Meanings of Poverty: An Ethnography of Bolsa Familia Beneficiaries in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil

Abstract

The Bolsa Familia Programme became the main conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme of the federal government in Brazil during the Pink Tide period. Based on ethnograpic research carried out in a favela (informal, low-income neighbourhood) in Rio de Janeiro, the chapter analyses key aspects related to the Bolsa Familia programme, and the multifaceted meanings attributed to “being poor” and “poverty” by beneficiaries, local residents, and social workers managing the program. Concurrently, the chapter discusses the absence of an universally accepted definition of poverty in Brazil and internationally and how strictly income-based forms of measuring poverty do not coincide with the way it is understood by favela residents.