“Caught in a Trap”: Everyday Peace and the Dilemma of Representation in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Urban security interventions often seek legitimacy by changing how places associated with violence are publicly represented. Less attention has been paid to how grassroots organizations navigate these representational pressures as they pursue everyday peace. This article examines that problem in Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, where the Pacifying Police Unit programme combined militarized policing with broader promises of social integration and urban renewal. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2015, the article develops the concept of the dilemma of representation to analyze how grassroots actors navigate competing pressures over what aspects of favela life should be made visible. It compares one organization that documented police abuse and ongoing insecurity to contest official narratives of pacification with another that foregrounded culture, exchange, and everyday life to challenge stigma and build relationships beyond the favela. The article argues that representational decisions are themselves a key component of everyday peace practice, and that highly visible interventions can sharpen disagreements over what should be made visible and to what ends.