In “Narrating insurgent citizenship” within the context of Redes da Maré it is important to highlight one crucial aspect: the residents’ leading role in the fight for rights. The latter are not abstract concepts of what is lacking in a universal and generic sense.1 Rather, it entails a historical contextualization in Brazil that pertains to “differentiated citizenship.” As discussed by James Holston, this notion refers to the universal inclusion of citizens as national members largely sustained on inegalitarian wealth distribution.2 Without recognising differences in origin, class, gender, age and home location, citizenship is configured as a matter of privileges rather than a fair distribution of rights.
“Differentiated citizenship” refers to the universal inclusion of citizens as national members largely sustained on inegalitarian wealth distribution.
Distinct from nation-states that refuse the membership of specific social groups,3 Brazil recognises its citizens based on the hierarchies of a white dominant ideology and its false idea of a harmonious conviviality of races.4 One clear example is the fact that ruling élites, mostly formed by white European settler heirs, controlled political citizenship keeping direct and voluntary suffrage restricted to the literate until the 1980s.5 In 2013, when the Maré Population Census mapping was carried out, the rate of illiteracy in the compound was twice as higher than the rest of the city as stated in the National Census.6 Based on such evidence, the work of tecedores (organisation members) departs from the very recognition that citizenship and the rights entailed by it, vis-a-vis the Brazilian constitution, are not fully exercised in the context of Maré.
The work of tecedores (organisation members) departs from the very recognition that citizenship and the rights entailed by it, vis-a-vis the Brazilian constitution, are not fully exercised in the context of Maré.
Narrating from the position of one who has been part of the local autonomous movement in Nova Holanda in the 1980s and co-founder of Redes da Maré, Eliana Sousa Silva acknowledged the efforts of subaltern social groups to change their citizenship conditions.7 She argued that many of the insurgent movements, especially from peripheries, favelas, rural and urban occupations, aimed to go beyond the State structures instead of reforming them. It has been through social practices that these groups affirmed themselves instead of acting through the conscience of being citizens:
"Occupying lands to plant and live, occupying the streets to work, in the absence of other, better possibilities, and creating community institutions, as well as numerous other initiatives, are deep expressions of an acting citizenship in permanent (re)creation."8
I want to call attention to one particular social practice observed in the daily work of tecedores. I invite you to look at Articulação Territorial, a practice employed to build territorial coalitions for residents to exercise material and immaterial rights, from basic services and public security to recognition, ancestral wisdom and memories. Without a proper translation to English, the Portuguese word articulação refers to the ability to approximate residents to their needs (demands, services and complaints), establish partnerships inside and outside Maré, convince strategic actors to negotiate spatial disputes, make collaborations that many times are not structured and calculated, all of which considering each favela’s rhythm.
Articulação Territorial refers to the ability to deal with communal matters from below, through dialogues, encounters, and exchanges of favours to make (counter) narratives of rights attainable.
Articulação Territorial refers to the ability to deal with communal matters from below, through dialogues, encounters, and exchanges of favours to make (counter) narratives of rights attainable. At the same time, the practice reconfigures spatial boundaries, forging a network of solidarity formed by local leadership, residents’ associations, local institutions and collectives. In the contexts where subjects cannot perform their citizenship or have “the right to be”, solidarity plays a role on the possibility to become “being with.”9 It entails seeing the future “not as inexorable but as something that is constructed by people engaged together in life, in history.”10
The practice emerged on multiple occasions in daily activities for the local newspaper Maré de Notícias (Maré of News).11 The newspaper is designed and written by and for residents based on a tradition of community-led journalism. In its 100th edition, tecedores working in the editorial board mapped one protagonist for each of the 16 favelas to narrate their historical perspective.12 Instead of adopting mainstream views and public records, history is told from the experience of residents settling down and building their communities (map 1) in contrast with national newspapers framing Maré from a criminalising gaze (see map 2).
Instead of adopting mainstream views and public records, history is told from the experience of residents settling down and building their communities.
Through the mobilisation of local deliverers, the newspaper becomes a tool to build rapport with residents. Once a month tecedores meet with deliverers to read the newspaper collectively, creating awareness of territorial dynamics in between the favelas. Deliverers learn how to communicate with residents and gather their concerns and interests while traversing the territory. Newspapers arrive in local schools, residents’ associations, cultural centres, local organisations and emergency care units through partnerships within territorial networks. After the delivery, deliverers and the communication team co-design the agenda of the next edition considering residents’ views and challenges experienced during the distribution.
