Young people’s negotiated solidarity in the context of drug-related crime and violence in Salvador, Brazil

Abstract

Although Brazil as a whole is a diverse society, with its youth living in a variety of situations, its disadvantaged urban communities have become sites of organised crime, drug trafficking and police violence, and this influences the lives of many young people. This article explores what constitutes solidarity in relation to young people living in this context of crime and violence. The results draw from interviews with four boys aged 15–17, with whom data was created in 2023 in a governmental institution located in Salvador, Brazil. The results illustrate how the young people’s ambivalent solidarities in the context of crime and violence were manifested in a constant negotiation between different solidary experiences. Young people’s solidarity in everyday interactions and practices consisted of negotiating togetherness and support, and how these were contested and constrained. They also expressed universal sense of solidarity with others beyond their immediate environment, mainly other young people living in difficult situations. The results point to a need for practice and policy built on solidarity rather than state interventions that reinforce the cycle of violence.