Giordano Magri

In São Paulo's Cracolândia—one of the world's largest open‐air drug scenes—urban transformation operates not through direct expulsion but through the systematic erosion of territorial bonds. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic research with unhoused crack users, NGO workers, and state officials, this article examines how interactions with the state—entangled with commercial and legal pressures—dismantle the survival infrastructures that enable marginalised populations to remain: work opportunities, social networks, housing access, and community ties. Home, we demonstrate, is not merely space but a political claim to stability, community, and the right to remain—a claim constantly under erasure yet persistently reinvented at the margins. Through two extended ethnographic vignettes, we trace how deterritorialisation unfolds in individual lives: one trajectory ending in departure after years of cyclical displacement; another sustained only through alliances with neighbours and outsiders as the condition for conditional belonging. We argue that anthropological attention to these trajectories reveals mechanisms invisible to urban studies focused on physical removal or state action alone. Deterritorialisation operates through making people's identities with territory untenable—severing the relationships, routines, and survival infrastructures that constitute home—even as physical presence remains technically possible.

This research analyses the influence of religion—as an institutional logic—on the work of frontline workers (FLWs) in hybrid public policy implementation contexts. We conducted semi‐structured interviews and used vignettes with 37 therapeutic communities (TCs) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, which provide care for individuals with problematic drug use. Through our analysis, we discovered variations in how FLWs from faith‐based and secular organisations categorise their clients and provide them with alternative services. These differences were evident in their perceptions of problematic drug use, desired outcomes for clients, and the methods they utilise to achieve these goals. In practice, faith‐based TCs prioritise behavioural categories and emphasise support from family and work as treatment alternatives, whereas secular TCs employ professional language and offer alternatives based on psychological and medical support. This study enhances the understanding of religion as an institutional logic and underscores the significance of analysing institutional logics to comprehend the actions of FLWs in cases of hybridity, particularly the role of faith‐based organisations in service delivery. Points for practitioners: The religion of organisations can have an impact on the work of frontline workers (FLWs). This impact becomes especially clear in the categorisation process, as it shapes FLWs’ understanding of their work and the referrals they make based on that understanding.

SciELO Preprints Collection is an integral part of SciELO, an international cooperation program aiming at the development of open access scientific communication covering all areas of knowledge. It operates as a collection of non-peer-reviewed manuscripts within the SciELO Network of national and thematic collection of journals. Introdução : O artigo discute como categorização, estereótipos e estigmas podem ser mobilizados para analisar a implementação de políticas públicas no Brasil, um país marcado por altas desigualdades sociais. Embora a literatura internacional e nacional sobre burocracia de nível de rua reconheça o papel da discricionariedade dos agentes, esses conceitos ainda são pouco utilizados de forma sistemática. O objetivo é definir os conceitos, mostrar como foram aplicados na literatura e propor uma agenda de pesquisa ajustada ao contexto brasileiro. Materiais e métodos: Trata-se de uma revisão narrativa de literatura, que reúne referências clássicas (Durkheim, Goffman, Yanow, Lamont, Dovidio, entre outros), estudos sobre burocracia de nível de rua (Lipsky, Maynard-Moody & Musheno, Tummers, Brodkin) e trabalhos recentes no Brasil (Lotta, Pires, Cordeiro, Thomazinho, Marins, Costa). O artigo sistematiza definições, aplicações empíricas e lacunas, apresentando sínteses conceituais e de perguntas de pesquisa. Resultados: A revisão indica que: (i) categorização organiza cognitivamente a realidade, distinguindo cidadãos em categorias oficiais (administrativas) e sociais (morais e culturais), influenciando acesso a direitos; (ii) estereótipos funcionam como atalhos cognitivos ou lentes interpretativas, orientando julgamentos sobre usuários e podendo reforçar desigualdades; e (iii) estigmas desvalorizam grupos ao contrapor identidades reais e idealizadas, com efeitos simbólicos e materiais. A agenda de pesquisa propõe investigar a relação entre categorias sociais e oficiais, os mecanismos de construção e bloqueio de estereótipos e o impacto dos estigmas sobre trajetórias de usuários de serviços públicos. Discussão: O estudo mostra que esses conceitos ajudam a compreender tanto efeitos materiais (acesso desigual a bens e serviços) quanto simbólicos (identidade, status e reconhecimento). Defende-se a adoção de uma abordagem interseccional, integrando raça, gênero, classe e outros marcadores, para captar como múltiplas opressões atravessam a implementação de políticas públicas. A combinação de desigualdade profunda e políticas universais no Brasil torna o país um caso privilegiado para o debate internacional.

