“I'm Not a Leader”: Cynicism and Good Citizenship in a Brazilian Favela

Abstract

This article analyzes political agency in an environment of everyday urban violence through ethnographic examination of a curious pattern in the civic life of a Rio de Janeiro favela. Residents are cynical about local leaders and civic groups, even as they lead and participate in collective activities to benefit their communities. I argue that in the context of a disappointing democracy, a violent state, and powerful drug trafficking gangs, residents’ cynicism articulates and protects a vision of good citizenship. Conceptions of the “good” are informed by ideas made salient during Brazil's redemocratization; the “good” is also enmeshed in complex ways with trafficker control. [Brazil, favela, violence, democracy, drug traffickers, citizenship, civic life]