From the field to the camp

the penitentiary question analysis in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

Supported by Pierre Boudieu and Giorgio Agamben, as well as data on the reality of criminal execution in Brazil, it is proposed the possibility of identifying, in relation to our contemporary Penitentiary Question, a Campo sui generis, in the sense of Bourdieu, and the constitution of a Field, in the sense of Agamben. The perspective is to contribute to the formation of powerful theoretical-instrumental frameworks to face the Penitentiary Question, overcoming epistemological obstacles and rhetorical and political subterfuges that are often associated with it.