Brazil: Democracy, Citizenship and Culture - Seminar Literature Summary
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Course
Brazil: Democracy, Citizenship and Culture
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
This lecture summary provides a detailed overview of information provided in the lectures of the course; with all the information provided by the lecturer and offers major insights needed for the exam. The course is taken in the Second year, as part of the major European History.
- This article presents the ways in which we can discover new spaces of interaction with
histories that have been historically separated this is articulated in the expression ‘global
history’ which the author describes as the ‘questioning of pre-established spatial orders in
order to overcome methodological nationalism and discover new spaces of interaction’
(pp.413)
- Construction of the Brazilian state based on economic growth: from plantation and slavery
to globalism and racial inequalities
- Brazil is depicted as being in a unique position in that is has shared histories and historical
memories with the West
- The production of coffee in Brazil has successfully ‘incorporated Brazil into global history
narratives’ (pp. 414)
- Local history… might be framed as a micro-history of globalisation (pp.418)
The BRICS: Wither Brazil?; Zhebit
- Through BRICS, political power status in Brazil was augmented
- Brazil, even through their international diplomacy, has a tendency to go from moderate to
intensive to abandon
- The turn to the West in the late 2010s shows the newly forming relationship between Brazil
and the US
- Brazil started as being a small power, but with gained regional and global importance
through the BRICS organization
Myths and images in global climate governance, conceptualisation and the case of Brazil; Franchini
- The myth of the green state was propagated firstly because of harsh international concern
about deforestation ‘the Brazilian climate self-image implies, firstly, that the country is a
central player in climate governance, mainly for two reasons: its natural assets and its
political assets’ (pp.4) ‘the Brazilian climate myth was born as a reaction to the
international myth of the country being a ‘burner’ of the world (pp.6)
- The myth is also used in the domestic angle to quell socio-economic worries, in times of
great crisis the myth of the green state assures Brazilian citizens that the strength of the
nation will carry on it reinvigorates a sense of national pride and faith in political
governance
- The climate action of Brazil was improving up until Lula, then Dilma had a more indifferent
policy towards the climate, then Bolsonaro completely backslid the improvements made on
the climate
- Bolsonaro uses the narrative of climate cooperation as threat to national sovereignty
Governing Covid-19 without government in Brazil; Ortega and Orsini
- Failure to govern during the Covid-19 crisis leads to governance from below, revealing
decentralising of decision making onto state actors
- Racial aspects of the Covid-19 denial narrative erupts in the conscious or unconscious state
genocide of indigenous groups
, Brazil: Democracy, Citizenship and Culture
- Bolsonaro’s approaches to Covid-19 is: no approach ‘his response to the pandemic [is] a
virulent mix of populist mistrust of science, ableism and toxic masculinity, whipped into a
nationalist fervour to illustrate the sheer strength of Brazilian to ward off this virus’
(pp.1258) ‘denialism of Covid-19 merges with an acute awareness of whose harm is
magnified in a public health crisis’ (pp.1265)
- The health crisis was worsened by the pervasive privatization laid to the healthcare system,
which intensified inequality that was already deeply present in society
- The historical context of health pandemics in Brazil does not illustrate great trends either
‘the press and the public health authorities refused to accept the arrival of the [Spanish flu]
pandemic in the country’ (pp.1260)
Week 2
Black Disidentification: 2013 Protests; Vargas
- The government didn’t take into consideration the federal system that creates layered
identities ‘the same state that improves the lives of Blacks is also the one that
disproportionally kills them while homicides among whites are decreasing’ (pp.2)
- The 2013 protest were dominated by white people who caused a disruption of public spaces,
even though there were top down attempts to create more equality, agents of the states still
promote violence and inequality towards Blacks
- How did the myth of racial harmony come to be? When there are so many blatant forms of
racism and ignorance from the government ‘although Lula and Rousseff have
implemented aggressive top-down pro-Black policies, they have done so in a way that does
engage public opinion until the measures are actually on the books’ (pp.6)
- The mere fact Blacks organised in a segregated manner (e.g. rolezinhos) shows their
reluctance to relate their social issues with Whites
- Can the protests be deemed as successful if not everyone is represented? ‘the 2013
protests that swept Brazil’s main cities had a troubling common characteristic: the absence
of Black people participating as Blacks… blacks, of course, participated, but as workers,
students, as citizens’ (pp.3)
- Blacks in Brazil continue to face structural and physical oppression even though Brazil claims
to be in a position of racial harmony
- Black disidentification exemplifies the ‘culture of exclusion’ of Black people from White
society
- Rolezinhos can be seen as a form of insurgent citizenship and contributory rights, in the fact
that protestors are not considered legitimate members of society and actively occupy spaces
regarded for higher privileged citizens (whites)
- Rolezinhos can be considered as examples of insurgent citizenship in Brazil, whereby
traditionally excluded people take the initiative and attempt to penetrate spaces where they
are socially or economically unwelcome → cities became places of contestations because a
number of marginalized people are present.
- The fact that the rolezinhos centred upon black ascension to consumerist white practices
showed there is still a lack of presence for Black voices in the political arena, and this is
where the real problem lies
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