"Legal Pluralism and Political Thuggery: The Paradoxes of Grassroots Organizing in Rio's mid-20th-Century Favelas" is a talk by Brodwyn Fischer on the connections between law, poverty and citizenship in Rio de Janeiro, focusing on the diverse urban poor and their relationship to the state through civil rights.
Fischer studies modern Brazil and Latin America with an emphasis on histories of law, cities, migration and social inequality at Northwestern University. Her book "A Poverty of Rights: Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth Century Rio de Janeiro" (2008) won the Social Science History Association's President's Best Book Prize and the Brazilian Studies Association's Roberto Reis Book Prize.