Malandragem

Malandragem (Brazilian Portuguese: [malɐ̃ˈdɾaʒẽȷ̃]) is a Portuguese term for a lifestyle of idleness, fast living and petty crime – traditionally celebrated in samba lyrics, especially those of Noel Rosa and Bezerra da Silva. The exponent of this lifestyle, the malandro (masculine adjective), or "bad boy" (rogue, hustler, rascal, scoundrel), has become significant to Brazilian national identity as a folk hero or, rather, an anti-hero. It is common in Brazilian literature, Brazilian cinema and Brazilian music.

A "malandro" could be defined as someone who:

Malandragem is defined as an aggregation of strategies utilized in order to gain advantage in a determined situation, these advantages often being illicit. It is characterized by savoir faire and subtlety. Its execution demands aptitude, charisma, cunning and whatever other characteristics (knacks) which help in the manipulation of people or institutions to obtain the best outcome in the easiest possible way.

Disconsidering logical argumentation, labor and honesty, the malandro presupposes that such methods are incapable of getting him a good outcome. Those who practice malandragem act in the manner of the popular Brazilian adage, immortalized in a catch phrase of former Brazilian soccer player Gérson de Oliveira Nunes in a cigarette TV commercial (hence the name it was given: Lei de Gérson, or Gérson's law): “I like to get an advantage in everything.”

Together with the concept of jeitinho, malandragem can be considered another typical — but not exclusive — Brazilian mode of social navigation; unlike jeitinho, however, with malandragem the integrity of institutions and individuals is effectively attacked, legally speaking, as malicious. Successful malandragem is gaining advantage under the condition of not being caught. Basically, the malandro dupes the target without them knowing they have been tricked.

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