ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some new territory, literally for the United Kingdom based member of our authoring team who visited Brazil to conduct fieldwork in 2012, and conceptually, as attempts a dialogue across several disciplines environmental sociology, tourism studies, criminology and the sociology of violence and mental health. It describes case study in two sections. First, the chapter captures the rapid economic and social change experienced in the town since the 1970s and second, it offers some specific observations on the concomitant fast growth of tourism since the mid-1980s. The research process in the chapter leads to complex and occasionally chaotic just like the turbulent condition of everyday life in Caraguatatuba. It also explores the paradox that in Caraguatatuba tourism is both subject to and is contributing to an escalating atmosphere of violence created by rapid, turbulent and chaotic social and environmental change. Finally, it concludes by offering an exploratory analysis of violence and tourism.
