Paper short abstract:

Public reason, justice and freedom can take up unexpected forms. I consider the genealogy of Brazilian favelas beyond the established tropes of poverty and suffering, indicating that the history of favelas is enmeshed in political experiments with liberation.

Paper long abstract:

Brazilian favelas are often considered as marginalized urban territories that must be better integrated into the nation-state to obtain legitimacy under the “Rule of Law”. This article suggests that the absence of a (normative) liberal apparatus in favelas is not necessarily a political deficiency. Can favela dwellers speak outside (or despite) the current nation-state framework of rationality and liberalism? Can they speak of their own freedoms? Some frameworks insist on representing favela dwellers exclusively as victims of structural violence. In these, the possibility that freedoms and liberties can exist beyond a (normative) liberal framework is often ignored. I consider the genealogy of Brazilian favelas beyond the established tropes of poverty and suffering, indicating that the history of favelas is enmeshed in political experiments with liberation. Ethnographic evidence demonstrates that public reason, justice and freedom can take up unexpected forms in Favela da Rocinha (Rio de Janeiro). The dangers of “romanticizing poverty” and the political effects of re-presenting favela dwellers as political agents of freedom are also considered. I conclude that more than satisfying (normative) liberal sensibilities, we could foster a more “indexical” mode of re-presentation as a collaborative strategy for liberation.