Metropolitics

Marielle Franco and Brazilian Democracy at a Crossroads

Natália Alves & Isabella Gonçalves Miranda & Felipe Magalhães — 2018-06-26T05:00:00Z

Marielle Franco's life and death raised questions about the limits of Brazil's New Republic. It revealed the rising stakes, particularly for women and people of color, following the 2016 coup. In this piece, urban activists Isabella Gonçalves and Natália Alves and geographer Felipe Magalhães place Franco's embodied politics as a direct challenge to the regressive policies and aggressive austerity of the current regime.
We live in times when a culture of violence is a vocal minority of the

- From the Field / social movement, security, violence, corruption, neoliberalism, Latin America, Brazil, LGBTQ+, feminism, activism, Rio de Janeiro, queer, critical racial awareness, austerity, militias, queer theory, state violence, coup

You Can't Kill Marielle

Meg Stalcup & Erika Robb Larkins — 2018-05-29T05:00:00Z

Marielle Franco was part of a new generation of progressive activists in Brazilian politics. She was assassinated point-blank on March 14, 2018 by an elite shooter. In this piece, Meg Stalcup and Erika Robb Larkins examine how Marielle's death is revealing of the issues that she fought for in her life. They also ask how she continues to be present in and beyond the unfolding investigation into who killed her.
Violence marked Brazil's 2018 elections, by many accounts the most polarized in the

- From the Field / social movement, security, progressive urban politics, corruption, Latin America, Brazil, activism, Rio de Janeiro, militias, progressive activism

Northern Mafias: the territorial spread of organised crime in Italy

Fabrizio Maccaglia & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-02-26T05:50:00Z

The presence of Mafia organisations outside the Mezzogiorno, long downplayed by the Italian public authorities, has become more visible in recent years. A collective work sheds light on the spread of Mafia activity in Italy, and in particular the mechanisms used to infiltrate local economic and political fabrics.
The presence of Mafia-type organisations in regions other than those where they have been historically rooted since the second half of the 19th century (western Sicily for Cosa

- Reviews / local governance, Italy, territorial development, corruption, Mafia