O Público e o Privado

The police control policy in Brazil and the specificity of a “hybrid” control model

2025-03-07T10:53:19-03:00

This article seeks to describe, understand, and analyze the policies for controlling public security forces in Brazil and, more specifically, the creation of a new model for controlling police activities in Ceará after the redemocratization of the country. It should be noted that crises in public security are drivers of changes in the policies for controlling police activities and, not by chance, they gained national and local prominence, as was the case with the governments of Tasso Jereissati (1995–1999 and Cid Gomes (2011-2024). The first with the creation of a unique, innovative model, which w)as based on the unification of police correction processes in the same agency and outside the police institutions and the military fire department. And, a decade later, Governor Cid Gome, faced with yet another crisis in public security, in 2011, transformed the Single Internal Affairs Office, as it became known, into the General Comptroller of Discipline for Public Security Agencies and the Penitentiary System (CGD), incorporating prison police officers into it. The question that arises today is how this “innovative model of correction and discipline” for the security forces of Ceará will guarantee continuity of their actions in the face of the conditions of possibilities of government agendas in a field marked by political disputes and corporate interests, as can already be seen with the approval, in 2023, by the Federal Senate of the new organic laws of the Civil and Military Police and the Military Fire Department, which can change this entire configuration.

Keywords: Police control. Government agenda. Public security policies.

The 2019 social security reform and its regressive social impacts

2025-02-17T14:21:16-03:00

The article is a theoretical-bibliographic and documental research. The objective is to analyze the changes in social security that occurred during the Bolsonaro government. In Brazil, pension rights were the result of struggles by the Brazilian working class in search of a social security that protects citizens during their working lives and after their retirement. The Bolsonaro government's social security reform was carried out to serve the interests of financial capital by lowering the living conditions of the Brazilian working class and making access to a dignified retirement more difficult. The study shows that there was a regression in the rights that have been earned in 1988 in the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil and postulates the need for a review of the social security reform that will enable the annulment of the negative points for workers.

Support for Community Health Agents in scenarios of violence

2025-02-11T14:13:39-03:00

This report describes the training experience with Community Health Agents (CHA) in the course "Caring for Conflicts and Violence Prevention in the Territories", which was based on Fiocruz/CE research on the impact of covid-19 and violence on the mental health and work of CHAs. With a theoretical-experiential approach, the training favored the ‘groupe sujet’, in which the members constitute themselves as agents of enunciation, desire and institutional creation, using dialogical methodologies such as Peacebuilding Circles (CCP), Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and Conflict Mediation (MC). In the training, various instruments were applied, such as writing and participant observation. The CHAs evaluated the course as relevant to their personal and professional development, with an impact on self-care, the ability to deal with conflicts and interpersonal relationships. The experience highlights the importance of permanent training aligned with the needs of the service as a strategy for strengthening and protecting health professionals face of the challenges of violence in daily life.

Keywords: Community Health Agents. Peace-building Circles. Nonviolent communication. Conflict mediation. Violence.

Soundgarden

2025-02-11T16:03:47-03:00

This paper seeks to understand and explore the ideas of risk and excess as sociological categories of analysis. Taking as a heuristic example the grunge movement that began in Seattle in the mid-1980s – and in particular the band Soundgarden – this digression seeks to connect the stylistic, performative and musical expressions of grunge from a complex set of social and cultural conditioning that are external to it. Operating from the perspective of cultural sociology, we will try to situate grunge within the broader framework of profound transformations experienced in the last two decades of the 20th century, describing the role of generational anxieties for culture.

The Catholic Church as a moral agency

2025-06-23T15:20:01-03:00

The article investigates the Catholic Church as a "moral agency," combining theoretical and empirical foundations to understand its functioning as an institution that generates prescriptive behaviors. Drawing on Ernst Troeltsch, it highlights the role of the doctrine of natural law as the basis of a universal morality that legitimizes the Church’s moral authority in positive relation to the world. Based on Max Weber, it shows that this morality is neither unitary nor elitist, but stratified, adapting to the diversity of the faithful. The reforms promoted by Pope Francis—especially Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia Supplicans—are analyzed as moments of tension that, far from breaking with tradition, reaffirm the adaptive logic of Catholic morality. Even while introducing innovative elements, these reforms preserve the Thomistic structure, revealing the plasticity of Catholic ethics in the face of modernity. The study contributes to the sociology of morality by offering an interpretive framework for understanding the institutional ethos of the Catholic Church.

