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Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro Reprint Edition

by Janice Perlman (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
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Janice Perlman wrote the first in-depth account of life in the favelas, a book hailed as one of the most important works in global urban studies in the last 30 years. Now, in Favela, Perlman carries that story forward to the present. Re-interviewing many longtime favela residents whom she had first met in 1969--as well as their children and grandchildren--Perlman offers the only long-term perspective available on the favelados as they struggle for a better life.

Perlman discovers that while educational levels have risen, democracy has replaced dictatorship, and material conditions have improved, many residents feel more marginalized than ever. The greatest change is the explosion of drug and arms trade and the high incidence of fatal violence that has resulted. Yet the greatest challenge of all is job creation--decent work for decent pay. If unemployment and under-paid employment are not addressed, she argues, all other efforts will fail to resolve the fundamental issues. Foreign Affairs praises Perlman for writing "with compassion, artistry, and intelligence, using stirring personal stories to illustrate larger points substantiated with statistical analysis."
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199836833
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199836833
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    September 1, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    1.3 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches
  8. Print length
    448 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Perlman returned repeatedly to the famed slums of Rio de Janeiro to follow four generations of residents over 40 years. She writes with compassion, artistry, and intelligence, using stirring personal stories to illustrate larger points substantiated with statistical analysis." --Foreign Affairs

"With a scope that betrays her passion for her subjects, Perlman easily oscillates between narrative and statistical analyses, reporting on touching personal events as well as on larger issues of violence, marginality, and globalization. Perlman is as curious as she is thorough, providing exhaustive research and succeeding in supplying a cohesive and often awing account of the complexities and humanity in Rio's favelas." --The Global Journal

"A valuable and vivid study of life as it has been lived by the poor in one of Latin America's biggest cities." --Times Literary Supplement

"Janice Perlman is one of the leading researchers on urban marginality, and Favela is an exceptional analysis of the evolution of several originally informal settlement over four decades. I highly recommend it as reading for students, urban practitioners, and policy makers." --Manuel Castells, author of The Information Age

"Janice Perlman has written a moving account of her experience over four decades studying, living and working in three of Rio's favelas. This work will appeal to academics--it is full of fine analytical work, as well as to the reader who is concerned with understanding poverty and social justice and how millions in Brazil are trapped by their environment, lack of education and now by crime and violence. While the location of this work is Rio, the lessons and challenges of poverty in big cities is of importance to us all, as the world moves to 2050 when 75% of the population will be in urban areas." --James D. Wolfensohn, Former President, The World Bank

"Perlman has produced an excellent, exhaustive study of life in the 1,020 favelas- squatter settlements in Rio de Janeiro..." --Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"Enlightening and exceptional." --Library Journal

"Perlman seeks to recover stories of people and families with whom she had contact in the late 1960s. As such, her work offers a great contribution, since she incorporates a longitudinal analysis over a long time span... Perlman's narrative is pure delicacy and poetry when she portrays slums as places where friendship, affection, and popular culture prevail." --Contemporary Sociology

Book Description

Builds upon one of the most important books in global urban studies in the past 30 years, The Myth of Marginality

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199836833
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199836833
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.3 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

About the author

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Janice Perlman

Janice Perlman

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Janice Perlman is President and Founder of the Mega-Cities Project. Winner of a Guggenheim Award, she has been Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of California-Berkeley, Visiting Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Columbia University, and a Senior Research Scholar at New York University.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
32 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

wjb
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2013
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Favela was not a word that I was very familiar with, until recently. The beautiful pictures of Rio that I've seen did not include these mountainside homes and shacks that just keep going and going. When I did see pictures I could not believe what I was seeing and had a very profound impact. I read Ms. Perlman's book and came away with a new understanding of the struggles of the those who live there and know that not all people who live there are poor. These are mostly hard working people who just want to work, pay their bills, raise their children and live peacefully. It is affordable housing as that seems to be in very short supply in Brazil. People who live in favelas have been caught in the middle of the drug traffickers and the police and military, accelerating the violence. People can't catch a break. However, I was very disturbed by how some perceive people who live in favelas. The author also ushers in the realization of how globalization, inequality and poverty impacts Brazil and other countries and could very well happen here at home. The author's love for the country and people is evident in this eye-opening account and she makes us care as well. For those who are interested in people and how we are all impacted by the many changes happening in the world today, read this.
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Oscar Hernandez
4.0 out of 5 stars As a Brazilian and a professor who teaches Geography of ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2015
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As a Brazilian and a professor who teaches Geography of Latin America to juniors and seniors at a California University, I find this book necessary. It is written by a researcher who is not only doing a literature review on the topic but actually living the topic in the field. Perlman is able to make academic, real, and long-term observations that force us to think about Favelas more matter-of-factly and open-heartedly. I appreciated the insight, the information, and the eye-opening realities that Perlman exposes in her meaningful book.

