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18 pages, 702 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In Defense of a Peripheral Epistemology: Exploring “Decolonial Cognitive Triggers” for Epistemic Disobedience in Urban Peripheries

by Fernando Lannes Fernandes, Heloisa Melino and Jailson De Souza e Silva

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(5), 240; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13050240 (registering DOI) - 26 Apr 2024

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Abstract

This paper presents an approach to decolonial thinking and epistemological disobedience through what we call “decolonial cognitive triggers”. It is based on the struggles of urban peripheral communities in Brazil and explores eight triggers in the making of a Peripheral Epistemology. The unique [...] Read more.

This paper presents an approach to decolonial thinking and epistemological disobedience through what we call “decolonial cognitive triggers”. It is based on the struggles of urban peripheral communities in Brazil and explores eight triggers in the making of a Peripheral Epistemology. The unique points of our reflection are the sociocultural practices emerging from urban peripheral communities in Brazil and their responses to structural racism. As a part of this, we will explore the concepts of potência and convivência as core components of the decolonial debate, as well as their role in enabling epistemic disobedience in urban peripheries. We conclude by suggesting shifts in policy-making directed towards urban peripheries through the recognition and incorporation of such concepts and triggers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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14 pages, 1205 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Labor Force Participation of Central American Migrant Women in Mexico

by Carla Pederzini and Liliana Meza

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(3), 135; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030135 - 28 Feb 2024

Viewed by 838

Abstract

Central Americans living in Mexico remain a small group (100 thousand) relative to the size of the Mexican population. However, they experienced accelerated growth between 2000 and 2020, with Guatemalans as the largest group and Hondurans as the most dynamic one. The previous [...] Read more.

Central Americans living in Mexico remain a small group (100 thousand) relative to the size of the Mexican population. However, they experienced accelerated growth between 2000 and 2020, with Guatemalans as the largest group and Hondurans as the most dynamic one. The previous literature has found a positive and significant, albeit decreasing, income advantage of Central American workers in Mexico. Meanwhile, the percentage of migrant women reported as spouses has gone down and the female labor force has increased. The paper uses information from the 2000, 2010, and 2020 Mexican censuses as well as the 2015 Intercensal Survey to compare access to the labor market for men and women from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras residing in Mexico. We compare marital status, female labor force participation, main economic sectors, human capital, and income levels of the men and women of each of the three nationalities considered, seeking to identify from a gender perspective the differentiated labor performance of each nationality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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24 pages, 1476 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Affirmative Action Policies in Higher Education in Brazil: Outcomes and Future Challenges

by Rosana Heringer

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(3), 132; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030132 - 27 Feb 2024

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Abstract

This article presents the results of broad research developed by a group of Brazilian scholars to make an assessment of affirmative action policies in admissions to higher education in Brazil, namely the quota legislation in place since 2012, which reserves places for lower-income, [...] Read more.

This article presents the results of broad research developed by a group of Brazilian scholars to make an assessment of affirmative action policies in admissions to higher education in Brazil, namely the quota legislation in place since 2012, which reserves places for lower-income, Afro-Brazilians and indigenous students in federal universities. The research has been developed through a combination of methods including analysis of secondary data, case studies in six federal universities, and interviews with university leadership and faculty members. The article presents the main results of the study, including the effect of quota legislation in diversifying the profile of higher education students in the last decade. It shows that a significant proportion of Afro-Brazilian students have been able to access good-quality higher education because of this legislation. The article concludes by presenting some challenges faced by quota students in federal universities, especially related to student support policies and a sense of belonging. It also presents recommendations to improve these policies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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17 pages, 322 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Law Programs, Ethno–Racial Relations Education, and Confronting Racism in the Brazilian Judiciary

by Sales Augusto Dos Santos

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(2), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020082 - 29 Jan 2024

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Abstract

This article focuses on the lack of full compliance with teaching ethno–racial relations education in Brazilian university undergraduate programs, particularly law programs. Teaching this topic was specified by the Conselho Nacional de Educação (CNE, National Education Council) in Resolution CNE/CP no. 01/2004. Although [...] Read more.

