Watching Radical Geography: Spaces and Practices of Authoritarian Surveillance in ‘Democratic’ and ‘Dictatorial’ Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper addresses stories of surveillance of Brazilian critical/radical geographers, drawing on innovative sources. That is, the folders and reports through which the political police and related institutions watched critical and radical scholars during the 20th century in all Brazilian states and abroad, under both ‘dictatorial’ and ‘democratic’ regimes. Our argument is twofold: first, surveillance is not only a device that characterises ‘authoritarian’ or ‘autocratic’ regimes, but a dispositive that can be geared at any moment to the repression of dissidences, even in what is called a ‘democracy’, being not only ‘technology’, but intention to construct a political enemy. Second, ideas on radicalising archives and rescuing alternative geographical traditions should take advantage of hostile sources produced by ‘adversaries’ such as police informants, radicalising these sources through critical readings. To this end, direct access to original documents, places and languages proves paramount to put transnational radical geographies in mutual dialogues.

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