Stolen Cars: A Journey Through São Paulo's Urban Conflict (IJURR Studies in Urban and Social Change Book Series) - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gabriel Feltran is an urban ethnographer who has studied the ‘world of crime’ in Brazil for more than two decades. He is Professor of Sociology at the Federal University of São Carlos and Senior Researcher at the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). He has held Invited Scholar positions at University of Oxford, UK, and Humboldt University, Germany, and is former Academic Director of the Center for Metropolitan Studies, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Professor Feltran’s works include The Entangled City: Crime as Urban Fabric in São Paulo.

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‘Something of an instant classic, Stolen Cars pins its researcher’s sights on the moving targets selected by the thieves and robbers of Sao Paulo’s criminal networks. Those expecting only underworld revelations are quickly re-educated to see how acts of illicit acquisition form part of a more complex and vast urban economy whose shadow embraces both the formal and the illicit. Stolen Cars is a detailed, complex and exciting story with an intellectual energy that matches the turbo-charged vehicles so prized by Sao Paulo’s thieves.’

―Rowland Atkinson, Research Chair in Inclusive Societies, University of Sheffield, UK

‘This book should be an instant classic. Theft and crime shape urban livelihoods and everyday experiences in many cities, at the frontiers of often extreme inequality. But these themes are absent from the canon of urban theory. Through a detailed ethnography of car theft in Sao Paulo, Stolen Cars traces the deep ties of these illegal circuits with insurance, finance, auto production and repair, as well as the international drug trade. A highly innovative account of crucial transnational networks shaping urban life and urban economies, this book represents an essential new starting point for global urban studies.’

―Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Geography, University College London, UK

From the moment a car is stolen, many people start to make money. Where is this money circulated? What effects does it have on the legal and illegal economies? How does it impact social and political dynamics? Based on an ethnographical study spanning five years, Stolen Cars: A Journey Through São Paulo’s Urban Conflict tracks the journeys of stolen cars, their owners, and their thieves to examine how the patterns and mechanisms of urban inequalities and violence are reproduced.

This book follows the supply chain of stolen cars from the streets of São Paulo to the clubs of Berlin, highlighting the integration of global economies through consumption, money laundering, automobile auctions, and the strategies of insurance providers. The authors show that crime and illegal markets are inherent to the construction of cities―not separate criminal underworlds―and are a direct consequence of unequal and violent urban development. Organized around the journeys of five stolen cars, each chapter discusses a specific theme, such as the distinctions between violent robbery and the more commercial non-violent theft or the role of national borders interconnecting illegal and legal economies. Drawing upon empirical data and a combination of different methodologies to demonstrate mechanisms of urban inequalities and violence reproduction, Stolen Cars is essential reading and highlights how everyday life is entangled with structural urban transformations.

Aus dem Klappentext

From the moment a car is stolen, many people start to make money. Where is this money circulated? What effects does it have on the legal and illegal economies? How does it impact social and political dynamics? Based on an ethnographical study spanning five years, Stolen Cars: A Journey Through São Paulo’s Urban Conflict tracks the journeys of stolen cars, their owners, and their thieves to examine how the patterns and mechanisms of urban inequalities and violence are reproduced.

This book follows the supply chain of stolen cars from the streets of São Paulo to the clubs of Berlin, highlighting the integration of global economies through consumption, money laundering, automobile auctions, and the strategies of insurance providers. The authors show that crime and illegal markets are inherent to the construction of cities—not separate criminal underworlds—and are a direct consequence of unequal and violent urban development. Organized around the journeys of five stolen cars, each chapter discusses a specific theme, such as the distinctions between violent robbery and the more commercial non-violent theft or the role of national borders interconnecting illegal and legal economies. Drawing upon empirical data and a combination of different methodologies to demonstrate mechanisms of urban inequalities and violence reproduction, Stolen Cars is essential reading and highlights how everyday life is entangled with structural urban transformations.