11/11: The (local) politics of the Bolsa Família program in Brazil

November 11 | 4 p.m. | Hale Science 450

Beyond the relative consensus that exists in Brazilian politics about the conditional cash transfer Bolsa Família, the political dynamics of the program’s implementation are often overlooked. Based on ethnographic research (2013-2015) conducted in the Northeast region, Flávio Eiró analyses the social interactions that affect the distribution of benefits of the world’s largest anti-poverty program. Focusing on how frontline workers use their discretion to better apply what they see as scarce resources, and how their actions are shaped by representations of poverty that separate “deserving” from “undeserving” poor, his research offers crucial insights into Latin America’s recent conservative wave.

Flávio Eiró is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at Radboud University. He holds a PhD (2017) in Sociology from the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). He is a researcher in the project “Participatory Urban Governance between Democracy and Clientelism: Brokers and (In)formal Politics,” funded by an European Research Council starting grant, analyzing informal politics and participation in four cities: Manchester, Medellín, Recife, and Rotterdam. His research interests include clientelism, informal politics, citizenship, social assistance, and poverty. His research focus has mainly been on Brazil.