The sociology journal Tempo Social, published continuously since 1989 by the Department of Sociology of the University of São Paulo and with its fully available collection to free access in the Scielo and the Portal de Periódicos da USP, from its first issue to the last one, prioritizes the sociological production of the major contemporary currents of the discipline, by national and international authors, and emphasizes the themes, the theoretical guidelines and the methodologies used by the different groups of scholars and researchers within the Brazilian social sciences, while at the same time seeks to pay attention to trends less known in the Brazilian context. The journal publishes continuously special thematic & special issues, always with the collaboration of national and foreign scholars, enhancing exchanges with the sociology and the other social sciences in Latin America and worldwide. Tempo Social is indexed in: ISI: www.isiknowledge.com Scopus/Elsevier: www.scopus.com International Bibliography of the Social Science – www.lse.ac.uk Institut de Information Scientifique et Technique – www.inist.fr Sociological Abstracts – www.csa.com University Libraries - University of Florida: www.uflib.ufl.edu International Political Science Abstracts: www.sciences-po.fr Science Electronic Library On Line: www.scielo.br
Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
Inhabiting confinement: cat-children, affective infrastructures and politics of exclusion
This article analyzes the figure of the ‘cat-children’, both as an expression of a childhood confined by fear and enclosure, and as a response to the precariousness of life in contexts of urban vulnerability. Based on accounts from neighbours, mothers, and carers, the spatial, temporal, and emotional dimensions of living in confinement are explored. We argue that these experiences shape affective infrastructures that sustain life and activate adaptive strategies, allowing children to resist and reinvent their inhabiting conditions, transcending the domestic sphere. These figurations challenge functionalist and exclusionary urban logics, giving way to a situated critique that recognises childhood and care as key to imagining other possible urban futures.
niñeces, figuración, miedo, infraestructuras afectivas, políticas de exclusión
Copyright (c) 2026 Rebeca Silva Roquefort, Mónica Aubán Borrell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A Critical review of the book "Intellectuals in the Plural: Reconfigurations of the Sociology of Intellectuals," edited by Carlos Benedito Martins and Felipe Maia
This is a critical review of the anthology “Intellectuals in the Plural: Reconfigurations of the Sociology of Intellectuals,” edited by Professors Carlos Benedito Martins, professor emeritus at the University of Brasília (UnB, Brazil), and Felipe Maia, professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF, Brazil).
Copyright (c) 2026 Pedro de Cillo Rodrigues https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The canon and its margins: bibliographic repertoires in social science teaching in Brazil
This article presents the findings of a study that examined the curricula of undergraduate (bachelor’s and licentiate) programs in Social Sciences situated in public higher education institutions in Brazil. It focused on the bibliographic repertoires of mandatory curricular components of social theory in Anthropology and Sociology, paying particular attention to the continuities and inflections in the authorship indicated in the courses’ pedagogical projects. By considering the literature as a constitutive dimension of education, the text investigates to what extent curricula reiterate, reconfigure, or challenge disciplinary canons, in light of the effects of the democratization of higher education and recent critiques of its historical foundations.
Social theory, curricula, higher education, Social Sciences, canon
Copyright (c) 2026 Andressa Oliveira, Aristeu Portela, Beatriz Rodrigues, Bruna Triana, Camila Mainardi, Fabiana Jardim, Hortência Vinhas, Lucas Amaral de Oliveira, Maura Amanajás, Mariana Toledo Ferreira, Patrícia da Silva Santos, Stefan Klein https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Containment and peripheral modernization
This article investigates Brazilian modernization by examining the paradoxical tension between the formal expansion of citizenship and the persistence of structural inequalities. Drawing on an articulated reading of Antonio Candido, Florestan Fernandes, and Roberto Schwarz, it argues that the peripheral incorporation of modernity occurred through “containment” — a historical pattern of selective assimilation of egalitarian demands that preserves existing power hierarchies. The concept of containment is proposed as a central analytical category for understanding this dynamic. Methodologically, the study combines dialectical criticism with the linguistic contextualism of the Cambridge School in order to analyze key concepts as interventions within intellectual debate.
Copyright (c) 2026 Carlos Henrique Gileno https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The politics of violence and political violence
The article introduces the dossier dedicated to the relationships between violence, police, and politics in Brazil. It is grounded in the interpretation that violence constitutes a structuring element of Brazilian social history and of the production of public order. The text discusses transformations that have taken place since the country’s redemocratization, such as the growing centrality of police institutions in the management of crime and the increasing participation of members of the security forces in institutional politics. It also examines the connections between police corporations, the security market, and the representative system, as well as the resurgence of political violence. Finally, the article presents and contextualizes the papers and interviews that compose the dossier, highlighting their contributions to the debate on democracy, violence, and punishment.
Dossier - State methods of containing violence, punitivism, and elections
Copyright (c) 2026 Lucas Batista Pilau, Roberta Heleno Novello, Sérgio Adorno, Marcos César Alvarez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The uses of the “regional” and other geosymbolic scales in the distinctive dynamics among elite fractions in João Pessoa (PB)
This article analyzes how urban elite fractions in João Pessoa (PB), Brazil, differentially mobilize references to the “regional” within their distinctive dynamics, considering their discourses about their home and its decoration as a means of access to these symbolic position-takings. Based on 32 semi-structured interviews and extensive documentary analysis conducted between 2021 and 2024, and drawing on the construction of the “micro social space” of João Pessoa’s elites, which classifies them both synchronically and diachronically, the study demonstrates how so-called “regional culture” is incorporated into distinctive symbolic compositions that combine different geographic scales. The meanings attributed to the regional vary according to the volume, structure, and trajectories of accumulation of economic and cultural capital, showing that distinction is produced through the capacity to articulate valued meanings of the regional with other geosymbolic instances.
Copyright (c) 2026 Miqueli Michetti, Marcella Novais https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Narratives and Dispositionalist Theory: a real life sociology. A critical review of the book Elas. Percursos "inesperados" de jovens mulheres das classes populares
This review presents a critical reflection on the book Elas. Percursos "inesperados" de jovens mulheres das classes populares, by João Teixeira Lopes, highlighting its theoretical and methodological contribution to contemporary sociological thought. Throughout the text, we show how the author mobilizes a materialist and relational sociology, attentive to the process of reflexivity in social research relations, constructing sociological portraits edited in the first person. These portraits make it possible to uncover the conditioning effects of social structures and, therefore, how each individual acts, reacts, thinks, feels, relates, and reinterprets structural constraints according to the situations of their everyday lives. Following the dispositionalist tradition, which emphasizes the past incorporated into social actors, Lopes articulates the biographical method with ethnography, producing an interpretive work based on the accounts of those who live this reality from within - of practices, trajectories, and contexts of socialization
Copyright (c) 2026 Jorge José Queiroz Corsi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The trajectory of an activist police chief: an interview with Orlando Zaccone
The interview with Orlando Zaccone addresses his trajectory as a Civil Police chief in Rio de Janeiro, as well as his work as a researcher and activist. The interviewee critically reflects on the role of the police chief within the Brazilian criminal justice system, arguing that this position often confers legal legitimacy to police actions, including in contexts involving the use of lethal force. Drawing on his professional and academic trajectory, Zaccone discusses issues such as police violence, drug policy, and penal selectivity. The interview also examines topics such as the disappearance of Amarildo Dias de Souza, the movement Policiais Antifascismo, aimed at articulating progressive police officers, the participation of police officers in politics and in debates on democracy and public security.
Copyright (c) 2026 Fernanda Novaes Cruz, Carlos Henrique Aguiar Serra, Marcos César Alvarez, Leonardo José Ostronoff https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Punishment and Responsibility in the Durkheimian Tradition
This article addresses the theme of criminal and moral responsibility, as studied by P. Fauconnet, a disciple of E. Durkheim. Fauconnet's reflection allows for the addition of an important link to Durkheim's reflections on punishment, by analyzing the symbolic social processes that determine to whom the penalty will be applied. The articulations between criminal justice and the moral ideals constitutive of modern society are explored according to the Durkheimian vision.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alexandre Braga Massella https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
History and Professional Identity of Sociology in Argentina: An Interview with Juan Pedro Blois
This text presents an interview with Juan Pedro Blois, professor at the National University of General Sarmiento and researcher at CONICET, devoted to the historical analysis of sociology in Argentina and to the construction of its professional identity. Drawing on his intellectual trajectory, Blois brings together the history of sociology and the sociology of professions to examine the processes of institutionalization of the discipline, the tensions between academic training and labor-market insertions, and the diversity of sociological practices within and beyond the university. The interview addresses the central role of teaching, the prominence of the Sociology program at the University of Buenos Aires, the influence of the student movement, and intellectual disputes surrounding figures such as Gino Germani and Alfredo Poviña. It also reflects on the development of the field of studies on the history of sociology in Argentina and identifies pending research agendas, particularly those focused on non-academic practices and on the social circulation of sociological knowledge.
