ANTONÁDIA BORGES /// The Politics of Space and Time in Brasilia

This conversation is the last one of the Latin America series. Antonádia Borges and I talk about the “weaponized architecture” that Brasilia as a ‘new city’ — we also discuss about this myth — has been implemented historically (during the two decades of dictatorship) and still nowadays through the strong social segregation at work. We evoke the more or less embraced violence of the funding of such a city, particularly materialized in the context of a dictatorship. The second part of the conversation is dedicated to the politics of time at work through the administration process of housing and welfare. The continuous availability that such a process necessitates particularly pressures women, as Antonádia explains.

Antonádia Borges teaches Anthropology at the University of Brasilia. She does research along with popular ethnographers who dedicate their daily lives to theorize and understand land and housing policies. In places like Brazil and South Africa, it has been among women that she has acknowledged how modernist and developmentalist machines enhance racism and segregation. Her main effort is to teach and spread challenging perspectives and diverging political stances from peripheral worlds and ontologies. See her Funambulist contributor page.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE:
– “Brasilia: Misses and Misfits,” in The Funambulist 2 (Nov-Dec 2015) Suburban Geographies.

WEBSITE:

– http://buscatextual.cnpq.br/buscatextual/visualizacv.do?metodo=apresentar&id=K4798576Z2

REFERENCE BOOK:

– Antonádia Borges, Tempo de Brasília: etnografando lugares-eventos da política, Rio de Janeiro : Relume Dumará, 2004.

REFERENCE ARTICLES:

– Antonádia Borges, “Mulheres e suas casas: reflexões etnográficas a partir do Brasil e da África do Sul,” in Cadernos Pagu, v.40, p.197 – 227, 2013. – Antonádia Borges, “Ser Embruxado: notas epistemológicas sobre razão e poder na antropologia,” in Civitas: Revista de Ciências Sociais , v.12, p.469 – 488, 2012. – Antonádia Borges, “Sem sombra para descansar: etnografia de funerais na África do Sul contemporânea,” in Anuário Antropológico, p.215 – 252, 2011. – Antonádia Borges, “Tsotsi and Yesterday: an anthropological appraisal,” in Vibrant, v.5, p.82 – 102, 2008.

ASSOCIATED ARTICLE ON THE FUNAMBULIST:

– “Weaponized Architecture: Dictatorial Brasilia and Colonial Algiers” (September 21, 2014)

REFERENCE FILM:

– Adirley Queiros, “A cidade é um só” (2014):