Community and State in the configuration of the psychotropic territories of Preguiça and Pela Porco, in the center of Salvador

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the differences and similarities between the psychotropic territories of two neighborhoods in Centro de Salvador, Preguiça and Pela Porco. The data presented is the result of long-standing ethnographic fieldwork carried out by the authors in both neighborhoods, as well as the application of the same questionnaire to a similar number of users. We concluded that the greater the cohesion of the residents reflected in a community organization within the neighborhood, the less power the psychotropic territory has in it; we also concluded that the greater presence of the state in it does not guarantee a minimally dignified social and emotional condition, neither for the users nor for the residents. The recommendation based on the in-depth analysis of the two cases is that public policies for harm reduction in community territories should be designed and implemented based on experiences of humanized and reciprocal coexistence between “residents with homes and residents without homes”.