Copyright (c) 2026 Marcelo Pinheiro Cigales, Fernanda Raposo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
From a man of many faces to an accusatory adjective: the Lombroso case
This is a review of SANSONE, Lívio. The Lombroso Galaxy: the extraordinary popularity of Cesare Lombroso and lombrosianism in Latin America. Campinas: Unicamp, 2025.
Copyright (c) 2026 Helga da Cunha Gahyva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Three decades of research on the Brazilian justice system and public security: an interview with Fiona Macaulay
Interview with Fiona Macaulay, professor at the University of Bradford, whose academic trajectory is marked by field research in Latin America, especially in Brazil. The interview addresses her academic background, her work in institutions such as Amnesty International, and her main research agendas, which include studies on human rights, prisons, gender, Brazilian politics, and the participation of members of the security forces in politics. The interview was conducted on November 27, 2024, at the Center for the Study of Violence at the University of São Paulo (NEV-USP), with the participation of researchers from the center, while the interviewee participated remotely.
Copyright (c) 2026 Roberta Heleno Novello, Lucas Batsita Pilau, Fernanda Novaes Cruz, Marcos César Alvarez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Policialism and Brazil’s 2024 local elections
This article compares government programs of elected mayors from security forces with those of non-elected opponents in Brazil’s 2024 municipal elections. Analysis of 74 candidacies, combining topic modeling (Bertopic) and qualitative validation, identifies systematic Discursive patterns. Results show that both groups Address the same thematic categories but establish distinct hierarchies: elected candidates concentrate Discourse on Municipal Guard and police structure; non-elected emphasize rights protection. Ideology modulates discourse only among non-elected. The electoral success of policialism stems from converting institutional credentials into political capital.
Copyright (c) 2026 Fábia Berlatto, Nilton Sainz, Gabriela Spanghero Lotta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Populism, democracy and property: An interview with Mark Devenney
Mark Devenney is a Professor at the University of Brighton and co-director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE). Author of Ethics and Politics in Contemporary Theory (2004) and Towards an Improper Politics (2020), Devenney contributes to the international debate with work that renews the post-Marxist tradition. In this interview, he offers a critical reading of the scope and limits of populist theory within post-foundational thought. The author argues for the centrality of property and colonial legacies in contemporary political logics. The interview also presents reflections on Brazil, analyzing the tensions between Lulismo, the far-right, and democratic resistances.
Copyright (c) 2026 Guilherme Figueredo Benzaquen, Mark Devenney https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The participation of police officers in the political-electoral process: a bibliographic review
This article aims to present an overview of the existing social science literature on the participation of police officers in the Brazilian political-electoral process. Since the country’s redemocratization, numerous police officers have occupied prominent elected positions in both the Executive and Legislative branches, with a notable increase in police candidates emerging from the 2018 elections onward. As this phenomenon gained visibility in public debate, various studies were produced and published. It is therefore pertinent to ask: What scholarly works on this topic exist within the social sciences, what are their characteristics, and in what ways do they engage with one another? To provide a consistent response to this inquiry, a range of publication repositories (such as Google Scholar and SciELO), as well as additional sources, were consulted to identify and analyze the studies addressing this subject. At this stage of the research, forty-two works were found, published between 1998 and 2025, originating primarily from the fields of Political Science and Sociology, and most commonly in the form of theses, dissertations, and journal articles. Ultimately, the article argues that this body of literature may be organized into four thematic axes: “Political-electoral elements,” “Representations of crime, violence, and punishment,” “The ‘Bancada da Bala,’” and “Political movements.”
Copyright (c) 2026 Lucas Batista Pilau, Sérgio Adorno https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Punitive trends in perspective: police officers in the São Paulo legislature
This article analyzes the role of “police-deputies” in the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (2015-2018), examining how broader trends observed in the field of crime control and reflections on the “punitive turn” are expressed at the state level. Guided by a Foucauldian perspective on discourse, the documentary research – which included legislative bills, plenary session records, and parliamentary front proceedings – investigated the construction of public problems related to public security, urban space management, and punishment. The findings show how these practices expand the presence of the Military Police within public administration and redefine the boundaries between prevention and repression through the category of “urban disorder” and securitarian strategies. The article argues that the case reveals less a punitive turn than the incorporation of contemporary trends through the updating of historically rooted authoritarian practices of order production and inequality management.
