Ecos da violência nas margens de uma sociedade democrática: o caso da periferia de Fortaleza

Abstract

This article is the result of ethnographic research conducted in neighborhoods located on the outskirts of Fortaleza (CE), Brazil. Such investigations aimed to understand the everyday and political effects of violence in urban areas. We note that violence in the outskirts can be interpreted from the echoes produced in the social life of individuals who, in theory, should be safeguarded by constitutive instances of a democratic society of rights. In order to understand this, we want to know how people interpret and speak of violence in the neighborhoods where they live. We found echoes of violence that can be perceived in rumors, fears and separations created in the communities where we have researched. Such effects reverberate in how people interpret their actions in a democracy, sharing rights and duties to people who do not recognize themselves as equals. Generally speaking, citizenship is conceived here as a structural problem of moral life in the outskirts.