INEQUALITY, POVERTY AND VIOLENCE: NOTES FOR A DEBATE ON THE SOCIAL QUESTION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The text that follows has focused on the possible conceptual relationship, between inequality, poverty and violence, from the settings of the social question in Brazil. The intention is to make notes and wave to future research problems. The sustained argument over the text seeks to relativize the importance given to the economic dimension as defining the situations of social inequality. It is not the case, however, to deny the importance of the economic aspect, but exploring other possibilities such as exclusion notions, social stigma and subordinated identifications. In this sense, poverty and violence may also be located within other dynamic that not only the graphics and international rates (although these are important indications for debate). We conclude arguing that poverty is established not by the amount of material and symbolic goods consumed or not consumed, but the reciprocity that these assets generate from the social relationships they trigger.