Luiz Antonio Machado da Silva - an intellectual of the most "refined demeanor" in brazilian social sciences (article)

This article recovers part of the legacy of Luiz Antonio Machado da Silva for Brazilian Social Sciences and, more specifically, for Urban Sociology. Machado dedicated himself, for more than fifty years, to Brazilian Social Sciences and Urban Sociology. He opened new perspectives for the study of life on the “margins” (favelas and outskirts of large cities) and, among the various topics he studied in depth, he analyzed the production of “urban marginality” by the State, the meaning and uses of the category of informality , in addition to being alert to the effects of the emergence of violent crime in an urban context torn apart by the labor crisis.

Author: Palloma Menezes, Márcia Pereira Leite and Marcella Araújo

Originally published on: Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais, v.23, 2021.

Abstract

In this article, we recall the legacy of Luiz Antonio Machado da Silva, a victim of COVID-19 in 2020, for Brazilian Social Sciences and, more specifically, Urban Sociology. This was the field to which Machado had dedicated himself during more than 50 years of research and studies, opening new paths and analytical perspectives for the study of life on the “margins” (favelas and peripheries of large cities - contemplated through the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he lived and conducted his research). Within different contexts, Machado analyzed the State production of “urban marginality”, seeking to understand the life experiences, survival strategies, political struggles and challenges of the urban popular strata. As of the 1990s, he also dedicated himself to analyzing the effects caused by the erosion of the world of work and by state regulation that erstwhile accompanied it, thereby guaranteeing a minimum of rights and some social integration. Thus, within this context, he directed his analytical efforts towards understand both the meaning and the uses of the category of informality, and above all, was attentive to and concerned with the effects brought by the emergence of violent crime from within an urban structure torn apart by the labor crisis, as the social foundation to the times of deconstruction of our institutional and political paradigm of social integration. Since it would be impossible to gauge the true grandeur of his work, we have sought to reconstruct just a part of his research trajectory and his analytical contribution to Urban Sociology within the different contexts. We also emphasize a lesserknown aspect of Machado: that of a public intellectual who always sought to intervene in the public debate regarding the place of the urban popular classes within the city.