Dr Fernando Fernandes

I am interested in critically exploring how symbolic violence and hegemonic epistemologies shape institutions, policy and practice. My research is informed by critical social theory and decolonial studies to look at how peripheral epistemologies and agency can reshape the way institutions, policy and practice are conceptualised, designed and operationalised. I have applied this theoretical and conceptual framework in a range of research studies that looked at the issues of institutional violence, human rights and the criminalisation of peripheral groups.

I am interested in urban inequalities with special attention to the role of stereotyping social representations on policy and practice addressed to peripheral groups. I have empirically explored this in Brazilian favelas and, most recently, with vulnerable groups in Scotland. I am interested in the role of stigmatisation and penalisation of the urban poor in reinforcing socio-spatial inequalities. I am concerned about the mechanisms of socio-symbolic depreciation and spatial containment of groups considered threatening and undesirable in the urban space. These mechanisms constitute ‘pedagogies of monsterisation’ underpinning negative othering in neoliberal societies. 

In my work, I understand stigmatisation as a symbolic resource that is used to mobilise public consensus and indifference to justify oppressive practices that can result, for example, in the discriminatory treatment some groups receive in public services (as is the case of benefit claimants) or, in extreme situations, in the social acceptance of the physical elimination of certain groups (as observed in the case of the death of black poor youngsters in Brazilian cities). As a result, I challenge stigmatising practices performed by practitioners and reproduced by social policy and propose the development of ‘pedagogies of coexistence’ in the city.

I am interested in theories and concepts that consider the tensions between structure and subjects on the make of oppressive and emancipatory practices. Most specifically, I am interested in the paradigm of potency as a key reference to develop concepts that can challenge the hegemonic political, academic and aesthetic representations and conceptualizations of marginalised groups and their spaces of existence, survival and resistance.

Most of my work relates to the experiences of stigma, violence and human rights violations experienced by peripheral groups in Brazilian cities. Over the past few years, I have been using this conceptual framework to explore the dimensions of symbolic violence and urban marginality in Scotland and the wider ‘Global North’.

Areas of interest

• Stigma, social representation and symbolic violence (stigmatisation, practitioner attitudes towards marginalised groups; impact of social representation of poverty on policy and practice; anti-stigma agency)
• Urban marginality (urban-segregation; urban/community development)
• Youth (children in conflict with the law; youth work; youth agency)
• Violence and Human rights (youth homicides; institutional violence; public security)
• Criminal justice (‘penal-state’ theories; juvenile justice system; policing)
• Latin America and Brazilian urban studies (focus on the militarization of urban security)
• Critical Policy Studies (focus on discourse analysis and its relationship with policy design and policy implementation)
• Decolonisation (focus on peripheral epistemologies)

Some examples of areas I have worked

• Stigmatisation, police violence and human rights violations in Brazilian favelas
• Alternatives to the involvement of young people in drug trafficking gangs in Brazil
• Violence prevention programmes aimed at the youth in Brazil
• Community development interventions with a focus on community agency, participatory action research and inter-agency work in Brazil
• Impact of Mega-Sport Events on children's rights (Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup)
• Police force training development in Brazil and Scotland
• Destitution in the UK with focus on people affected by homelessness
• Health rights in the juvenile justice system in Europe
• Training and strategies to better prepare practitioners and higher education students to work with marginalised groups in Scotland
• Experience in collaborative work with governments, international agencies (UNICEF, ILO, UNESCO) and grassroots organisations

Teaching and training have always been important to my professional engagement. Before joining the university, I was already involved in teaching and training activities. I was a university lecturer in three Brazilian universities. I have been involved in designing and delivering a range of professional development activities addressed to practitioners, social activists, and policy makers. I have also taught at the secondary level, being involved in ‘pre-vestibular’ (exam to access universities in Brazil) courses based in community organisations and delivered to marginalised youth.

At the University of Dundee, I have been designing, developing, and delivering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I have extensive postgraduate supervision experience. I have also acted as an internal/external examiner for PhD viva and upgrade reviews and convening roles for TMCs and Upgrade Reviews.

PhD Supervision

Current topics under supervision

First supervisor

• Human rights violations in the Juvenile Justice System in Morocco
• Social representations of Gypsy Travellers in the UK
• Professional development to enhance the teaching and learning of science in Ireland
• One-to-one models of learning within international schools in Malaysia
• Challenges faced by recently qualified social workers in Scotland
• Stigma, practitioner attitudes, leadership and health inequalities
• Health inequalities, practitioner attitudes and the juvenile justice system
• Attitudes of school teachers and marginalisation of vulnerable children
• The impact of austerity on community development and older people in rural Ireland

Past supervised topics

• Social worker's discourses and practices toward asylum seekers in the UK
• Challenges faced by migrant farm workers in Scotland
• Social worker attitudes towards health visitor’s views on child neglect in Scotland
• Policing street children in Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Female community leadership in Brazilian favelas
• Policing and human rights in Brazil
• Community development in Scotland
• Community Development in Pakistan
• Depression factors for the elderly in India
• Right to Health in Prisons
• Equality and Diversity in Prisons - the situation of LGBT prisoners
• Access to oral public health of immigrants and refugees in Scotland

There are also several Master's supervised dissertations not listed here.