AUTHORITARIAN NEOLIBERALISM, URAN PERIPHERIES AND THE RISE OF THE EXTREME RIGHT IN BRAZIL

Abstract

In recent decades, the literature on urban peripheries in Brazil has been divided between those who highlight the progressive and contesting potential of the mobilizations and social organizations that have emerged in these peripheral areas and those who point to an increase in “popular conservatism” as the basis for the rise of the far right. This article seeks to complexify this analytical framework by analyzing the “publics” in which progressive and conservative discourses circulate among the urban popular classes. The text is based on ethnographic research carried out in the urban periphery of the city of São Paulo and on theoretical reflections on neoliberalism and the contemporary rise of the far right. The article explores the history of social mobilization in the peripheries of São Paulo and recent political changes to analyze how residents of these areas experience contemporary political conflicts. It is argued that geographically situated social capital is the main cohesive element of progressive publics. On the other hand, moral capital is the central element to be observed in the conservative field.