About affairs and marriages: affections and loves through female prisons in São Paulo and Barcelona

Author(s)

Natália Corazza Padovani

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2015-06-18

Examining board members

Adriana Gracia Piscitelli; Adriana de Resende Barreto Vianna; Gabriel de Santis Feltran; Maria Filomena Gregori; Ronaldo Almeida

• Advisor: Adriana Gracia Piscitelli

Abstract

The research which this dissertation is based upon sought to analyze the sexual and affective relationships created in female penitentiaries in the cities of São Paulo and Barcelona. The dissertation looks at prisons as a space which produces relationships, focusing in particular on how the linkages created in the prison system modify the life trajectories of those who create or reinforce family networks through the exchange of "help" (Piscitelli, 2008) and "substances" (Carsten, 2004) within the multiple spaces of the prison system (both within and outside of the actual walls of the prison itself). My fieldwork resulted in an ethnography which became multi-sited in its development. Seeking to follow the affective networks created by the women I engaged with during my research, my ethnographic field expanded from one female penitentiary in São Paulo to other prison units in the same city and, finally, to Barcelona. This widening was due to the significant presence of Spanish women detained within the São Paulo system. It ended up creating new research problems linked to migrational and transnational movement studies. The resultant widening of my analytical spectrum, however, also allowed me to carry out significant ethnographic research among Brazilian women in Catalunian prisons. My analysis of this ethnographic material reveals that, for my research interlocutors, affective networks produce possible escapes or axes of agency within the power relations of the prison system ¿ a system which aggregates layers of state control over boarders and migratory flows, as well other forms of relationship management, such as those exercised by the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC)) prisoner collective. The affective networks woven between and during the "sentances and marriages" lived while in prison are thus an extremely relevant part of the productive political processes of these institutions (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/08618-5 - Affairs and marriages: Love relationships and conjugal experiences at women penitentiaries of São Paulo city.
• Grantee: Natália Corazza Padovani
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate