Contenção e modernização periférica

Abstract

This article investigates Brazilian modernization by examining the paradoxical tension between the formal expansion of citizenship and the persistence of structural inequalities. Drawing on an articulated reading of Antonio Candido, Florestan Fernandes, and Roberto Schwarz, it argues that the peripheral incorporation of modernity occurred through “containment” — a historical pattern of selective assimilation of egalitarian demands that preserves existing power hierarchies. The concept of containment is proposed as a central analytical category for understanding this dynamic. Methodologically, the study combines dialectical criticism with the linguistic contextualism of the Cambridge School in order to analyze key concepts as interventions within intellectual debate.