Examining Rio's pacification strategy in dialogue with a critically revised securitisation framework: an Immanent Critique

Abstract

This dissertation approaches Rio de Janeiro's public security policy of 'pacification' implemented since 2008 from a critical perspective. Widely hailed for being an innovative solution approach to the city's exorbitant levels of lethal violence and perceived as being conducive to a well-grounded approximation process aimed at unifying the 'divided city', it is the purpose of this dissertation to contextualise the public policy with the historical and socio-cultural fundament upon which it is based. The researcher makes use of a critically revised framework of securitisation theory, thus allowing for the examination of the power-knowledge nexus nurturing the securitising discourse. To examine the latter, a wide array of speech act material including official speeches and interviews published on official government websites, Brazilian mainstream media, and video-sharing websites will be analysed. The critical analysis will be placed in dialogue with the socio-cultural context from which it originates by drawing on analytical techniques of critical discourse analysis, connecting the said with the social. For this purpose, the socio-historical process of Brazilian nation-building will be retraced, shedding light onto institutionalised modes of domination that guide state action and its policies. The...

This dissertation approaches Rio de Janeiro's public security policy of 'pacification' implemented since 2008 from a critical perspective. Widely hailed for being an innovative solution approach to the city's exorbitant levels of lethal violence and perceived as being conducive to a well-grounded approximation process aimed at unifying the 'divided city', it is the purpose of this dissertation to contextualise the public policy with the historical and socio-cultural fundament upon which it is based. The researcher makes use of a critically revised framework of securitisation theory, thus allowing for the examination of the power-knowledge nexus nurturing the securitising discourse. To examine the latter, a wide array of speech act material including official speeches and interviews published on official government websites, Brazilian mainstream media, and video-sharing websites will be analysed. The critical analysis will be placed in dialogue with the socio-cultural context from which it originates by drawing on analytical techniques of critical discourse analysis, connecting the said with the social. For this purpose, the socio-historical process of Brazilian nation-building will be retraced, shedding light onto institutionalised modes of domination that guide state action and its policies. The...