Dr Fernando  Rodrigues

Dr Fernando Rodrigues

Visiting Fellow

Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC)

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Languages
English, Portuguese
Key Expertise
Brazilian Urban Peripheries, Illicit Markets, Gangs Drug-Trafficking

About me

Fernando Rodrigues is a Visiting Fellow at the Latin American and Caribbean Centre of LSE and an Assistant Professor at Social Science Institute and Sociology Graduate Program of Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil.

He has fieldwork experience in different cities of North and Northeast Brazil such as Salvador, Bahia, Belém, Pará and Maceió, Alagoas where he researched dancehall circuits in urban “peripheries”.  He focused on the recent changes related to expansion of consumption power among the Brazilian poor and the long-term process of emotions sexualization associated with erotic-dancing gatherings in Brazil.

Currently, he is interested in the different connections among cultural and illicit markets, politics and aggressiveness dynamics in urban peripheries. He has worked on a book produced from the research “Juveniles trajectories at custody houses and factors of proximity and distance from illicit markets in Alagoas”.

He focuses on recent changes in the economy and politics of crime and the expansion of national gangs (facções) such as Red Command (ComandoVermelho – CV) and First Command of the Capital (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) over to Northeast Brazil. One of the main research issues is how the balance of power among low patent police officers and drugs distributing gangs has changed communities’ social control, affecting the social aggressiveness channels available to juveniles in urban periphery contexts.

CNPq (Brazilian Research and Technology Agency) and FAPEAL (Alagoas Research Foundation), including a program to develop public policies in security to State of Alagoas, have funded his research.

Expertise Details

Brazilian Urban Peripheries; Illicit and Cultural Markets; Gangs Drug-Trafficking