However, the only reason that I do not give it five stars is due to the misspellings of nearly all Portuguese terms that she uses throughout the book. I would assume that a scholar who would write a book about Brazil would at least have a Brazilian editor to revise the language. In a way, as a foreigner, I feel that it is essentially a disrespect to write about such an intimate Brazilian topic, in such an intimate manner, and yet not bother to have a Brazilian actually read it before you publish it. It really brought down my respect for the work because it shows the disregard for the input of the local scholars in this publication. I continue to assign this book, but certainly am hoping that this "reprint" edition has the issues fixed.
One person found this helpful
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L. Gott
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling stories of people, call to action
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2010
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This is an amazing book. I have read about half of it, but couldn't wait to post a review and my highest recommendation. Dr. Perlman, professor and founder/president of the Mega-Cities Project, shares the stories of people she has followed over four decades in the favela and conjunto communities of Rio de Janeiro (such as Nova Brasilia and Catacumba). For example, she tells the story of Ze Cabo, once the president of the Residents' Association in Nova Brasilia, and his extended family. Such multigenerational stories of people's lives also become the story of her life, doing the work of understanding, appreciating, and participating in the lives of Rio's urban poor, and communicating accurately and insightfully about them. The word "favela" was only slightly known to me before, but I am so glad I picked up this book in the library (and ordered my own copy). The evolving nature of these communities is explored with factual clarity (and documentation), with compassion and empathy, but never with sentimentalism. Yet Dr. Perlman's deep involvement with her life's work and those who have made it possible by opening their homes to her shines through every page, with passion and intense commitment. The section in her Introduction titled "Why I Love Favelas" may open your eyes and change your minds, if you have a preconceived notion of the towns blanketing the hills of Rio, away from Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. If you have a desire to better understand where the world is headed in the next century as our largest cities become "mega-cities," you could not find a better introduction to the heart of the matter.
11 people found this helpful
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avc
5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what I needed
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2012
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Janice Pearlman's thoroughly documented research study provides a detailed look at live in the favelas of Rio via an intergenerational method. By revisiting a previous project 40 years layer the author seeks to understand the shifting dynamics within communities and thier relationship to the "formal" city of Rio.
2 people found this helpful
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KaramuBoomer
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2015
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It is a socio-economic study. Very boring reading. I thought it would provide human interest stories. Not what I expected.
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Andrew Anderson
2.0 out of 5 stars The flow is constantly interrupted by unnecessary stats that can easily be explained without going that ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2015
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Too textbooky. The flow is constantly interrupted by unnecessary stats that can easily be explained without going that route. Would make a good textbook.
One person found this helpful
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Sixto
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2015
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it ok
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Top reviews from other countries

Sami Leinonen
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic study into the development of informal urban settlement in ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2016
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A fantastic study into the development of informal urban settlement in Rio de Janeiro. Corresponds very well with my personal experiences of life in the favelas and the spirit of the people in such communities.
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Mr. D Burin
2.0 out of 5 stars Some interesting passages; but far too one-sided and repetitive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 1, 2011
Verified Purchase
Focusing on issues such as urban poverty, migration to the cities, the effect of drugs in the communities of Rio de Janeiro, and issues of corruption, Janice Perlman's in-depth `Favela' should be a fascinating study for both scholars of the subject and those with a more general interest in urban marginalisation, or Rio de Janeiro. Sadly, it isn't. Perlman's work isn't without its good points, though. Some of her statistics, such as that of 3% of murders in Rio being reported, or her surveys on the issues which most trouble the favela residents, outline some of the broader issues well, and provide useful figures and statistics for those studying the issues (Perlman's book is clearly meant for serious research on the subjects as well as general reading). However, despite some interesting statistics, and the fairly interesting potted histories Perlman provides on areas like the now demolished Catacumba favela, and the sprawling complex of Nova Brazilia, this is a work with serious limitations.

Firstly, though a certain level of righteous anger at the existence of the poverty of the Favelas citizens and sympathy towards their plight is understandable, `Favela' is all too often a one-sided polemic. Perlman criticises anyone outside of the favelas; perhaps most notably the Police whom she brands as both afraid of action, and willing to kill indiscriminately; as well as alleging them to be both failing to stop favela traffickers, and then complaining of the social unfairness when these traffickers are duly arrested by the police. Perlman also ignores positive Government reforms offered in the favelas, focusing wholly on their failure to solve other, complex problems in the favelas, and refers back to the Government making the favelas a place of "urban marginalisation"; something that has been increasingly less the case since Brazil's dictatorship collapsed; suggesting she is still stuck in the mindset of the 1970s in which her previous work on Rio, `The Myth of Marginality', was written. These are just a few of many examples of Perlman's bias, which bring the text as a whole into disrepute. Perlman herself also appears very self-centered in the text, constantly referring back to herself at every turn, and often focusing more on herself, than on the surroundings she is investigating. Whilst a certain amount of explanation of how to conduct research is necessary, Perlman also constantly repeats her methods for conducting surveys, which greatly breaks up the narrative flow. Equally, the interviews with the favela residents, which are interesting reading in themselves, see Perlman take everything they say at face value, often without seeing the need for statistics to back these claims up; and treats any statement by authority, or by the wealthy, with the opposite effect.

Overall, despite a few interesting interviews, some useful and startling stats, and a few good pieces of advice on conducting urban research (sadly repeated ad infinium); this is a very frustrating, one-sided and, bizarrely, self-centered work. In her attempts to provide a portrait of the downtrodden urban poor, Perlman has gone too far onto one side of the argument, and produced a work which is both repetitive, and often far from credible. Sadly, this is not a work worthy of the important and relevant social issues it deals with. For academics on the subject, this might be worth a glance through for the brief histories of the favelas, and maybe a few statistics, but overall, I'd suggest giving this work a miss.
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