Institucional

2025-07-04T14:45:58-03:00

Expediente

2025-07-04T14:50:40-03:00

Apresentação

2025-06-28T07:40:20-03:00

The moral economy of the public sphere

2025-05-31T19:30:17-03:00

This article aims to reflect on how Pentecostalism disrupts conventional categories in studies of religion in Brazil, especially the public-private dichotomy and, consequently, the role of religion in the public sphere. This reflection will be based on two events that took place in Brasília and were led by Pastor Silas Malafaia (one of the main opponents of progressive policies among Pentecostal leaders), in which I conducted fieldwork with participant observation: first, the inauguration of a branch of Malafaia’s church in Brasília scheduled to take place on the same weekend as a protest for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, in March 2016. This protest in the federal capital took place simultaneously with several others spread across many Brazilian cities; second, the so-called Prophetic Act in Favor of Brazil, also held in Brasília, in May of the same year, right after the approval of the impeachment process in the Chamber. Without abandoning the Habermasian notion of the public sphere, but comparing it with feminist criticisms and secularism studies directed at this same notion, I want to present what I call the moral economy of the public sphere and thereby contribute to clarifying the phenomenon of the public action of Pentecostals in Brazilian society.

Public controversies based on news

2025-05-26T16:38:47-03:00

This article aims to problematize the monolithic view of Brazilian laïcity often present in journalistic content, especially regarding the difficulty in differentiating between the public sphere and public space. This approach, aligned with the prevailing legal-political consensus in Brazil, hinders the understanding of the motivations, actions, and projects promoted by religious groups—particularly evangelical denominations—in social coexistence spaces, such as educational institutions. I argue that this "myopia," resulting from disputes between different fields of power, limits reflection on the religious moralities involved and the real consequences that certain religious denominations have achieved in recent decades. To illustrate some of the premises that guide Brazilian journalism’s coverage of the presence of religious perspectives in public schools, I analyze a report published by the UOL news portal in January 2025.

The “abominables”

2025-03-24T11:47:29-03:00

This paper analyzes the speeches of an evangelical couple during the 2022 electoral campaign in Ceará, focusing on the rhetorical construction of their political “enemies.” This is a documentary study using the candidates’ posts on the social network Instagram during the 2022 electoral campaign as the material for analysis. The focus of the content analysis of the posts is on the three categories that they identify as “abominable”: the left, Lula, and feminism. The study demonstrates how the candidates use language laden with emotion, war, and demonization to mobilize their voters, associating their opponents with “forces of evil” (Satan and communism) and threatening the traditional family. This strategy of identity construction and political mobilization explores the tension between conservative religious values and social change, and the use of narratives of threat and fear to polarize the electorate.

When graffiti is sacred

2025-02-25T16:54:26-03:00

In this article, we investigate the intersections between art, city, and religion through the circulation of religious graffiti in Recife. In a context where religion is increasingly mediated by symbolic and visual languages, the presence of sacred imagery outside traditional places of worship — inscribed on the city’s walls — reveals significant shifts in the experience of the sacred. We ask: in what ways does religiosity, mediated by graffiti, operate as a device of symbolic dispute in urban space? And how do these images convey religious moralities that challenge both hegemonic Christianity and the dominant secular ethos? To explore these questions, we conducted a sensory ethnography grounded in visual anthropology, with close attention to the perceptual layers that traverse the experience of a graffiti-covered city. Fieldwork involved the photographic mapping of religious-themed graffiti and participation in collective activities of urban creation and occupation. Throughout this process, we identified four predominant modes of sacred inscription on Recife’s walls: Throughout this analysis, we identify four predominant modalities of sacred inscription on the walls of Recife: motivational christianity, battle christianity, territorialized christianity, and afro-brazilian spirituality.

Populism and Religion

2025-03-24T11:53:38-03:00

Focusing on religious populism, this study aims to analyze the practices and discourses of Jair Bolsonaro during his presidential term in Brazil (2019–2022). The investigation examines institutional relationships between religious leaders and the federal government. In this regard, the study analyzes the appointment of evangelical leaders, as well as decrees and laws that align with the shared interests of these actors. Additionally, it includes an analysis of speeches delivered by political figures from the evangelical field, with particular emphasis on Bolsonaro’s statements. The findings reveal a discursive agenda based on a struggle between "good" and "evil" and a "we" versus "them" dynamic—framing a sort of holy war against the left, which is purportedly seen as a threat to the family and the ideals of conservative Christianity.

Editorial

2025-07-01T21:50:25-03:00

Editorial.