In the social imaginary, a fairly common idea is that poverty and precarious social conditions develop, among the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods, violent and criminal behaviors. Every reference to violence, is amplified, overvalued and spread, only perpetuating the monolithic idea that those are the prevailing behaviors. On the other hand, actions that resist violence are significantly less brought to the fore. One of the main objectives of the project Violence and Health: Epidemiological Monitoring, Memory, Experience and Resistance consisted in identifying community strategies against violence. In this article, we will concentrate on art-and-culture oriented social actions developed for youths by a capoeira master and on another such activity, proposed by a rastafari leader who developed a "messianic reggae". We will center our analysis on methodological properties of both projects, on their organizational forms and their actuation, on interpretations produced about the violence experienced by such youths, on the cultural idioms and world-views used to contemplate strategies of peace promotion. In the last analysis, we are seeking to identify the "work of culture" which allows, in these projects, an elaboration of conflicts.
Cultural idiom; Social networks; Resistance community strategies; Peace promotion; Urban violence; Popular culture