1989–2009. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
In recent years Brazil has been in the international spotlight for events ranging from Lula’s election in 2002 and the creation of the Bolsa Família program to the country’s rapid economic development and corruption scandals. More recently, attention has been given to the country’s increasing participation in the United Nations, its major economic role in the creation of the BRICS Bank, and, finally, the economic and political crises of the current year. Although these are new topics, recent work in the social sci- ences about Brazil is facing the classic question framed by Roberto DaMatta (1997): “What makes brazil Brazil?”
Research Interests:
By Martijn Koster and Flávio Eiró
Research Interests:
Full paper: https://www.icrnetwork.org/app/download/11088131821/ICR_Forum_Amsterdam_Conference_Procedings.pdf?t=1498220477 The first goal was to show the contribution of qualitative methods in corruption research, by showing how different... more
Full paper: https://www.icrnetwork.org/app/download/11088131821/ICR_Forum_Amsterdam_Conference_Procedings.pdf?t=1498220477
The first goal was to show the contribution of qualitative methods in corruption research, by showing how different types of data can give access to dimensions of corruption neglected or overlooked by other methods. The second goal was to debunk the myth that certain research topics demand specific methods, thus helping participants choose the most suitable method for their own research, or to make the most out of a given method.
The first goal was to show the contribution of qualitative methods in corruption research, by showing how different types of data can give access to dimensions of corruption neglected or overlooked by other methods. The second goal was to debunk the myth that certain research topics demand specific methods, thus helping participants choose the most suitable method for their own research, or to make the most out of a given method.
Research Interests:
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences’ (IUAES) Inter-Congress “World Solidarities” August 27-31, Poznan, Poland CfP for the panel ‘Urban struggles: governance, resistance and solidarity’ Across the globe, a... more
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences’ (IUAES) Inter-Congress “World Solidarities”
August 27-31, Poznan, Poland
CfP for the panel ‘Urban struggles: governance, resistance and solidarity’
Across the globe, a growing number of urban dwellers struggle to meet even the most basic needs for housing, security and income. In response, governments showcase programmes like social housing, community policing, cash transfers, or professionalisation training. However, these programmes tend to be palliative, addressing merely the symptoms of inequalities rather than their causes. Meanwhile, policies implemented in the name of ‘good governance’, ‘participation’ or ‘crisis management’ risk reinforcing social exclusion of the most marginalised.
Cases include evictions, gated communities, securitisation, austerity measures, management of migrant populations, and the regulation of the informal sector. This panel addresses both the resistance to, and reproduction of exclusionary urban policies.
We are particularly interested in how residents and professionals alike engage urban programmes through activism, creative navigation of existing rules, or by way of withdrawal and outright sabotage. Our panel connects empirical studies to theoretical debates on the right to the city, activated and activist citizenship, and the idea of the city as an assemblage of productive tensions. We ask: how do defeatist visions of the city produced by accumulation by dispossession speak to more expectant notions of urban navigations and creativity? How does resistance transform neoliberal cities into sites for alternative imaginaries and new forms of inclusion, citizenship and solidarity? We welcome papers that present empirically rich anthropological analyses of urban dwellers’ opposition and resistance to urban governance, showing how people struggle for their place in the city while also generating forms of solidarity.
August 27-31, Poznan, Poland
CfP for the panel ‘Urban struggles: governance, resistance and solidarity’
Across the globe, a growing number of urban dwellers struggle to meet even the most basic needs for housing, security and income. In response, governments showcase programmes like social housing, community policing, cash transfers, or professionalisation training. However, these programmes tend to be palliative, addressing merely the symptoms of inequalities rather than their causes. Meanwhile, policies implemented in the name of ‘good governance’, ‘participation’ or ‘crisis management’ risk reinforcing social exclusion of the most marginalised.
Cases include evictions, gated communities, securitisation, austerity measures, management of migrant populations, and the regulation of the informal sector. This panel addresses both the resistance to, and reproduction of exclusionary urban policies.
We are particularly interested in how residents and professionals alike engage urban programmes through activism, creative navigation of existing rules, or by way of withdrawal and outright sabotage. Our panel connects empirical studies to theoretical debates on the right to the city, activated and activist citizenship, and the idea of the city as an assemblage of productive tensions. We ask: how do defeatist visions of the city produced by accumulation by dispossession speak to more expectant notions of urban navigations and creativity? How does resistance transform neoliberal cities into sites for alternative imaginaries and new forms of inclusion, citizenship and solidarity? We welcome papers that present empirically rich anthropological analyses of urban dwellers’ opposition and resistance to urban governance, showing how people struggle for their place in the city while also generating forms of solidarity.
Research Interests:
International workshop
Research Interests: Political Participation, Ethnography, Community Engagement & Participation, Political Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 9 moreUrban Studies, Citizenship (Anthropology), Anthropology of the State, Urban Governance, Citizenship, Urban Informality, Informality, Informal Politics, and Residents’ Participation
Research Interests: Political Sociology, Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Political Participation, Political Anthropology, and 21 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Governance, Politics, Urban Studies, Urban Sociology, Citizenship (Anthropology), Elections, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of the State, Urban Governance, Political and Legal Anthropology, Urban Informality, Bureaucracy, Citizen participation, Antropología, Informality, Political Clientelism, Informalidad, Informal Politics, and Informal governance
The Semi-Arid region of Brazil (SAB) has been periodically affected by moderate to extreme droughts, jeopardizing livelihoods and severely impacting the life standards of millions of family farmers. In the early 1990s the Human... more
The Semi-Arid region of Brazil (SAB) has been periodically affected by moderate to extreme droughts, jeopardizing livelihoods and severely impacting the life standards of millions of family farmers. In the early 1990s the Human Coexistence with Semi-Aridity (HCSA) emerged as a development approach. The debate on HCSA is limited to Brazilian literature but as a technological and a bottom-up governance experience, researches on the topic could add some insights to international debate on living with drought. The present paper adopts an historical perspective on HCSA before discussing the main HCSA's rainwater-harvesting methods found in two case studies in the SAB as a local appropriate and advanced technological package for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Qualitative analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews with key local stakeholders, 29 unstructured interviews with family farmers, and surveys in 499 family farms are used. The results show that regardless the highly adaptive potential, the technologies are adopted in differ rates among them and in between case studies chosen, influenced by non-technological factors and interacting the broader public policies context. Scaling up the HCSA's technologies in the rural SAB is a development path towards the SDGs.
No interior dessa publicação (Boletim de Análise Político-Institucional n.13), o leitor encontrará relatos de pesquisas, concluídas recentemente e em andamento, que têm focado diretamente a complexa relação entre processos de... more
No interior dessa publicação (Boletim de Análise Político-Institucional n.13), o leitor encontrará relatos de pesquisas, concluídas recentemente e em andamento, que têm focado diretamente a complexa relação entre processos de implementação e a reprodução de desigualdades sociais. Dedica-se especial atenção aos riscos de reprodução de desigualdades sociais – entendidos aqui como o potencial reforço a exclusões e desvantagens anteriores – em processos de implementação de políticas, programas e serviços públicos em distintas áreas, como, saúde, educação, assistência social e atenção a pessoas que fazem uso problemático de substâncias psicoativas. Em conjunto, as notas de pesquisa chamam a atenção para diferentes processos e mecanismos que concorrem para a acumulação de exclusões por parte do público atendido em termos de acesso a direitos providos pelo Estado.
Research Interests:
International conference in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, March 13-15, 2019