Stolen Cars

Gabriel Feltran is an urban ethnographer who has studied the ‘world of crime’ in Brazil for more than two decades. He is Professor of Sociology at the Federal University of São Carlos and Senior Researcher at the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). He has held Invited Scholar positions at University of Oxford, UK, and Humboldt University, Germany, and is former Academic Director of the Center for Metropolitan Studies, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Professor Feltran’s works include The Entangled City: Crime as Urban Fabric in São Paulo.

• Notes on Contributors viiiSeries Editors’ Preface xIntroduction 1Gabriel FeltranA Phone Call 7A Global Market 9Theoretical Framework: Normative Regimes 11Inequalities 18Methods: About Journeys, Tacking, and Our Collaborative Research Team 21A Collective Research Team 27Ethical Issues, Diversity, and Typical Days 29Chapter Structure 311 Crime, Violence, and Inequality in São Paulo 37Gregorio Zambon and Gabriel Feltran7 a.m. (Fiat Strada) 3910:00 a.m. (Hyundai HB20) 435:15 p.m. (Fiat Palio) 478:40 p.m. (Ford Ka) 53Urban Violence and Market Regulation 562 State Reaction 63Gabriel FeltranPolice Use of Lethal Force 66Imprisonment 74The “Clearing of Public Roads” 78Political Legitimation 803 Designing the Market 87Deborah FrommInsurance as a Mediator 94The Automobile Business: From the Streets of São Paulo to the Panama Papers 994 Auctions and Mechanisms 104André de Pieri Pimentel and Luiz Gustavo Simão PereiraCentral Circuits: Insurance Companies that Sell at Auctions 109Some Numbers 111Marginal Circuits: Car Dealerships and Chop-shops that Buy at Auctions 115Auctioneers: Economics and Politics 1215 Dismantling a Stolen Car 127Isabela Vianna Pinho, Gregório Zambon, and Lucas Alves Fernandes SilvaFamily, Market, Politics 130Between Extremes: From “Recicla” to “Sheds” 135Prices and Stratification 1436 Regulating an Illegal Market 147Luana Motta, Janaina Maldonado, and Juliana AlcântaraA Brief Chronology of the Dismantling Law 149Old Practices, New “Political Merchandise”: The Everyday Experience of the Dismantling Law 152The Political Centrality of Police Officers 158Police Regulation and Violence 1617 Not Criminals, Legislators 165Deborah Fromm and Luana MottaNew Laws, New Markets 169Illegal Markets, Microfinance, Corporate Philanthropy 171Action and Reaction 174Parallel Insurance and the Protection Market 175The Law that Governs the Market, the Market that Governs the Law 1818 Globalization and Its Backroads 187André de Pieri Pimentel, Gabriel Feltran, and Lucas Alves Fernandes SilvaA Global Market and Its Margins 190Connecting Markets 194Urban Reconfigurations 198North–South Urban Inequalities 202Conclusions 208Gabriel FeltranAfterword: Following Cars in a Latin American Metropolis: Inequality, Illegalisms, and Formalization 220Daniel Veloso Hirata References 228Index 245

‘Something of an instant classic, Stolen Cars pins its researcher’s sights on the moving targets selected by the thieves and robbers of Sao Paulo’s criminal networks. Those expecting only underworld revelations are quickly re-educated to see how acts of illicit acquisition form part of a more complex and vast urban economy whose shadow embraces both the formal and the illicit. Stolen Cars is a detailed, complex and exciting story with an intellectual energy that matches the turbo-charged vehicles so prized by Sao Paulo’s thieves.’Rowland Atkinson, Research Chair in Inclusive Societies, University of Sheffield, UK‘This book should be an instant classic. Theft and crime shape urban livelihoods and everyday experiences in many cities, at the frontiers of often extreme inequality. But these themes are absent from the canon of urban theory. Through a detailed ethnography of car theft in Sao Paulo, Stolen Cars traces the deep ties of these illegal circuits with insurance, finance, auto production and repair, as well as the international drug trade. A highly innovative account of crucial transnational networks shaping urban life and urban economies, this book represents an essential new starting point for global urban studies.’ Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Geography, University College London, UK