Allegories and displacements of the "Carioca Suburb" in the social sciences (1970-2010)

Abstract

The "carioca suburb" has consensual territorial delimitations in academic works, referring to a set of neighbourhoods crossed by train lines, symbolically distant from what would be the "centre" of the city and related to poverty, subalternity and working classes. But in what pertains to representations of the suburb, researchers have advanced a multiplicity of views and affects, with the result that the content and form of its textualizations is varied. This article discusses the uses and displacements of the notion of the "carioca suburb" in the social sciences, with special focus on ethnographic studies. This analysis highlights the elaboration of allegorical writings about this space in Rio de Janeiro, which enable both the description of cultural practices and senses and give voice to political, ethical and pedagogical messages of cultural diversity, thereby constituting powerful narratives that seek to destabilize the physical and symbolic boundaries of the city.