IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v35y2023i3p478-490.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Militias going rogue: Social dilemmas and coercive brokerage in Rio de Janeiro's urban frontier

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Pope

Abstract

Examining Rio de Janeiro's milícias (‘militias’) through the ‘coercive brokerage’ concept can reveal how they are central to how states and markets function. By tracing their emergence through moments of political and economic rupture, this article reveals how milícias responded to the social dilemmas of marginalised populations. Drawing from archival documentation, interviews, and ethnographic fieldnotes, this article argues that by brokering solutions to collective action problems and attempting to level‐up inequalities, milícias gained access to the political system and were able to shape the urban political economy. However, their coercive force also stimulated fresh contradictions, leading to a new set of structural, symbolic, and physical violences.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Pope, 2023. "Militias going rogue: Social dilemmas and coercive brokerage in Rio de Janeiro's urban frontier," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 478-490, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:35:y:2023:i:3:p:478-490
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.3636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3636
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.3636?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tania Murray Li, 2002. "Local Histories, Global Markets: Cocoa and Class in Upland Sulawesi," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 415-437, June.
    2. Jasnea Sarma & James D. Sidaway, 2020. "Securing Urban Frontiers: A View from Yangon, Myanmar," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 447-468, May.
    3. David Jackman, 2019. "Violent Intermediaries and Political Order in Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 705-723, September.
    4. Tom Goodfellow, 2018. "Seeing Political Settlements through the City: A Framework for Comparative Analysis of Urban Transformation," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(1), pages 199-222, January.
    5. Andreas, Peter, 2013. "Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199746880.
    6. Rasmussen, Mattias Borg & Lund, Christian, 2018. "Reconfiguring Frontier Spaces: The territorialization of resource control," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 388-399.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frimpong Boamah, Emmanuel, 2018. "Constitutional economics of Ghana’s decentralization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 256-267.
    2. Toumbourou, Tessa D. & Dressler, Wolfram H. & Werner, Tim T., 2022. "Plantations enabling mines: Incremental industrial extraction, social differentiation and livelihood change in East Kalimantan, Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Mariska JM Bottema & Simon R Bush & Peter Oosterveer, 2021. "Territories of state-led aquaculture risk management: Thailand’s Plang Yai program," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1231-1251, September.
    4. Jonathan Newby & Rob Cramb & Somphanh Sakanphet, 2014. "Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-22, June.
    5. Nikita Sud, 2020. "The Unfixed State of Unfixed Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1175-1198, September.
    6. Quiroga, Sonia & Suárez, Cristina & Hernanz, Virginia & Aguiño, José Evelio & Fernández-Manjarrés, Juan F., 2024. "Analysing post-conflict policies to enhance socio-ecological restoration among black communities in Southern Colombia: Cacao cropping as a win–win strategy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    7. Tom Gillespie, 2020. "The Real Estate Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 599-616, July.
    8. Greg Acciaioli, 2017. "Finding Tools to Limit Sectarian Violence in Indonesia: The Relevance of Restorative Justice," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(5), pages 1219-1255, November.
    9. Sylvia Croese & M Anne Pitcher, 2019. "Ordering power? The politics of state-led housing delivery under authoritarianism – the case of Luanda, Angola," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(2), pages 401-418, February.
    10. Sacha Amaruzaman & Douglas K. Bardsley & Randy Stringer, 2022. "Reflexive policies and the complex socio-ecological systems of the upland landscapes in Indonesia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 683-700, June.
    11. Valenzuela-Levi, Nicolás, 2023. "Income inequality and rule-systems within public transport: A study of Medellín (Colombia) and Santiago (Chile)," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. Ellen Bassett, 2020. "Reform and resistance: The political economy of land and planning reform in Kenya," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(6), pages 1164-1183, May.
    13. Lisa Alvarado, 2019. "Institutional Change on a Conservationist Frontier: Local Responses to a Grabbing Process in the Name of Environmental Protection," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-17, November.
    14. David Skarbek, 2024. "The political economy of criminal governance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(1), pages 1-24, July.
    15. Tuyen Nghiem & Yasuyuki Kono & Stephen J. Leisz, 2020. "Crop Boom as a Trigger of Smallholder Livelihood and Land Use Transformations: The Case of Coffee Production in the Northern Mountain Region of Vietnam," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, February.
    16. Will Lock & Anthony Alexander, 2023. "Sustainable Development Frontiers: Is ‘Sustainable’ Cocoa Delivering Development and Reducing Deforestation?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 691-713, July.
    17. Anna D’Auria & Marco Tregua & Manuel Carlos Vallejo-Martos, 2018. "Modern Conceptions of Cities as Smart and Sustainable and Their Commonalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Murphy James T., 2022. "Urban-economic geographies beyond production: Nairobi’s sociotechnical system and the challenge of generative urbanization," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 66(1), pages 18-35, May.
    19. Gamma Galudra & Meine Noordwijk & Putra Agung & Suyanto Suyanto & Ujjwal Pradhan, 2014. "Migrants, land markets and carbon emissions in Jambi, Indonesia: Land tenure change and the prospect of emission reduction," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 715-731, August.
    20. Anthony Bebbington & Leni Dharmawan & Erwin Fahmi & Scott Guggenheim, 2004. "Village politics, culture and community-driven development: insights from Indonesia," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 4(3), pages 187-205, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:35:y:2023:i:3:p:478-490. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.