Living il Legalities – Vivendo i Legalidades
III REBRAC International Conference
For millions of Brazilians modern “normal” life is just a step away from illegality. People are forced into unlawful or socially sanctioned practices and, sometimes, are actively seeking them. The illegal practices we will focus on are not simply illicit transgressions such as criminal offense or State violence, which mostly can be understood as beyond ethical and moral acceptance. Indeed, we also aim to explore phenomena of a vast grey area between the legitimate and the illegitimate: a more or less hidden field of common day-to-day practices which might be not legal any more, or not yet legalized, legal but socially not accepted, or just deemed beyond any legal normalization due to their complexity.
Our objective is to explore them culturally, not legally: How do people exposed to or engaged in these practices actually carry them out? How do they justify them? What narratives do they construct around them? On what topoi of Brazilian culture, if any, are these based? What does all this mean to their daily lives? How are these practices represented, for example in media, film and literature? What moral or ethical values are at stake?
Practical information
Registration for conference dinner deadline: 1 October (via the above link)
Non-speakers wishing to attend (without attending conference dinner) may register until 15 October 2018.
