Abstract
Between 1968 and 1969, Janice Perlman, a young American researcher, lived in the favelas of Brazil’s “marvellous” city of Rio de Janeiro. Her research produced the book The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro, published in 1976. Fitting within a trend of scholarly thought that emerged in the mid-1960s, from writers such as Anibal Quijano, Manuel Castells, Florestan Fernandes and William Mangin, the book radically challenged the negative views of the urban poor that were prevalent at the time. The Myth of Marginality criticised the well-accepted attitude of assigning to the urban poor responsibility for their alleged lack of integration into the city’s job market. Thus, one of its key arguments was to point out the absurdity of blaming the victims for their own poverty.
How to Cite:
Medrado, A., (2017) “Book Review: Perlman, Janice (2010) Favela. Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN – 978-0-19-536836-9”, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 8(1), 203-206. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.182
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