This chapter examines the modes of learning associated with a practice deeply embedded in Brazilian society: football (soccer). Recognizing its unique position in the country – as part of everyday life, with minimal formal instruction, varying levels of participation, and strong historical, cultural, and identity dimensions. The ethnographic analysis focuses on the participation contexts of young footballers in the periphery of a Brazilian metropolis (Belo Horizonte, MG). Drawing on the perspective of learning as inherently embedded in social practices (Lave 2019), the chapter explores both the formation of young footballers and the historical development of the practice itself. By focusing the analysis on learning, it articulates the concepts of access and participation, seeking to trace the dynamics of football practices while acknowledging the foundational complexity that characterizes them. The aim is to foreground the discussion on how each participant is constituted, simultaneously and through the very relationships to which they contribute.

This chapter arises from the challenge of understanding how children of different ages participate in household care in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). We analyse their different learning trajectories based on in-depth interviews conducted in their homes. We explore interconnections between children’s experiences and inequalities related to gender, race, and social class. We used illustrated cards from a children’s board game to approach the material possibilities within the domestic space. We examine questions about children’s access to different household spaces and to participation in some household tasks and not others. These conditions shape how they learn to participate and even not to participate, rather than simply failing to learn how to participate. These differences reveal fundamental aspects of care practices – caring for oneself, caring for others, and caring for the world we live in.

This chapter analyzes processes of learning sex work, observing the initiation in the activity and the development of skills and performances. Based on the approach of situated learning developed by Jean Lave (1991, 2011), the data from previous research were reconsidered and I returned to the field in a red-light district of Belo Horizonte, the Bohemian zone. The focus on learning brought new contributions: It highlighted the interaction of novices with the environment and the community, learning and adapting practices. The stories sex workers tell each other change their ways of working, talking, behaving, and dealing with customers. Analyzing continuities and differences in the practices of sex workers and the connections between different contexts through which they move also pointed out socio-historical transformations of the practice of sex work in the Bohemian zone, as well as individual and collective changes lived by the workers.

In this chapter, we analyze an action research project that took place in public space in a Brazilian city and that focused on children’s presence and participation in planning and construction of a square intended for playing. Our aim is to develop social actions to improve childhood citizenship in urban spaces in order to promote children’s right to the city (Lefebvre 2014). We focus on how children learn in social practice as part of a collective and everyday life process (Lave 2019). We understand that children’s disputes over using urban spaces as play spaces are an expression of social participation and an exercise of agency, a privileged process of “learning citizenship” (Lansky 2012: 26). Their concrete and continuous presence in urban spaces creates possibilities for producing “differential space” (Lefebvre 1991: 52). The starting point was the children’s invisible presence in the relevant territory, which fostered their “differential capacities” to combat “homogenizing powers” (Lefebvre 1980: 30).

In the third chapter we describe the takeoff of commercial banking in Latin America from midcentury onwards, as witnessed by the establishment of almost 100 joint-stock banks in the more dynamic economies of the region between 1850 and 1873. The creation of banks was especially notable in cities and ports of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Peru, Mexico and Uruguay, developments that have not previously been analyzed from a comparative perspective. Our text argues that the dynamics of export economies (from the early 1850s) as well as the entry of foreign direct investments (from the 1860s) generated demand for the creation of new types of financial enterprise that spurred early capitalism in Latin America. A striking feature was the growing prominence of large banks that had connections with public administrations, such as the Banco do Brasil (1853), which became a pillar of finance for the imperial government, and the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (1854), a commercial bank that operated in Argentina as a key agency for the government and for ranchers and merchants. Finally, attention is turned to the Banco Español de la Habana, which became the main financial support for the Spanish colonial administration in Cuba during the Ten Years’ War (1868–1878).

In the sixth chapter we underline the extensive enthusiasm for the creation of national banks in the 1870s and 1880s. A first hypothesis concerns the increasingly close relationship between states and banking systems, emphasizing the growing financial requirements of nation-building. A crucial factor was the ascent of a series of political and/or military leaders in the 1880s in Latin America who promoted banks to contribute to more integrated state-building projects. Banks and railroads went hand in hand in this new export age and provided a formidable impetus to economic development in the late nineteenth century. This was clearly an age when capitalism was coming of age in many countries, large and small. Despite some similarities, the relations between large banks and governments in Latin America took different paths in each nation. For instance, the Banco do Brasil (1853) and the Banco Nacional de México (1884) were both large private firms, although each assumed a central role within the public administration and managed financial operations for the private sector and for governments. In contrast, the Banco Nacional de Argentina (1872) was more of a public entity. A final section analyzes the acute banking and financial panics in the 1890s in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