Meanwhile, Articulação Territorial supports the entire process by creating space to mobilise residents, collaborating with residents’ associations, negotiating with armed group members to access certain areas and later gathering the editorial board with deliverers to discuss new editions. As highlighted in the interview with tecedor Henrique Gomes,13 the practice requires moving across favelas deeply informed by the knowledge produced experiencing the space. It requires breathing and living the dynamics and tensions, leaving space for feelings, whether in terms of affection or fear. By not trivializing feelings, it recognises them as part of learning from the territory and observing it through a critical gaze to dismantle stereotypes that normalise violence. Building on lived experiences, evidence and the accumulation of knowledge from the local autonomous movement, the practice is not linear, requiring skills that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
Building on lived experiences, evidence and the accumulation of knowledge from the local autonomous movement, the practice is not linear, requiring skills that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
By challenging inequalities of power, the practice subverts the stigma imposed on the population of favelas seeking change through the networks and layers of lived experiences. Hence, it recognises marginality, described by bell hooks as a “location of radical openness and possibility.”14 Neither planning nor improvising, articulação offers a place in-between: a perspective from the territory of Maré not for growth and control but to assert the autonomy and affections of Mareenses towards a more humane and just urban space.
Read the whole column "Narrating Insurgent Citizenship" by Bruna Montuori.
Bio
Bruna Montuori is a designer and urban researcher based in London and Rio de Janeiro. She is currently a PhD Candidate at the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art in London. Her work investigates the intersection between insurgent citizenship, space and narratives through an on going collaboration with the local organisation Redes da Maré in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bruna is an Associate Lecturer at the London College of Communication and Central Saint Martins at the University of the Arts London. She is anda PGR Representative of the Participatory Geographies Research Group from the RGS/IBG. Through her research and practice, she has been weaving participatory methods with graphic design, ethics of care, insurgent citizenship and decolonial and gender theories.
Notes
1 Paula Meth, “Unsettling Insurgency,” Planning Theory & Practice 11, no. 2 (June 2010): 248.
2 James Holston, Insurgent citizenship. Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil (Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008), 197.
3 Examples of apartheid regimes such as South Africa, Israel and Palestine, Kurdish peoples in Turkey are a few cases of membership refusal.
4 Lélia Gonzalez, “Racismo e sexismo na cultura brasileira,” in Por um feminismo afro-latino-americano: ensaios, intervenções e diálogos, ed. Flavia Rios and Márcia Lima (Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2020), 75-93.
5 Holston, Insurgent citizenship, 197.
6 Redes da Maré, Censo Populacional da Maré (Rio de Janeiro: Redes da Maré, 2019), 68.
7 Eliana Sousa Silva, Maré testimonies, trans. Sofia Soter (Rio de Janeiro: Mórula, 2016), 90.
8 Silva, Maré testimonies, 90.
9 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom. Ethics, democracy, and civic courage (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), 195.
10 Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom, 195.
11 “Maré de Notícias online,” Maré de Notícias, accessed May 20, 2022, [link]
12 Redes da Maré, “Da Maré para a Maré. 100ª Edição do Jornal Maré de Notícias,” Maré de Notícias, May 10, 2019, [link]
13 Henrique Gomes (Redes da Maré member), interview by Bruna Montuori, November 21, 2020.
14 bell hooks, Yearning: race, gender, and cultural politics (New York: Routledge, 2015), 153.
Bibliography
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of Freedom. Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
Gonzalez, Lélia.“Racismo e sexismo na cultura brasileira.” In Por um feminismo afro-latino-americano: ensaios, intervenções e diálogos, edited by Flavia Rios and Márcia Lima, 75-94. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2020.
Holston, James. Insurgent citizenship. Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil. Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008.
hooks, bell. Yearning: race, gender, and cultural politics. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Maré de Notícias. “Maré de Notícias online.” Accessed May 20, 2022. [link]
Meth, Paula. “Unsettling Insurgency: Reflections on Women's Insurgent Practices in South Africa.” Planning Theory & Practice 11, no. 2 (2010): 241–63. [link]
Redes da Maré. Censo Populacional da Maré. Rio de Janeiro: Redes da Maré, 2019.
Redes da Maré. “Da Maré para a Maré. 100ª Edição do Jornal Maré de Notícias.” Maré de Notícias, May 10, 2019. [link]
Silva, Eliana Sousa. Maré testimonies. Translated by Sofia Soter. Rio de Janeiro: Mórula, 2016
