Vida como método

etnografia biográfica como recurso para os estudos de milícia

Abstract

Recently, the expansion of militias in Rio de Janeiro has become a central theme in public debate and on the academic agenda. However, understanding how these groups function is not a trivial task. Territorial control and the constant threat of violence impose barriers to fieldwork, making physical proximity for the researcher risky. Faced with this problem, this article proposes biographical ethnography as a research strategy and safety protocol that enables investigation in territories under armed governance; and, simultaneously, as an epistemic approach capable of revealing power structures from individual experience. Through three fragments of the trajectory of Scott, a resident of a militia-controlled area, I argue that this methodology allows access to moral ambivalences and how forms of domination are experienced, negotiated, and challenged by those who live with this reality. Thus, I seek to expand the repertoire of qualitative research available for studies on urban violence in Brazil.