The political independence of the Latin American nations did not usher in modern capitalism since economic stagnation and the repressed nature of financial markets were evident from the 1820s and 1830s in most countries. This chapter focuses on the role of credit and finance during the first half of the nineteenth century in the new states. Liberal constitutions and laws were put in place but did not produce the desired economic results since fiscal reforms did not prove successful. Attention is directed to the experience of the earliest banking entities. We begin with Brazil, where a first bank in Latin America began to operate in 1808, followed by a brief summary of history of the first commercial bank in Argentina and of an early investment bank in Mexico. Nonetheless, the collapse of imperial rule, the wars of independence and extensive civil conflicts created persistent fiscal and monetary difficulties. So much uncertainty affected decision-making by both economic and political actors, reducing the availability of credit, making it more expensive and risky. Political stability and institutional transparency were required to spur early capitalism but economic and political instability created many obstacles in postcolonial Latin America during the first half of the century.

The fifth chapter of this book reviews the earliest banking crises experienced by different Latin American countries. The impact of the financial crisis of 1857 in Havana and Rio de Janeiro represents a clear case of transmission of a crisis from center to periphery, and allow us to speak of international financial contagion. On the other hand, the panic of 1864 in Rio de Janeiro was a notable example of financial imbalance with domestic roots. In the mid 1870s another cluster of financial crises ricocheted across Latin America. In those years, a series of bank panics occurred in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Peru, accompanied by local stock market panics, currency crises and the abandonment of convertibility schemes. The most catastrophic financial debacle was that of Peru, where a dramatic debt default coincided with an exchange crisis and the collapse of the banking system in the years 1876–1879. The review of these early financial crises allows us to reflect on the diverse trajectories of Latin American banks and the possible causes of their relative fragility before the end of the century.

This chapter analyzes the different banking models that were debated and adopted by the elites of the various Latin American nations after midcentury. The examples of the financial and monetary institutions of Europe were influential, but they were not simply replicated. In fact, there was a creative process of adaptation of foreign models of banking organization and regulation that were adjusted to local and regional situations in each country in a prolonged process of trial and error. In Chile and Colombia the advocates of the free banking model tended to gain the upper hand, whereas in Argentina and Brazil the supporters of a single bank of issue tended to dominate. The intense political and financial discussions in each country revealed strong differences between orthodox theorists, in favor of a strict gold standard, and pragmatists, who preferred the flexibility of inconvertibility. These confrontations remained characteristic of many later episodes in Latin American financial history and resonate down to the present day.

This chapter maps the background conditions that set India, Brazil, and Israel on a collision course between apex courts and elected branches. It first surveys court design and doctrinal evolution: India’s Supreme Court (PIL, basic-structure review, collegium, proportionality); Israel’s Supreme Court (abolition of standing/justiciability limits, reasonableness/proportionality, constitutional review via Basic Laws and – recently – striking down even Basic Laws); and Brazil’s Supreme Court (abstract review, expansive interpretation, and assertive criminal/prosecutorial powers). Across all three, anti-formalism, self-empowerment, and a liberal, cosmopolitan rights orientation expanded judicial reach before polarization surged. The chapter then traces polarization’s ascent alongside shifts in political hegemony: BJP dominance and Hindu nationalism in India; Likud-led, religion-inflected coalitions and anti-elite rhetoric in Israel; and Bolsonaro’s conservative, evangelical-backed populism in Brazil. Media fragmentation and social platforms amplify identity conflict, producing mass protests and, in Brazil, institutional assaults. Together, strong courts and sharp polarization generate recurrent executive–judicial clashes.

In the Philippines, the Catholic Church’s high levels of “moral authority” facilitated its local protective interventions. This chapter tests the generalizability of community protection to Brazil and the US, unique cases that nonetheless share key characteristics of populist state violence with Duterte’s Philippines. However, original data analysis replicating, as closely as possible, the analysis in the Philippines does not reveal strong protective effects. Neither is police violence in Rio de Janeiro related to the location of Catholic infrastructure, nor does clergy inclusion in police reform build support among American audiences. The chapter then explains this divergence with the Philippines by turning to lower levels of “moral authority” for religious leaders in Brazil and the US. Crucially, moral authority in those two cases is tied to powerful social cleavages (socioeconomics and race in Brazil, and partisanship in the US). In such environments, religious leaders may possess opportunities for narrower intervention, but will struggle to generate broader community protection.

