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Activism Under Fire: The Politics of Non-Violence in Rio de Janeiro's Gang Territories
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Rio de Janeiro's favelas have become well-known sites of gang and police violence. Since the 1970s, dangerous networks between drug traffickers and corrupt state actors have transformed these poor neighborhoods into sites of armed conflict and political repression, limiting residents' ability to speak out against violence or demand their democratic rights. Despite these challenges, nonviolent politics remains an integral element in Cidade de Deus--City of God--one of Rio's most dangerous and famous favelas.
In Activism under Fire, Anjuli Fahlberg provides an original account of how conflict activism operates in Cidade de Deus. Drawing on fieldwork, virtual ethnography, and participatory action research, Fahlberg documents how activists strategically navigate local constraints and opportunities--including gendered governing dynamics and racialized practices of solidarity--to create space for non-violent governance amid armed repression. By working within urban, national, and transnational political networks and social movements, local activists bring resources into their neighborhood and protest violence while avoiding dangerous alliances.
Activism under Fire demonstrates that non-violent collective action is possible amid extreme poverty and violence, and shows what strategies enable it to survive and effect political change. In so doing, Fahlberg reveals the possibilities for collective action in violent and chaotic democratic states, not only in Latin America, but throughout the world.
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Winner of the Roberto Weis Book Award by the Brazilian Studies Association
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Winner of the Best Book Award by the Human Rights Section of the International Studies Association
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Honorable Mention, Best Book Award, Collective Behavior and Social Movement Section Book Award of the American Sociological Association
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Honorable Mention, Best Book Award, Political Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association
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Honorable Mention, Outstanding Book Award, Global Division by the Society for the Study of Social Problems
CONTACT US
500 Terry Francois Street, San Francisco, CA 94158
Anjuli Fahlberg, PhD
Dr. Anjuli Fahlberg is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Tufts University. Her research applies an intersectional lens to the study of social movements, urban violence, and uneven development in Latin America, with a particular focus on the possibilities for and types of activism in gang territories. Dr. Fahlberg employs mixed methods, including ethnographic fieldwork and survey research, though all of her research follows the principles of participatory action research. Dr. Fahlberg received the 2019 Best Dissertation Award from the American Sociological Association for her dissertation "Activism under Fire: Violence, Poverty and Collective Action in Rio de Janeiro." She has published in several peer-reviewed journals and received funding from the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and several others. Dr. Fahlberg was raised in Brazil and dedicated much of her pre-academic career to working with immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Activism under Fire:
The Politics of Non-Violence in Rio de Janeiro's Gang Territories
This book project examines the many forms of non-violent collective action that have emerged within a context of extreme gang and police violence. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2020 in Cidade de Deus, one of Rio de Janeiro's most notorious and dangerous neighborhoods.
Building Together:
Participatory Research on the Social Costs of Urban Violence
Beginning in 2017, residents in the City of God, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, collaborated in the development, administration, analysis of a large-scale survey (n=989) about the social costs of urban violence and neglected physical and social infrastructure in their neighborhood.
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The Favela in the Ivory Tower:
Participatory Approaches to Making Knowledge
People from favelas, slums, and other marginalized geographic or social communities are rarely protagonists in the construction of knowledge about them. This initiative seeks to promote research projects and collaborations that engage in innovative efforts to include marginalized populations in the collection, analysis, and publication of academic scholarship.
Current Research Projects
Recent Publications
Fahlberg, Anjuli. 2022. “Decolonizing Sociology through Collaboration, Co-Learning and Action: A Case for Participatory Action Research.” Sociological Forum.
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Fahlberg, Anjuli, Cristiane Martins, Mirian Andrade, Sophia Costa and Jacob Portela. 2023. “The Impact of the Pandemic on Poor Urban Neighborhoods: A Participatory Action Research Study of a ‘Favela’ in Rio de Janeiro.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.
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Fahlberg, Anjuli, Maya Velasquez, Harper Wise and Tori Simon. 2023. “Tangential Movements: How feminist organizing against gender-based violence offers an alternative avenue for protesting drug violence in Latin America.” World Development. 2023.
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Fahlberg, Anjuli, Thomas Vicino, Ricardo Andrade and Viviane Potiguara. 2020. “Confronting Chronic Shocks: Social Resilience in Rio de Janeiro’s Poor Neighborhoods.” Cities: International Journal of Urban Planning and Policy. 99(4).
Contact
5 The Green, Department of Sociology
Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155