TERRITORY, RACE, AND RELIGION: CONTENTIOUS POLITICS IN PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL (2006–2025)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the preliminary results of an investigation into how Brazilian protests against police violence, occurring between 2006 and 2025, challenge the theoretical perspectives developed in the field of studies on social movements and police violence in Brazil. To this end, a database was systematized using Protest Event Analysis (PEA) in order to identify where this type of action is most frequent, who the actors involved are, and how they protest in terms of repertoires of collective action, demands, and discursive framing. In this phase of the research, which has been developed within the Graduate Program in Political Science at the State University of Campinas since March 2026, the database comprises 544 records. The findings indicate the emergence of a recent political phenomenon directly associated with the dynamics of collective action existing in the country's favelas and peripheries. This phenomenon is characterized by the diffuse and loosely coordinated action of neighbors, friends, and victims' relatives, as well as by the expressive use of disruptive and violent repertoires as a means of demanding, above all, justice for the contested cases.