Communitarian and authoritarian

the discursive construction of the ethos of drug dealing groups in the space regulation of Brazilian favelas

Abstract

Studies in the field of rhetorics point to the importance of ethos, which is the image of the speaker and the credibility that they can communicate not only as an aspect of persuasive power, but also as a fundamental piece of any discursive action. The perception of the listeners on the speaker can be constructed, moreover, by the discourse they emit, constituting a discursive ethos. Different studies point to the discursive construction of ethos in the legal field, but little has been explored from the premise of legal pluralism. This paper aims at exploring the discursive projection of speakers’ credibility in a non-state legal context, departing from the question: how do drug dealing groups construct discursively their ethos in public spaces in Brazilian favelas? To answer this question, a database with 56 images of posters and graffiti communicating behavior norms issued by drug dealing groups in Brazilian favelas was made. The analysis of these data allowed to notice the issuing of two ethe on drug dealing groups, a communitarian ethos and an authoritarian ethos, which aren’t mutually exclusive and that build the legitimacy of these groups as institutions with the capacity of regulating the space of favelas in Brazil.