Orchids on Spikes: Fear of Crime and Daily Life in a Middle-Class São Paulo Neighborhood
Flora Izar Thompson '25
Anthropology, Sociology
My thesis in anthropology is a qualitative study based on eight semi-structured interviews that I conducted with residents of Vila Mariana, a neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil, that has experienced high levels of verticalization, gentrification, and securitization in recent decades. I explored the complex ways in which personal experience, media exposure, the urban environment, and other factors come together to shape people’s perceptions of crime in the neighborhood, and how their daily practices both reproduce and resist their fears. I also related this to São Paulo’s broader social and political landscape, discussing how urban fear and securitization ultimately reinforce patterns of social inequality and undermine social cohesion in the city.
What drew you to explore this topic?
Urban crime is a frequent topic in private discussions and political discourse in São Paulo, but past studies have shown that people's perceptions of crime often do not match – and tend to be higher than – actual crime statistics. Through my interviews, I wanted to explore both this subjective nature of fear and its real manifestations in people's lives, since perceptions of security shape how people socialize and navigate the city, the home they live in, the political party they support, and a myriad of other decisions that are relevant on a personal level and for wider society.