{"id":17824,"date":"2014-10-07T10:30:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T13:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=17824"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:08:08","slug":"a-country-called-favela-by-renato-meirelles-and-celso-athayde-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=17824","title":{"rendered":"A Country Called Favela by Renato Meirelles and Celso Athayde [BOOK REVIEW]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Um Pa\u00eds Chamado Favela<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(in English,\u00a0A Country\u00a0Called Favela)<\/span><\/em>\u00a0by Renato Meirelles, president of\u00a0Data Popular<\/a>,\u00a0and Celso Athayde, co-founder of\u00a0CUFA<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0examines\u00a0the accomplishments\u00a0of favelas<\/a> and their economic advancements, with analysis of informal housing<\/a> and its economic power from trained specialists and favela residents.<\/p>\n

\"Favela<\/a><\/p>\n

The study “<\/i>X-Ray of Brazilian Favelas<\/a>,” produced by the newly established\u00a0Instituto Data Favela<\/a>, investigated 63 favelas from ten\u00a0different regions of Brazil, interviewing\u00a02,000 people. The core findings relate to the economic resilience\u00a0of the favelas, with increasing employment rates and wages. The findings are approached with caution and framed within socio-political historical contexts. Statistics are accompanied by\u00a0residents’ real life stories and testimonials.<\/p>\n

Changing the favela narrative<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0unmet promises of improving favelas through\u00a0upgrading<\/a>\u00a0and the structural exploitation that favelas suffer are considered throughout the book. The narrative of poverty and misery does not represent favelas: on the contrary,\u00a0it\u2019s one that feeds a narrative of stigmatization<\/a> and “othering.” Meirelles and Athayde\u00a0tell very different\u00a0stories of the favelas, providing a more accurate and broad\u00a0depiction of what the last ten\u00a0years have brought to the economy of favelas. The objectives of this book are to\u00a0demystify and eliminate naivety, ignorance and the romanticizing\u00a0of favelas, to engage and stir action in favelas themselves, and attract\u00a0the attention of both State and private actors.<\/p>\n

The protagonists of these stories are the 11.7 million people<\/a> who live in favelas (6% of Brazil\u2019s total population). If favelas were a state, it would be the fifth most populous in Brazil. The authors write that average wage in favelas has increased\u00a054.7% in the last ten years, from R$603 (US $269) in 2003 to R$1,068 (US $460) in 2013. This is significantly greater\u00a0than the national average wage increase of 37,9% over\u00a0the same period. Meirelles and Athayde argue\u00a0that the increase of wages in favelas is the result of job creation and redistributive mechanisms like the federal subsidy\u00a0program\u00a0Bolsa Fam\u00edlia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Proportionally, favelas have\u00a0more middle-class residents\u00a0than Brazil as a whole: 65% in favelas compared to 54% nationally. In Rio, informal neighborhoods have lower unemployment rates than formal\u00a0ones: 3.6% compared to 4.8%. The\u00a02013 study found\u00a0that\u00a049% of favela residents are in formal employment, 21% are informally employed, 19% work autonomously, 4% are employers, 3% work as public servants, and 3% retain other jobs.<\/p>\n

Favela entrepreneurship & success<\/h3>\n

The authors contemplate how favela earnings can be kept circulating within the communities.\u00a0Favela Holding<\/a> is the solution\u00a0Meirelles proposes–a community entrepreneurship incubator that has been promoting favela\u00a0start-ups. Favela Holding’s latest project is to build a a US$9.5 million shopping center<\/a> in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>. The mall would have\u00a0500 stores,\u00a0generating 6,000 direct and 4,000 indirect jobs. Different from other conclusions of the book, this is the one\u00a0that is most\u00a0sharply contested<\/a> among favela leaders.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Country Called Favela<\/em> documents stories of entrepreneurship and business success, from the\u00a0Hostel Favela Inn<\/a>\u00a0that provides accommodation and tours in Chap\u00e9u Mangueira<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro near Copacabana beach, to the\u00a0Banco Palmas<\/a>\u00a0initiative that is expanding community banks and microcredit<\/a> programs in Fortaleza, and\u00a0Carteiro Amigo<\/a>, a community-created and managed\u00a0mail delivery\u00a0system that has mapped and registered 12,000 addresses so far, allowing mail\u00a0access including Internet deliveries to and from nine communities in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

The refavela<\/em> transformative process<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What contributes to favela residents’ success?\u00a0The study\u00a0indicates that 14% of favela residents believe their success is due to family support, 40% believe they succeeded because of their faith in God and 42% give credit to their own efforts. Making the best use of available\u00a0capital, solidarity networks and credit economy is essential. Mixing social ties (relatives and friends) and formal financial tools (such as micro-credit) is\u00a0a significant component\u00a0of favela business success. Favelas show that cooperation and generosity are routes\u00a0to success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the authors alert against renewed threats of dependency and clientelism, a Trojan horse that anyone could import to the favelas. Meirelles and Athayde argue the favela must be responsible for its own transformation, writing: \u201cFavela must become refavela<\/em>, reinvent and reprogram itself. If it\u00a0does not co-manage the process of transformation, this will preserve the order of imbalance and disharmony, entrusting into others\u2019 hands the construction of their future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Documenting the hopes and dreams of residents for a juster future for all, the authors emphasize the spirit of solidarity of favelas: “By nature, favelas are more collective and each of its residents represents a complex set of desires, aspirations, resentments, grudges, loves and dreams. Negotiating with one favelado<\/em> is, in many cases, negotiating with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solidarity and belonging contributes to happiness. 94%<\/a> of favela residents consider themselves happy (1% more than Brazilians on average); 81% of them like favelas, 66% wouldn\u2019t leave their community and 62% are proud to live there. The determination\u00a0to combat\u00a0stigma<\/a>, push forward\u00a0economic development to combat\u00a0financial insecurities, as well as the many battles\u00a0favela residents fight that can’t be\u00a0mentioned in one\u00a0book, show the resilience and hope coursing\u00a0through Brazil’s favelas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Um Pa\u00eds Chamado Favela\u00a0(in English,\u00a0A Country\u00a0Called Favela)\u00a0by Renato Meirelles, president of\u00a0Data Popular,\u00a0and Celso Athayde, co-founder of\u00a0CUFA,\u00a0examines\u00a0the accomplishments\u00a0of favelas and their economic advancements, with analysis of informal housing and its economic power […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":17830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1268,1271,1282,1334,329,328,1365,1329],"tags":[1361,852,109,258,32,600,427,223,188,865,840,1616,740,12,453,363],"writer":[1398],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-favelaculture","8":"category-favelaqualities","9":"category-research-analysis","10":"category-reviews","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-understanding-rio","13":"category-whats-a-favela-2","14":"category-by-international-observers","15":"tag-endfavelastigma","16":"tag-book","17":"tag-community-business","18":"tag-community-solution","19":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","20":"tag-cufa","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-favela-as-a-model","23":"tag-history","24":"tag-micro-business","25":"tag-microcredit","26":"tag-reference","27":"tag-research-findings","28":"tag-rocinha","29":"tag-stigma","30":"tag-vidigal","31":"writer-andrea-cangialosi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81374,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824\/revisions\/81374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=17824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}