Chapter 4 shows how the emergence of novel policy beliefs led to the adoption of globalized state-led development. It documents the policy beliefs of policy-makers from the Brazilian Workers’ Party regarding the benefits of state support for nationally controlled MNCs for the country’s long-term development. It traces the emergence of these novel policy ideas to the epistemic and policy learning of policy-makers and shows how these ideas guided industrial policy and BNDES reform. To further validate the argument, the chapter addresses competing explanations for policy adoption centered on political coalitions, macroeconomic conditions, and business pressures.

In 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, there was an exponential increase in the number of deaths in the country. These deaths can be explained, among other factors, by the easing of restrictions on social isolation and the delay in purchasing vaccines. In that context, family members and friends had to deal with abbreviated funeral rituals experienced in a context of necropolitics. In this chapter, based on the analysis of the death of Vítor, a forty-six-year-old Pentecostal pastor, we see how new protocols aimed at containing the spread of the virus affected the traditional rites, shortening their sequences and phases – thus reducing community participation to a minimum – and, in turn, how they drove the creation of new possible rituals. If, on the one hand, the new possible rites point to a process of creating funerals that combines in-person tributes and the use of new technologies, on the other, they highlight the consequences of mourning experienced in a context of political tension mainly due to the actions of a conservative and denialist government.

The introduction presents the book's core puzzle of why states promote the outward investments of national firms despite the political and distributional costs of doing so. It previews a theory of globalized state-led development whereby policy-makers promote the internationalization of domestic business to pursue the structural transformation of their home economies. The chapter also describes the book's research strategy of within-country and cross-national comparisons of globalized state-led development in Brazil and China.

This chapter of Persistent Citizens investigates the role of partisanship as an alternative or complementary explanation for variation in state-centric persistence and the "2ei" attitudes (i.e., entitlement, indignation, and self-efficacy). The authors analyze whether support for major political movements in each country – the Workers’ Party in Brazil and the Peronist movement in Argentina – affects citizens’ attitudes and behaviors toward the state. The findings reveal a significant contrast between the two cases. In Brazil, partisan identity has little to no explanatory power. In Argentina, in contrast, Peronist supporters show systematically different attitudes and a greater willingness to persist than non-supporters. Analysis of additional survey questions suggests that differences in attitudes among Peronist supporters are not the result of greater reliance on clientelism but instead reflect greater optimism about the state’s capacity to provide services. Despite this partisan effect in Argentina, the chapter concludes that the book’s core findings regarding the importance of 2ei remain robust in both countries.

The 2018 presidential election marked a watershed moment in Brazilian politics with the ascension of Jair Bolsonaro, who secured over 55% of the vote and became the primary catalyst for a novel far-right political alignment. This movement, termed Bolsonarismo, is characterized by a multidimensional political rhetoric that synthesizes reactionary stances on crime, corruption, and sociocultural issues—specifically regarding gender and LGBTQ+ rights—with militarist, economically liberal, and authoritarian inclinations. Bolsonaro’s ideological positioning oscillates between a radical, illiberal far-right and a more extreme, authoritarian posture, consistently commanding a resilient support base of approximately 20% of the electorate. This consolidation of the right-wing spectrum has effectively marginalized “third-way” alternatives, establishing him as the movement’s uncontested figurehead. Chapter 3 investigates the roots of Bolsonaro’s oratory, demonstrating that the core tenets of Bolsonarismo were embedded in his discourse before his presidency. Through a systematic analysis of his public statements and legislative rhetoric, the chapter shows how he championed positions aligned with the global far-right. Furthermore, the analysis examines his executive actions, focusing on his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his disruption of conditional cash transfer programs as a form of policy rebranding.

Building on the findings of Chapter 5 of Persistent Citizens, this chapter shifts focus to the origins of the three "2ei" attitudes (i.e., entitlement, indignation, and self-efficacy). The authors explore various factors that might explain why some individuals feel more entitled, indignant, and efficacious than others. Their analysis finds that domain-specific knowledge – knowledge of social rights – is a particularly strong predictor of these attitudes. The chapter provides evidence that knowledge of social rights is a more significant factor than socioeconomic status, prior experiences with the state, or general civic engagement. Path models show how knowledge of social rights plausibly affects 2ei, driving state-centric persistence.