Copyright (c) 2026 Roberta Heleno Novello https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A Crise do Cuidado do Capitalismo. Conversando com Nancy Fraser
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Crises, desigualdades e cuidados: singularidades e desafios em perspectiva internacional
A presença crescente do cuidado como um objeto relevante no debate sobre as sociedades contemporâneas, e a legitimidade intelectual e política que o campo tem adquirido se mostram especialmente visíveis quando em conjunção com duas outras noções, as de “crise” e de “desigualdades”. Múltiplas crises e variados padrões de desigualdade desafiam os estudiosos do cuidado a entender as singularidades das tramas do cuidado, as quais são tanto mais visíveis quanto mais nos adentramos no campo dos estudos comparados. A isso tem se dedicado crescentemente a academia, como se ilustra neste texto.
Crises, inequalities and care. Exploring national experiences
Cuidados; Crises; Desigualdades; Comparações internacionais
Copyright (c) 2025 Nadya Araujo Guimarães, Helena Hirata https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Cannabis legalization and coloniality: an analysis of the canadian case and the limits of dessecuritization
This study analyzes the cannabis legalization process in Canada and argues that, given the historical impacts of prohibitionism and the “war on drugs”, it is necessary to think beyond the logic of desecuritization in order to understand the persistence of prohibitionist and colonial practices. To support this argument, the work examines the tensions between the Canadian federal government and Indigenous peoples, highlighting issues related to sovereignty, autonomy, and political participation. The research adopts a qualitative methodology, based on primary and secondary sources and on the process tracing theory testing method. We conclude, albeit partially, that the Canadian legalization process reveals the persistence and reconfiguration of colonialist practices that disregard Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination rights.
Copyright (c) 2026 Allana Facchini Silva, Paulo Pereira, Naomi Zakimi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dossiê : A pandemia e o social: perspectivas sociologicas sobre os efeitos da crise Covid-19
Resenha do número especial da Revue Française de Sociologie n° 65-4 outubro-dezembro de 2024. Dossiê: A pandemia e o social: perspectivas sociologicas sobre os efeitos da crise Covid-19. Coordenaçao : Nathalie BAJOS, Michel DUBOIS, Patrick PERETTI-WATEL
Copyright (c) 2025 Helena Hirata https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A comprehensive view of the life and work of the great sociologist. The discussion of his historical and pragmatic method, focused on action. The sociological reduction as a method that allows us to critically adapt foreign knowledge. Her participation in Iseb and his early departure from the institution when she became ideological. Its developmentalist nationalism. His comprehensive analysis of Brazilian society, its national revolution and its dependence expressed in the colonial complex of inferiority,
Copyright (c) 2026 Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Victor Collard, Pierre Bourdieu: genèse d’un sociologue. Paris, Éditions CNRS, 2024
Review of the book Pierre Bourdieu: genèse d’un sociologue. Paris, Éditions CNRS, 2024, by Victor Collard.
Copyright (c) 2026 Antonio Carlos Dias Júnior, Vinicius Wohnrath https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Care and pandemic: A transnational perspective
A resenha analisa a obra Guimarães, Nadya Araujo; Gottfried, Heidi; Hirata, Helena & Pineda D., Javier A. (Eds). (2025), Care and Pandemic: A Transnational Perspective. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. 291 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Adriana Pinheiro Carvalho https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Entrevista com Othon Fernando Jambeiro Barbosa
Esta entrevista conta os bastidores da produção de um dos primeiros trabalhos de Sociologia sobre música popular de massa realizados na Universidade de São Paulo. Produzido nos anos mais duros da ditadura, por um aluno de mestrado perseguido por sua militância política, "Canção de massa – as condições da produção" é até hoje uma grande referência para estudos da área. Na conversa, o hoje professor titular da Universidade Federal da Bahia, Othon Jambeiro, conta sobre como pode entrar no mestrado em Sociologia, vindo praticamente fugido da perseguição militar na Bahia, através da mediação do então reitor da UFBA, Roberto Santos; da recepção em São Paulo em meio à cassação de professores e da orientação de Ruy Coelho, depois preso, e Marialice Foracchi.
