Between wanting and not wanting: Existential dilemmas of a former trafficker from the perspective of a sociology of intimate problems

Abstract

This article is a study on life trajectories and changes of the self of one single person, following the transformation processes that have occurred in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas during the last two decades and focusing on the relationship between evangelicals and drug traffickers. Based on an ethnography of almost two years in Cidade de Deus, I present, in detail, the trajectory of a single individual, a former drug dealer and crack addict who switched between the church and the traffic throughout the fieldwork process. I then develop what I call a sociology of intimate problems, that is, a methodology that aims to capture the actors through their problems. I argument, finally, that this analysis of the transformation processes in the three alluded scales allow me to re-elaborate the concept of conversion, moving beyond its native and classical narrative treatment.

Sociology of intimate problems; Trafficking; Church; Morality; Conversion