This article explores the dynamics of trust, mistrust, distrust and hope among homeless individuals in ‘Crackland’, São Paulo's largest open drug-use scene, where state interventions have systematically targeted marginalised populations through violence and displacement. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research, we examine how persistent police violence influences marginalised individuals’ perceptions of and trust in state institutions. We argue that trust – and its intricate relationship with mistrust and distrust – emerges as a critical analytical lens for understanding how individuals at the margins, facing different forms of state violence, still maintain hope for a better state. By centring the experiences of those who recount encounters with physical and structural violence from state power, we demonstrate how violent interactions profoundly impact trust, generating a constrained yet resilient form of hope for an ideal state. This study contributes to anthropological understandings of state–citizen relations and illuminates the intimate ways marginalised populations navigate, resist, and reimagine institutional power.

O Teto, Trampo e Tratamento (TTT) emerge como uma estratégia política de resistência na complexa realidade da Cracolândia, ondedinâmicas políticas institucionais moldam profundamente a vida cotidiana. Inspirado no programa De Braços Abertos, o TTT sedestaca como um modelo de cuidado territorializado, promovendo estabilidade e dignidade para indivíduos que vivem na cena deuso. O projeto, que utiliza a arte como ferramenta de reconstrução da autoestima e fortalecimento de vínculos com os beneficiários,se estrutura em três frentes: moradia, atividades produtivas e cuidado terapêutico. Enquanto enfrenta desafios como a violência estatal e operações policiais, o TTT persiste como um exemplo de resistência e cuidado humanizado na Cracolândia.

Crises are exceptional events that alter the structural arrangements under which street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) normally operate, generating resource shortages, the suspension of rules and routines, and changes in work practices. These characteristics highlight the importance of room for discretion, since quick decisions need to be made in a context pervaded by unpredictability. This study analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil on the discretion of primary health care workers, seeking to understand which factors influence the exercise of discretion, focusing on organizational, emotional and scientific aspects. We used data from an online survey comprising open- and closed-ended questions conducted in March 2021 with 1218 primary care workers. The results show that, unexpectedly, discretion of SLBs does not become a panacea for the crisis. A large portion of professionals continued to operate within the rules, demonstrating a tendency to seek support at work, either through better organizational conditions, the reduction of uncertainty or from science.

Resumo Crises são eventos excepcionais que alteram os arranjos estruturais sob os quais a burocracia de nível de rua (BNR) atua normalmente, gerando insuficiência de recursos, suspensão de regras e de rotinas, e alteração das práticas de trabalho. Essas características ressaltam a importância do espaço de discricionariedade, uma vez que decisões rápidas precisam ser tomadas em um contexto atravessado pela imprevisibilidade. Neste artigo, analisamos o impacto da pandemia de COVID-19 no Brasil na discricionariedade dos profissionais de saúde da atenção primária à saúde (APS). Portanto, o objetivo do artigo é entender quais fatores impactaram a discricionariedade dos BNRs da APS, examinando aspectos organizacionais, emocionais e científicos. Para isso, analisamos os dados de um questionário, com respostas abertas e fechadas, com 1218 profissionais que atuavam na APS em março de 2021. Os resultados mostram que, diferente do esperado, a discricionariedade dos BNRs não se transforma em uma panaceia pela crise. Uma grande parcela dos profissionais seguiu operando dentro das regras, o que demonstrou a tendência dos BNRs de buscar respaldo para sua atuação, seja por melhores condições organizacionais, pela redução de incerteza ou por amparo na ciência.

