How to describe a “wave”?

A methodological approach to an ethnography of movement

Abstract

In 2012, a “wave of violence” occurred in the State of São Paulo, attributed to a confrontation between the First Command of the Capital (PCC) and the police. After years of decline of the homicide numbers, this numbers increased a 40% over the previous year. This article is based on a research carried out precisely during this period. The challenges involved in this research were, on the one hand, make an ethnography of a wave and, on the other hand, enter in a debate whose bases were already defined. This article presents the challenges of an ethnography of a movement and exposes a theoretical-methodological approach formulated from this experience, as well as its developments. From the exposition of the research conditions, of the difficulties found and of the theoretical-methodological resources mobilized, this article also seeks to approach the relationship between ethnographical materials and academic knowledge produced on them.