Digital Participation Of Left-wing Activists in Brazil: Cultural Events, Mobilization, and Networked Protest

Abstract

Based on a lexical analysis of publications on 529 Facebook pages, published between 2013 and 2017, this research explores how Brazilian left-wing activist groups participate on Facebook to coordinate their opposition and engage in social struggles. This chapter shows how activist groups set up two main digital network repertoires of action when mobilizing on Facebook. First, in direct connection with major political events, the platform is used as a media arena to challenge governments’ political actions and second, it is employed as a tool to coordinate mobilization, whether these mobilizations are demonstrations on the street or at cultural events, such as at a music concert. These repertoires of action exemplify ways in which contemporary Brazilian activism is carried out at the intersection of online and offline engagements. While participants engage through these two repertoires, this network of activists is held together over time through a more mundane type of event, pertaining to the repertoire of action allowing the organization of mobilization. Stepping aside from opposition and struggles brought to the streets, the organization of cultural activities, such as concerts and exhibitions, punctuates the everyday exchanges in activists’ communications. Talk about cultural events and their related social agendas structures activist networks on a medium-term basis and creates the conditions for the coordination of (future) social movements, in that they offer the opportunities to stay in contact, in addition to taking part in occasional gatherings, between more highly visible social protests.

Citation

Figeac, J., Paton, N., Peralva, A., Bezerra, A.C., Prévost, H., Ratinaud, P. and Salord, T. (2024), "Digital Participation Of Left-wing Activists in Brazil: Cultural Events, Mobilization, and Networked Protest", Robinson, L., Moles, K., Moreira, S.V. and Schulz, J. (Ed.) Geo Spaces of Communication Research (Studies in Media and Communications, Vol. 26), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 65-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020240000026008