Studies show that people in vulnerable conditions and some social groups such as women and black people have suffered more intensely from the COVID-19 pandemic impacts. This expression of inequality also manifests itself among healthcare workers, with greater exposure of some specific groups. This paper analyzes the effect of COVID-19 on health care workers and the working conditions in the Brazilian public health system, analyzed from professional, gender, and race perspectives. Data were collected from an online survey of 1,829 health workers conducted in March 2021. Indeed, we identified inequalities in health workers’ experiences during the health crisis generated by COVID-19, which are marked by the profession of each worker and are traversed by their gender and race traits.

The 2019 census identified that São Paulo had a homeless population of 24,344 people, a situation potentially worsened due to the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Since the 1990s, a regulatory framework that obliges the municipal Executive Branch to serve this population has been strengthened, including instruments for participation. This article aims to conduct an analysis of this policy, verifying its application through the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the underlying complexity of this population’s living conditions, the authors adopted a vulnerability perspective to develop such an analysis, focusing on institutional vulnerability. Based on this discussion, this study approached the following question: How are the state of São Paulo’s actions related to the homeless population’s vulnerability, and what are the consequences of this condition during the COVID-19 pandemic? Based on qualitative secondary data, this article is presented as a result of the historical survey of the policy to protect the homeless population and the interaction between this population and the State. This article also reviews different forms of vulnerabilities to which the São Paulo homeless population is exposed, and the actions implemented by the government during the pandemic. As a contribution, the authors raise the negative and positive impacts of the state’s actions on the living conditions of this population, adding to the literature on institutional vulnerabilities and directing an investigation of the organizational elements of the public sector that may be associated with these impacts. No censo de 2019, identificou-se que São Paulo tinha uma população em situação de rua de 24.344 pessoas, situação potencialmente agravada pela crise gerada pela pandemia de COVID-19 a partir de 2020. Desde a década de 1990, um marco regulatório que obriga o Poder Executivo municipal a atender este público tem sido fortalecido, abrangendo inclusive instrumentos de participação. Este artigo tem por objetivo tecer uma análise dessa política, verificando sua aplicação no momento singular que é a pandemia de COVID-19. Compreendendo a complexidade subjacente às condições de vida deste público, adotamos a lente de vulnerabilidades para desenvolver tal análise, com foco especial em vulnerabilidade institucional. A partir dessa discussão, colocamos a seguinte questão: como as ações estatais se relacionam com a condição de vulnerabilidade da população em situação de rua e quais os desdobramentos de tal condição durante a pandemia da COVID-19? Construído qualitativamente a partir de dados secundários, este artigo apresenta como resultados o levantamento histórico da política de proteção à população em situação de rua e os modos de interação entre esta população e o Estado, mais especificamente, o de São Paulo; e as diferentes formas de vulnerabilidades às quais essa população está exposta e as ações implementadas durante a pandemia. Como contribuições, trazemos os impactos negativos e positivos da ação estatal na condição de vida dessa população, agregando à literatura das vulnerabilidades institucionais, além de direcionar uma investigação para os elementos organizacionais do setor público que podem estar associados a esses impactos.

Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic requires that the State make hard decisions that involve the action of bureaucrats who interact with the population through the implementation of public policy, the street-level bureaucracy (SLB). In this paper, based on a mixed- method exploratory study, we analyze how the daily performance of street-level bureaucrats in different policy areas- health and social care, access to the justice system, public security and education - has changed during the pandemic. We also explore the repercussions of those changes. Based on the analysis of the perceptions of bureaucrats, changes in their work and in their relationship with the public, we identify three categories that illustrate the dynamics of SLB work during the pandemic: the SLB who faces the crisis on the front lines; the SLB who suffers the effects of the pandemic, but whose work does not require her to face it directly; and the SLB who began to work remotely. We conclude that, during the pandemic, SLB suffered in varying degrees an aggravation of structural problems, such as their removal from decision-making processes - now restricted to the highest government level - and the exacerbation of already existing conflicts and ambiguities.