Rafael de Almeida Evangelista

Fear, Security, and the Spread of CCTV in Brazilian Cities: Legislation, Debate, and the Market

Latin America has shown itself to be a fertile ground for the proliferation of surveillance cameras, especially in retail and in small-scale private security (homes, condominiums, shopping malls, etc.). In Brazil, this proliferation has occurred for three main reasons: the absence of specific legislation regulating how these systems are used; the limited scope of the debate about the deployment of surveillance technology and the implications of its widespread use; and a growing atmosphere of urban fear that affects the way people live in and move around large and medium-sized cities. In a study carried out in Brazil and Mexico and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), various aspects of the use of surveillance technologies were mapped and described, focusing on existing legislation, related studies, research centers, current technologies and the market. In this article we present some of the results of this research as they relate to the proliferation of video surveillance in Brazil. The Brazilian market for video surveillance, which has grown steadily since the 1980s, is now booming, reflecting the growing interest this technology holds for the (property and personal) security market as well as the real estate market. Over the past 30 years, this interest centered on public areas with large numbers of people, such as parks, squares, and major commercial streets, or private spaces such as shopping malls, sports centers, and event centers. However, in recent years there has been an expansion in the security market as a result of the gentrification of large residential areas in medium-sized cities and metropolitan regions in Brazil. A consequence of these developments in the real estate market has been, indirectly, a growth in the use of CCTV systems as crime- and violence-prevention tools by small, medium-sized, and large private security companies targeting all social classes. In this study, we highlight the following aspects of video surveillance in Brazil: regulation of the use and proliferation of CCTV; involvement of the scientific community through debate and academic training; and the technologies used in electronic surveillance as a response to a growing demand by the urban security and real estate markets.

Science, Communication and Society in Brazil, the narrative of deficit

If there is a peculiarity in the way of doing science and in the way of communicating science in Brazil, it is in the use of the idea of “deficit” in political and economic discourses, as well as in the discourses of socio-technical networks. Our proposal here is not to affirm or reject the existence of this deficit, but rather to understand its workings and its construction as a way of bringing about networks of interest that make use of this idea. For us, this is not an idea which is restricted to the discourse of researchers or of journalists and scientific broadcasters; there is also an echo in the general society, and in different spheres and situations. The idea of deficit with regard to scientific knowledge is functional in Brazil, in conjunction with the idea that the country itself has a deficiency in relation to developed countries. It is as if there were two levels of deficit which join together and empower each other. There is, on the one hand, a historical national quest for progress and for cultural, economic, political and scientific development, ideally present in the countries of the first world, forming an alternating relationship which is continuously reconstructed in relation to the so-called advanced countries. On the other hand, there is a quest for scientific and technological knowledge which delineates the gap between Science and Technology’s decisive jurisdiction and scientific illiteracy. In fact, historically, through successive governments and economic plans, Brazil has recognized its “deficit” and has sought to overcome this in order to reach the ideal model of developed countries. In the continuous, dynamic, relational and situational construction of a national identity, there is the idea of the other which is advanced, modern, and developed. It is as if past and present could live side by side, the former inhabits the south while the latter lives in the north of the planet. The idea of development, which comes as an answer to social problems and a key to social justice, can be translated through the overcoming of “being behind.” “Brazil is the country of the future” is a popular saying, a phrase that serves to announce Brazil’s hopes of becoming equal to the richest or most developed countries. There are innumerous sociological discussions about the relationship between the modern and the archaic in Brazil. In these discussions, the persistence of the conflicting co-existence of tension between these two aspects, as a constitutional marker of the history of Brazil and of our imaginary about it, is worth highlighting. For some, such as the sociologist José de Souza Martins, we live in a state based on outdated political relationships, such as clientelism, the traditional domination of the basis of wealth, and oligarchism. “In Brazil, being behind is an instrument of power”, he says, and in another moment affirms that “the contemporary history of Brazil has been a history of waiting for progress”. For this sociologist, it is necessary to recognize that the Brazilian society, like that of others of colonial origin, should understand occurrences through the necessity to distinguish, in the contemporary moment, the live and active presence of fundamental structures of our past. It is of interest to us to understand the idea of deficit as a social construction which is present in the country’s scientific, economic and political discourse being disseminated by multiple networks of interest.

O movimento software livre do Brasil: política, trabalho e hacking

A proposta deste trabalho e discutir, a partir de dados etnograficos, as caracteristicas, contradicoes e transformacoes da comunidade software livre brasileira vividas nos ultimos anos. Entendida como um movimento social, busca-se mostrar como ela inter-relaciona questoes que envolvem politica, linguagem, trabalho e identidade. O cenario etnografico abordado mistura o online com o offline, ou seja, a pesquisa procurou entender o software livre tanto por meio da pesquisa de campo tradicional como pela observacao de grupos online. O movimento software livre brasileiro se mostrou, comparado com seus equivalentes internacionais, como de grande eficacia: articulou-se com partidos e politicos tanto em nivel local como nacional, mostrando-se influente a ponto de ver atendidas certas demandas; alguns de seus membros obtiveram cargos tecnicos e administrativos; e foi possivelmente o grupo mais influente na constituicao dos grupos que atualmente identificam-se sob o termo guarda-chuva “cultura digital”. A pesquisa que da base ao texto ja resultou em tese de doutoramento e reune dados coletados por dez anos de envolvimento com a comunidade software livre, incluindo interacoes e participacao em eventos offline, sendo o mais importante deles o Forum Internacional de Software Livre, realizado anualmente em Porto Alegre.

Public perception of science: a preliminary analysis and interpretation of the questionnaire data applied in the city of Campinas, Brazil

Carlos Vogt, Rafael de Almeida Evangelista, Marcelo Knobel a Full Professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas; President of the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp); Coordinator of the Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Labjor), Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Prédio da Reitoria V – 3o piso, 13.083-970, Campinas – SP. Brazil; President of the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp). cvogt@uol.com.br b Researcher at the Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Labjor), Unicamp c Associate Professor at the “ Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin” , Unicamp; Coordinator of the “ Núcleo de Desenvolvimento da Criatividade (NUDECRI), Unicamp