Managing ordinary life: (Im)predictability, Violence and Solidarity in Latin American Urban Margins.
In a favela in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, daily life unfolds in the streets — children play, neighbours socialise, and local venues are lively. In contrast, a similarly impoverished neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, features empty streets and locked doors, with residents avoiding public space. Both settings have a strong local drug trade and are described as violent by their inhabitants and by the surrounding society, yet their urban experiences diverge sharply. This work, based on extensive comparative ethnographic research, examines the factors that contribute to such disparities. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which multiple normative arrangements can make social interaction – and, in particular, violence – more or less predictable. It also demonstrates how the predictability of violence, more than violence itself, shapes everyday life, guides community practices, and enables (or constrains) solidarity networks in marginalised urban areas.
Speaker:
Ana Beraldo is a researcher at the Center for Studies on Criminality and Public Safety at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and at the Center for Studies on Violence at the National University of San Martín (Argentina). Her research explores the multiple governance arrangements shaping Latin America’s urban margins and their relationship to violence, with a focus on how these dynamics affect the everyday lives of residents in impoverished areas. She is the author of Negociando a Vida e a Morte: Estado, Igreja e Crime nas Margens Urbanas (EdUFSCar, 2022). From 2021 to 2024, Beraldo held a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) at the School of Interdisciplinary Advanced Social Studies, National University of San Martín (EIDAES/UNSAM), and in 2025 she was an Urban Studies Foundation International Fellow at the Sciences Po Urban School.
Discussant: Patrick Le Galès, CNRS Research Professor, CEE, Sciences Po