In the Middle of an Urban War: Middle-Classness and Fear of Violence in Rio de Janeiro

Sammanfattning: This research frames the context of Rio de Janeiro as a New War, and explores the phenomenological formation of fear among residents in the middle of the socio-economic pyramid. Through eleven semi-structured interviews, the body sensations and context in which fear of violence is likely to emerge are explored in a quest to describe the consequences for the group living amidst war. The research indicates that aside from class, gender and age are also relevant for the creation of fear of violence and conclude that the experiences of Rio de Janeiro’s residents are very similar to previous studies of civilians amidst New Urban Wars. The major take-away, however, is that middle-classness does not eliminate fear, but leads it towards a specific angst about losing personal assets – like mobile phones –as opposed to direct physical harm. In knowing this, one concludes that middle-class fear is mostly psychological, and the group addresses it by using the resources available to enlarge perceived safety. The observations made here should be useful to future enquires about the experiences of civilians in urban conflict within Rio de Janeiro and other urban areas at war around the world, in addition to fomenting a scholarship about those forgotten in the middle of our cities.