Examining Rio's pacification strategy in dialogue with a critically revised securitisation framework: an Immanent Critique

This dissertation approaches Rio de Janeiro's public security policy of 'pacification' implemented since 2008 from a critical perspective. Widely hailed for being an innovative solution approach to the city's exorbitant levels of lethal violence and perceived as being conducive to a well-grounded approximation process aimed at unifying the 'divided city', it is the purpose of this dissertation to contextualise the public policy with the historical and socio-cultural fundament upon which it is based. The researcher makes use of a critically revised framework of securitisation theory, thus allowing for the examination of the power-knowledge nexus nurturing the securitising discourse. To examine the latter, a wide array of speech act material including official speeches and interviews published on official government websites, Brazilian mainstream media, and video-sharing websites will be analysed. The critical analysis will be placed in dialogue with the socio-cultural context from which it originates by drawing on analytical techniques of critical discourse analysis, connecting the said with the social. For this purpose, the socio-historical process of Brazilian nation-building will be retraced, shedding light onto institutionalised modes of domination that guide state action and its policies. The..