Moral e emoção nos movimentos culturais: Estudo da “tecnologia social” do Grupo Cultural AfroReggae

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationship between morality andemotion in a project for social intervention elaborated by AfroReggae CulturalGroup (GCAR). The group’s main purpose is to offer alternatives todrug trafficking to young people who inhabit the slums, such as artisticworkshops and projects meant to bridge the gap between distinct groups inRio’s society, particularly policemen and young slum inhabitants. In its discoursesdisseminated through different media, the group creates a “self-image”through the repetition of some tales. These tales are here analyzed as“fables” whose moralities are examined through two oppositions: martyr/survival and utopia/hope. Our hypothesis is the existence of a fundamentalissue: the idea of responsibility towards the other. The concept of “moralproject” (Cole, 2003) is articulated to a reflection on emotions’ place inpolitics in order to structure our analysis. Data includes movies, books, groupmembers’ interviews to television shows and in-depth interviews conductedduring fieldwork.