Copyright (c) 2026 Paula Costa Nunes de Carvalho https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Intellectuals, culture, and politics put to the test by sociology: an interview with Gisèle Sapiro
Interview with the French sociologist Gisèle Sapiro, which began in February 2025 in Paris and concluded in August of the same year in Campinas. In the conversation, the sociologist addresses central aspects of her career, such as her relationship with Pierre Bourdieu, as well as her intellectual production. Sapiro discusses decisive moments in the French intellectual scene, such as the role of the ehess and journals in the intellectual disputes of the European country, or the specificities of Bourdieu’s engagement against neoliberalism in the 1990s. She also addresses the relationships between autonomy and politicization, between the form of positions taken and the content of intellectuals’ ideas, and, even more so, the transformations in the links between fields, particularly between the fields of cultural production, the field of power, and the dominant economic logic – themes she has analyzed in some of her works. Furthermore, the (unpublished) speech by Pierre Bourdieu at the ceremony awarding the CNRS bronze medal to Gisèle Sapiro in 2000 is published as an appendix.
Copyright (c) 2026 Fabio Mascaro Querido https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
How exceptional is the USA? Carework and inequality
Countering the popular claim that what differentiates the USA for other wealthy countries in regard to the labor market dynamics of paid domestic labor is its relatively large immigrant population, this article argues that the critical factors are instead the USA’s minimal system of social provision and its extreme level of economic inequality (including inequality among women) which drives up both the supply of and the demand for paid domestic workers. In addition, in the USA paid domestic work is highly stratified, with extensive variation in pay and working conditions. In many respects the USA more closely resembles countries in the global South than its counterparts in the wealthy world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ruth Milkman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
What do uniformed politicians say about civilian armament?
This article analyzes speeches on civilian armament by federal deputies from security forces in the Chamber of Deputies (1991-2025). A total of 1,740 speeches were collected and classified by position and arguments. The results show that although they represent 3% of deputies, uniformed politicians account for 15% of speeches on firearms. From the 55th legislature (2015-2019) onward, a pro-armament shift was observed, coinciding with the increase of these parliamentarians, who were responsible for 61% of speeches favorable to liberalization. The main arguments emphasize self-defense, the dichotomy of “good citizens versus criminals,” and state failure. The study concludes that these deputies were central to transforming the debate, advocating individual responsibility for security to the detriment of state public security.
Copyright (c) 2026 Pedro Benetti, Terine Husek, Iris Rosa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Structural and temporal determinants of political-electoral violence in Mexico
This article analyzes the structural and temporal determinants of political-electoral violence in México during the 2018, 2021, and 2024 federal elections. Using negative binomial regression models and electoral risk window analysis on a dataset of 1,051 violent events, the study identifies three significant structural factors. Municipal per capita income shows a positive association with violence, while partisan misalignment between municipal and state governments doubles the risk of violent events. Conversely, the prior homicide rate exhibits a negative association, suggesting dynamics of criminal consolidation or violence displacement. The findings reveal opposing temporal patterns by crime type: threats concentrate in the pre-electoral period and dissipate after election day, while homicides peak on election day and remain elevated during the following month. This differentiation points to distinct strategic logics operating within contexts of institutional fragmentation and local criminal governance.
Copyright (c) 2026 Arturo Alvarado Mendoza, Carolina Jasso González https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Yanilda María González, Authoritarian police indemocracy: Contested security in Latin America. Cambridge University Press, 2021
Review of the book Authoritarian Police in Democracy (2021), Cambridge University Press, 2021, by Yanilda Maria González.
Copyright (c) 2026 Frederico Castelo Branco, Viviane Cubas, Fernanda Novaes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Militarization as expertise: the military and the construction of authority in Brazilian public security
The article advances an analytical shift in debates on the militarization of public security in Brazil by treating it as a process of constructing and circulating expertise, rather than merely as institutional expansion or democratic backsliding. Drawing on sociology of expertise, it argues that the authority to name problems, define standards of evidence, and prescribe interventions is relational and contingent, and is produced through devices that stabilize languages and routines. Empirically, the article combines (i) a description of the historical series of Law-and-Order Guarantee operations (GLO), emphasizing their intermittent recurrence as a reactivable state repertoire, and (ii) analysis of doctrinal documents that transform episodic experience into portable and teachable competence. It shows how key manuals issued by the Ministry of Defense (2014) and by the Army (2018) codify operational categories, delimit exceptionality, establish inter-agency coordination arrangements, and provide templates for planning, communication, and accountability. In doing so, the article offers a complementary perspective to the established literature on the militarization of public security by specifying the mechanisms through which exceptional interventions become governable and defensible as management. Finally, it outlines research agendas on the genealogies and micropolitics of doctrinal production, translations between peacekeeping repertoires and domestic repertoires, and ecologies of credentials through which military experience is converted into public authority.
Copyright (c) 2026 Felipe Ramos Garcia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0