{"id":35171,"date":"2017-05-01T17:09:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T20:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=35171"},"modified":"2018-01-15T13:12:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:12:18","slug":"social-constructions-of-the-favela-part-3-favela-tourism-as-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=35171","title":{"rendered":"Social Constructions of the Favela Part 3: Favela Tourism as Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is the third\u00a0article in a four-part series on the social constructions of favelas<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and the potential of favela tourism to break down negative stereotypes<\/span><\/i>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sociologist Anthony Giddens argues that<\/a>, due to globalization, social relations around the world are intensifying as local events and identities are affected by events and ideas from across the globe. Favela tourism<\/a>\u00a0provides a clear example of how, should this\u00a0access to local events and ideas\u00a0be controlled by the communities that have a stake in the matter, this process can be beneficial. Community-run tours<\/a> can be powerful weapons in addressing\u00a0negative images about favelas<\/a>–often fed through film<\/a> and news media<\/a>\u00a0as described earlier in this series–which have historically\u00a0shaped ideas about these Rio communities across international borders.<\/p>\n

As of 2013 the city’s favelas drew nearly\u00a042,000 visitors<\/a>\u00a0per year. According to Zezinho, owner of the community-based tour agency\u00a0Favela Adventures<\/a>, foreigners’ interest in\u00a0favelas increased after the release of the films\u00a0City of God<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Elite Squad, <\/em>both featured\u00a0in the previous articles of this series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Community-based responsible tours<\/h3>\n

Specific structural features define community-based tours<\/a>\u00a0that can be considered more responsible than tours organized by outsiders:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They work with local tour guides that provide accurate information and personal experiences;<\/li>\n
  2. They are\u00a0walking tours, increasing visitors’ spatial interactions with the favela and its\u00a0residents;<\/li>\n
  3. These tours are beneficial to the community, from direct support for social projects, leaders and the local economy, to results\u00a0such as\u00a0debunking stereotypes<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    By locals, for locals<\/h4>\n

    One of the most important factors affecting whether a tour is\u00a0responsible and sustainable is\u00a0the information provided by tour guides. When a tour guide is well-informed about the history of favelas, features of daily life, and political issues, and able to share\u00a0his or her own personal experiences, these tours can counter the dehumanizing effect of some films<\/a>: they can (re)humanize favelas by contextualizing them within the societal issues that have influenced them.<\/p>\n

    Tours should not romanticize or exoticize<\/a> the image of favelas by only highlighting positive, cultural aspects, and at the same time should not sensationalize<\/a>\u00a0favelas by only highlighting the negative\u2014usually crime-related\u2014issues. Community-based tours naturally find\u00a0a healthy balance between showing positive and negative sides because as they live in the community, guides understand their nuances, strengths and weaknesses, and share these with interested visitors. They are more likely to be aware\u00a0of the community’s history, societal issues influencing it, community solutions, infrastructure, social services, culture, social relationships, relations with\u00a0Pacifying Police Units (UPPs)<\/a>,\u00a0and the effects of social exclusion.<\/p>\n

    \"Cosme<\/p>\n

    As a response to negative reactions to non-community-based\u00a0favela tour companies, councilman C\u00e9lio Luparelli proposed Bill No. 1599\/2015<\/a> to regulate tourism, stimulating community-based tourism under specific regulations. Although the law was approved by the Justice and Drafting Commission and the Commission of Urban Issues in 2016<\/a>,\u00a0it still needs to pass through other commissions.<\/p>\n

    Many favela tour guides support the bill but, as Viva Favela<\/em> previously reported<\/a>, some like Santa Marta<\/a> guide Thiago Firmino have raised concerns that its actual implementation could create new\u00a0fees and certification requirements,\u00a0which would advantage\u00a0outside initiatives over\u00a0community ones.<\/p>\n

    Walk the walk<\/h4>\n

    To understand why walking is important, it is useful\u00a0to study\u00a0some of the arguments against tours done in cars, vans or ‘safari jeeps.’ Residents of\u00a0Rocinha<\/a>,\u00a0Caio, Maria and Julio,* all reported negative opinions about\u00a0driven tours, especially\u00a0the tours in ‘safari jeeps<\/a>,’ which have also resulted in\u00a0community protests<\/a>, official<\/a> and unofficial<\/a>, in recent years. Ironically, the company Jeep Tours attempted to promote itself in an Al Jazeera <\/em>article<\/a> on the\u00a0ethics of favela tours. The article states that “in the beginning, the\u00a0company\u00a0was concerned about how tours would be received by favela\u00a0residents, but that hasn’t been a problem,” according to the company’s owner. The owner explains: “Today our tours through favelas are a part of the local communities who totally recognize and approve of what we do.”<\/p>\n

    Despite locals’ dislike of driving tours, when government tourism institutions\u00a0Riotur<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and Embratur<\/a><\/em> were asked about favela tour companies, they only offered jeep tours as options. This illustrates a disconnect between government institutions and local residents in spite of resistance<\/a>\u00a0from communities and even widely seen\u00a0satirical critiques of jeep tours<\/a> by Brazilian comedy troupe Porta dos Fundos.<\/em><\/p>\n

