Research as reciprocity and “retorno”: how can ethnography strengthen social activism and vice-versa?
Speakers: Roberto Gomes dos Santos (militant-researcher, member of the Coordination of the Popular Movements Central of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and
Dr Rolf Malungo de Souza (Universidade Federal Fluminense)
Moderator: Bianca Fadel (Northumbria University)
Date: Thursday, 24 June 2021
This event was in Portuguese with simultaneous English translation.
This talk will discuss the use of ethnography in decolonising knowledge production, unpacking the ways ethnography can strengthen social activism efforts and, at the same time, how activism can enrich the work of ethnographers. It will discuss the experience and share results of the 6-year research project “Helping the Poor Stay Put: Alternatives to Peripheralization in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”. This interdisciplinary and international project has brought together a team of anthropologists, geographers, architects and housing advocates from Syracuse University (New York), King's College (London) and Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro), as an example of productive collaboration across disciplines, as well as across the academic/advocate divides. Tapping into key discussions on affordable housing in the global South, the project has both analysed and supported diverse movements for the right to popular housing in and around Rio de Janeiro's port area. The webinar will particularly focus on the relationships between the use of ethnographic methods and the fights for social justice, exploring the interplays between ethnography, academic knowledge production, political engagement and decolonisation. As a form of “retorno” (giving back) to the community, the research process was documented in a series of short videos and, at the request of local leaders, an informational series on how ethnography may be of use in social justice struggles was also produced.
About the presentation (that was followed by participatory discussion):
About the Speakers:
Roberto Gomes dos Santos is a member of the Coordination of the Popular Movements Central of Rio de Janeiro, researcher in the area of struggles for housing, and specialist in Public Policies in Human Rights and Social Movements.
Dr Rolf Malungo de Souza is an anthropologist, professor at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and researcher at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Conflict Administration (InEAC). He researches urban social movements, especially those related to the rights to housing, and gender relations with an emphasis on the social construction of masculinity.
Bianca Fadel is a PhD researcher at Northumbria University, UK. Her background is in international relations and humanitarian diplomacy and she is currently engaged in policy-focused research initiatives with volunteer-involving organisations. She is also particularly interested in the interfaces between humanitarian and development work, volunteer experiences and participatory methodologies. She tweets @biancafdl.
About the Moderator:
Roberto and Rolf are both part of an international and interdisciplinary research team that developed the project "Helping the Poor Stay Put: Affordable Housing and Non-Peripheralization in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil". Their fellow team members in this collaborative project who are also invited to join the participatory discussion in this workshop are:
Dr Michelle Lima Domingues holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil) and is currently an associate professor at this university, with research experience in the following themes: Working Classes, Cooperatives and Community Organization, Housing, Knowledge Mediation, Gender, and Citizenship.
Dr Priscila Tavares is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at the Graduate Anthropology Programme at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Expert consultant at Syracuse University, since 2017, in the "Helping the Poor Stay Put" research project.
Émilie B. Guérette is a nomadic filmmaker whose roots are in Montreal and heart in Rio de Janeiro. She travels the world with her camera to shoot documentaries related to social justice, human rights and migrations. Her multidisciplinary background in anthropology, political science, poetry and music is reflected in her socially engaged, sensitive and sensory approach, taking the side of those left behind. She sees documentary as an art of the encounter which aims at building bridges between human beings.
Dr Jeff Garmany is a Senior Lecturer of Latin American Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne (Australia). Before joining the University of Melbourne, he was Senior Lecturer at King’s College London in the Department of Geography and the King’s Brazil Institute. His research is based in the fields of Urban Studies, Political Geography, Critical Development, and Latin American/Brazilian Studies.
Dr Melinda Gurr is an Assistant Professor at Southeast Missouri State University (USA) in the Department of Anthropology and History. She previously held an appointment as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Lahore University of Management Sciences. Her teaching and research interests include Environmental politics and sustainable development; social movements and collective action; youth, gender, and generation; migration and mobilities; Latin America, North America, South Asia; feminist, community-based, participatory, and activist methodologies.
Additional relevant links/materials:
