Community newspapers, creative production and collective agency amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: exploring social resilience in the Maré and Rocinha favelas of Rio de Janeiro

Keywords: favela, COVID-19, resilience, informality, right to the city
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 70

Abstract

An emerging scholarly literature is increasingly focusing on the roles urban informality plays in the creative production of cities (AlSayyad, 2004; Davis, 2006; Dovey, 2012; Marx, 2009; Neuwirth, 2016). This has occurred partly in reaction to the long-term displacement, marginalization and exclusion of impoverished populations in cities around the world (Cummings, 2015; Perry, 2007; UN-Habitat, 2003). This paper analyzes how two community newspapers in Maré and Rocinha, two favelas or nominal informal communities, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have responded to prevailing health and governance conditions during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Our discussion is based on a thematic analysis of community-produced newspaper articles from March-September 2020 that have examined the pandemic’s effects and government policies (or lack of the same) concerning it, and provided ways and means for these neighborhood’s residents to address the evolving risks and conditions posed by the virus’s advance. Overall, we found evidence of significant social resilience embodied in these communities' self-organizing efforts. We also contend that these favelas have not evidenced resilience as commonly described by adherents of neoliberalism, which is typically defined as self-reliance or autarky, but rather, have demonstrated sustained collective agency to contest such social and regime injunctions via generative activities as well as advocacy. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of marginalized populations' struggles to assert their right to the city, especially during times of crisis, of which COVID-19 is surely an exemplar