    As opposed to the jeep tours, community initiatives work with local tour guides who guide groups through their own community by foot, occasionally also using community transport options (i.e.\u00a0kombis<\/a> and moto-taxis<\/a>). Although tours only last a few hours, by walking tourists gain a better understanding of residents’ daily routines as well as the opportunities such as for interaction, and difficulties arising from\u00a0narrow streets, alleys and stairs. Tour guides explain specific facilities or issues\u2014such as sewerage<\/a>, local businesses<\/a>, architecture\u2014in detail when they walk by relevant sites.<\/p>\n

    Walking tours also provide tourists with a chance to absorb the ambience and pose questions about things they notice en route<\/em> which would not otherwise occur to them. Driving on main roads takes less time\u00a0and is tremendously superficial given that favelas are primarily pedestrian-oriented<\/a> communities. On top of that, walking through a favela avoids the symbolic hierarchy that comes with tourists sitting behind a barrier in a jeep 1.5 meters above locals.<\/p>\n

    Benefits for the community<\/h4>\n

    The most beneficial\u00a0tours are those that also reinvest some of their profits in community-based social projects or businesses.<\/p>\n

    Favela Adventures in Rocinha invests part of its tourism income in its own social project: a DJ school<\/a>. Every semester 12 students learn the tricks of DJ-ing, with some eventually\u00a0earning money through gigs. Tourists and other supporters are encouraged to donate specific items needed by the school via its\u00a0“pack for a purpose”\u00a0initiative.<\/p>\n

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

    \u00c1gatha,\u00a0<\/strong>a local tour operator in Cantagalo<\/a>, also invests in community initiatives such as a museum that functions as a community center, the local graffiti artist Acne’s projects with children in Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0and a\u00a0garden,\u00a0Jardim do C\u00e9u, which serves\u00a0as a lookout point\u00a0during her tour.<\/p>\n

    She explains her motivations behind the reinvestments:\u00a0“That’s the thing about favela communities, you need each other… This is how we grow up and are taught and I wanted to pursue this in my business. It’s too easy to earn money and not share it. But I’ll always depend on someone in the favela. What comes around, goes around.”<\/p>\n

    Other community-based tours, particularly a growing number\u00a0of tours by community organizers, focus explicitly on\u00a0debunking stereotypes<\/a> and growing a network of people outside their communities who view favelas with more precision<\/a>\u00a0and can be mobilized to act in their support. These include Cosme Felippsen<\/a> in Provid\u00eancia<\/a> and\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Constantine<\/a> in Babil\u00f4nia<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

    Although not all community-based tours support social projects or focus on debunking myths, they all by definition employ locals as guides and commonly\u00a0support micro businesses on the tours themselves. Tours\u00a0may include lunch at a local\u00a0restaurant, beverages and snacks from a store en route<\/em>, viewpoints on residents’ rooftops in return for R$1, or visits to local souvenir shops.<\/p>\n

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

    Indirect benefits: tourism as everyday resistance<\/h3>\n

    Local tour guides seek to debunk stereotypes by providing perspective, knowledge and inside information about their community.<\/p>\n

    Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman highlights the importance of mobility in today’s era of ‘<\/i>liquid modernity<\/a>:’ those who overcome time and space benefit from globalization and those who are excluded do not. Community-based\u00a0tours can be seen as a form of mobility to overcome a specific dominant time-space compression of global images about favelas. Tour agencies run by locals and primarily working with local guides empower themselves by showing the real thing<\/em>, which is an\u00a0image of favelas that differs from what is regularly shown by the government and media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    As sources of more everyday\u00a0life\u00a0images and lived experience that work to disprove the dominant narrative, community-based tours can also be seen as nondramatic\u00a0everyday resistance<\/a> that is integrated in tour guides’ normal lives (as jobs). At the same time, favela residents include themselves in what they see as the opportunities\u00a0provided by\u00a0global tourism.<\/p>\n

    \n
    \n
    \n
    \n

    \"Zezinho's<\/a>Zezinho started Favela Adventures in 2007 when a resident\u00a0asked him to do tours because, with his body completely covered in Rocinha-themed tattoos, they thought he would be a great advertisement for the community. He recalls that initially\u00a0he refused but changed his mind for two reasons. First, when he told people outside the favela that he was from Rocinha, he says they would \u201clook at me with this dirty face: ugh, really? Ew.\u201d Secondly, he says the seven major tour companies that operated back then in Rocinha were from outside the favela, taking the money with them and providing false or inaccurate information. \u201cI wanted to do something that was more sustainable. I overheard this guy once saying: ‘look! Bullet holes!’ Okay, maybe they are, maybe they are not, but why point it out like that? [Just because] it makes the tour more exciting and live up to the stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n

