Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Insuranceâ¯Technopolitics: Car Theft and Contested Governance of (In)security in São Paulo, Brazilâ¯
Speaker:Deborah Fromm (University of Campinas, Brazil)
In Brazil, approximately 500 thousand vehicles are stolen per year. Car theft is perceived in public debate as a significantâ¯security problem.â¯The country’s main insurance group has about 35 thousand vehicles stolen each year. Given this scenario, insurers create partnerships with public security agencies and develop new technologies to reclaim their assets. Based on ethnographic data, this presentation will focus on the responses of insurers to this safety issue, giving particular attention to the impacts ofâ¯technisationâ¯processes in urban governance. Technology will be understood as a mode of politics, rather than merely a tool of politics. More broadly, it will explore how the car theft market, criminal logics, and disputes between private companies and public security forces have become entangled in the role technologies play in the process of vehicle recovery. Following the daily routine of a tracking team from a large insurance company that retrieves stolen vehicles, I emphasise their close and continual negotiations with the police and public authorities and reveal the key roles that insurance and private security companies play in the development of new technologies and systems of control and surveillance.
Seminar Programme
Autumn Term 2021
28 Octoberâ¯2021â¯(Inaugural session)
11 November 2021â¯
25 November 2021â¯
9 December 2021
Winter Term 2022â¯
3 February 2022â¯
17 February 2022â¯
3 March 2022â¯
17 March 2022â¯
All are welcome to attend this free seminar, which starts at 17:00 GMT.
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