    For Zezinho it is not about earning money: \u201cI\u2019m 53 years old, I have a rented apartment, no Nikes, car or gold chains. It\u2019s about providing jobs, increasing self-esteem and showing\u00a0outsiders from a local perspective what life is about here.” He gives “I ♥\u00a0ROCINHA” bracelets to residents as he tries to increase their\u00a0pride in where they come from.<\/p>\n

    For\u00a0Erik Martins<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Rocinha by Rocinha<\/a>, tours are a form of resistance because “we are talking about identity, empowerment. We were always survivors and we will always survive. The world looks at us [Brazilians in general] as if we are a joke with all the issues surrounding the Olympic Games<\/a>, but it\u2019s important to keep our identity and it’s important to focus on the positive things. We need to increase our self-esteem, which is very low, by being proud of where we come from, which can be done through tourism!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \u00c1gatha explains: “It’s about showing my life. I’m glad to show that people here are good. I want to show tourists we are not violent because we are poor\u2014we’re hardworking families who survive.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Community reactions<\/h3>\n
    \n
    \n

    Cantagalo resident La\u00eds does not think the tours are intrusive: “I don’t mind people walking around and looking into my window. When they come I like them to see my life. This is something the media doesn’t show, so it’s nice that people come and take a look themselves.”<\/p>\n

    Many locals find the tours positive due to the development of counter-stigmas<\/a>. As Rocinha resident Luciano explains, the tours are\u00a0“valuable for the community, creating awareness and visibility for the community. The tours show other things than the movies, and because people are receptive here, the majority doesn’t mind.”<\/p>\n

    Business owner and Babil\u00f4nia<\/a> resident Diogo points to\u00a0financial benefits:\u00a0“The tours are good, they bring people from outside in and that brings capital to the favela. If the community really didn’t\u00a0approve of the tours, they wouldn’t happen!”\u00a0His only concern refers to outside tour agencies: “I’d prefer local tour guides. It’s fairer because we fought for our community.”<\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/h3>\n

    The specific tour operators central in this article seek to humanize favelas<\/a> by constructing a collective reality through their narratives. Community-based tours can be seen as sustainable due to their content and organizational structures. These tours counteract\u00a0media-induced perceptions of panic and violence, portraying the reality of the favelas as working class neighborhoods<\/a> with successful businesses and amenities.<\/p>\n

    The local tour operators and guides react\u00a0to the globalization of favelas through film<\/a> and media broadly speaking. The content of their tours can be seen as everyday resistance countering\u00a0dominant perceptions of their communities. Through a nuanced experience\u00a0presenting \u2018both sides of the coin’–both the qualities and challenges these communities face–community-led tours provide a more accurate\u00a0understanding of local and national processes regarding favelas. And although this article looks at just a handful of community-led tours, they can be broadly perceived as important contributing actors in breaking down the negative stereotypes about favelas, raising global awareness and increasing self-esteem of locals.<\/p>\n

    For community-led favela tour operators reviewed and recommended by\u00a0RioOnWatch<\/em>, click here<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

    This is the third article\u00a0in a four-part series<\/a> on the social construction of favelas and the potential of favela tourism to break down negative stereotypes.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Phie van Rompu, M.A., graduated in Global Criminology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She researches\u00a0state-organized crime, (de)criminalization, resistance and drug-related issues.\u00a0<\/em>This RioOnWatch series is based on her Masters research.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    *Some\u00a0names have been changed.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Full Series:\u00a0Social Constructions of the Favela through Films and Tourism<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n

    Part 1: Stereotypes in Popular Films<\/a>
    \nPart 2:     Glorification of War and Violence<\/a>
    \nPart 3:\u00a0    Favela Tourism as Resistance<\/a>
    \nPart 4:     Tourist Perceptions Before and After Favela Tours<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This is the third\u00a0article in a four-part series on the social constructions of favelas\u00a0and the potential of favela tourism to break down negative stereotypes. Sociologist Anthony Giddens argues that, due to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":35550,"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":[1288,1271,1670,1503,1463,1282,329,1329],"tags":[1361,112,705,2404,771,258,364,504,397,1561,188,1635,1900,197,144,270,12,2634,2401,156,453,471,949,194],"writer":[2382],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-favelaqualities","9":"category-favela-tourism","10":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","11":"category-perceptions","12":"category-research-analysis","13":"category-solutions","14":"category-by-international-observers","15":"tag-endfavelastigma","16":"tag-cantagalo","17":"tag-commodification","18":"tag-community","19":"tag-community-pride","20":"tag-community-solution","21":"tag-community-based-organization-cbo","22":"tag-culture","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-favela-tour","25":"tag-history","26":"tag-jeep-tour","27":"tag-media-narrative","28":"tag-morro-da-babilonia","29":"tag-morro-da-providencia","30":"tag-resistance","31":"tag-rocinha","32":"tag-series","33":"tag-series-social-construction-of-the-favela","34":"tag-south-zone","35":"tag-stigma","36":"tag-sustainability","37":"tag-tour-guides","38":"tag-tourism","39":"writer-phie-van-rompu"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35171","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\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35171"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=35171"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=35171"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=35171"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=35171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}