This article focuses on the lack of full compliance with teaching ethno–racial relations education in Brazilian university undergraduate programs, particularly law programs. Teaching this topic was specified by the Conselho Nacional de Educação (CNE, National Education Council) in Resolution CNE/CP no. 01/2004. Although teaching ethno–racial relations education has not been a panacea for judicial sentencing based on racial criteria, we propose the working hypothesis that teaching it is a tool that can help catalyze a reduction in racist sentences by courts, for example, a defendant not fitting the stereotypical criminal pattern by being white or being assumed to belong to some criminal group for being black (preto) or brown (pardo). Through surveys at sixty-nine federal universities and documentary research into law program curricula, it was discovered that Resolution CNE/CP no. 01/2004 is not being fully or appropriately implemented at these institutions, a fact that may be enabling the continuance of race-based penal sentencing, which is illegal and extremely harmful to the black/brown Brazilian population. To prevent or minimize this problem, full compliance with Resolution CNE/CP no. 01/2004 is suggested. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

16 pages, 295 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Getúlio Vargas and the Making of Restrictive Migratory Policies in Post-1930 Brazil

by Mônica Raisa Schpun

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(1), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010057 - 15 Jan 2024

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Abstract

Following Brazil’s “great migration” period (1880–1930) came Getúlio Vargas’s rise to power, marking a radical historical rupture. From 1930 onwards, we observed the construction of a framework of restrictive rules aimed at controlling the entry and stay of foreigners in the country, including [...] Read more.

Following Brazil’s “great migration” period (1880–1930) came Getúlio Vargas’s rise to power, marking a radical historical rupture. From 1930 onwards, we observed the construction of a framework of restrictive rules aimed at controlling the entry and stay of foreigners in the country, including an ethnically differentiated management of flows. This article sought to cross-reference the new migratory policy, aimed at both new entries and immigrants already present in the territory, with the issue of race. To this end, it dealt with two groups of immigrants whose flows were directly impacted by the new policies (and by racism), but not in the same way: Japanese and Jews. The reflection also turned to the different experiences in each of the two groups between the candidates for immigration—in the face of the new barriers imposed on entry and those already living in Brazil in the face of the assimilationist measures adopted. Brazilian migration policies and state actions have been studied more often than the agency of immigrants. In this sense, the existing studies have focused more on the management of new flows than on the experience of immigrants already settled in the territory. The text, therefore, assumed a change of perspective, opting for a look “from below” in order to focus on both sides of the scales and the border. Finally, it examined the historiography that dealt with migration policy during the Vargas era and, more specifically, that which focused on Jewish and Japanese immigration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

14 pages, 282 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘Whose Place of Speech?’ Brazil’s Afro- and Queer-Centric YouTube Channels and the Decentralization of TV Globo’s Telenovela Discourse

by Regina Castro McGowan

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010039 - 08 Jan 2024

Viewed by 929

Abstract

For several decades, Brazil’s Grupo Globo, which controls radio, TV, and newspaper, served as the hegemonic voice controlling the audio, visual, and narrative dimensions of social phenomena that formed and informed social, political, and cultural attitudes among Brazilians. Of all their divisions, [...] Read more.

For several decades, Brazil’s Grupo Globo, which controls radio, TV, and newspaper, served as the hegemonic voice controlling the audio, visual, and narrative dimensions of social phenomena that formed and informed social, political, and cultural attitudes among Brazilians. Of all their divisions, none has been more influential than the TV Globo network. Lately, with the popularization of free access to digital media, such as those offered by YouTube, TV Globo’s viewership has substantially declined. This paper discusses the concept of controlling images to analyze examples of TV Globo’s constructed visual image of the hypersexualized Afro-Brazilian female body in the network’s soap operas. It also analyzes cases of TV Globo’s constructed narrative over another subaltern Brazilian group: the LGBTQIA+ community. Recently, Afro-Brazilian and Queer-centric YouTube channels have attracted subscribers by emphasizing content centered on negritude, gender politics, and place of speech while deconstructing and de-normalizing Eurocentric and patriarchal controlling images. Against examples of TV Globo’s normative discourse of the past decades, the YouTube channels discussed in this paper represent alternative mediums for agency, visibility, and unbiased representations of gender and racial identities in Brazil. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

21 pages, 327 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Moving for Love: Interracial Marriage and Migration in Brazil

by Chinyere Osuji

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(1), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010035 - 03 Jan 2024

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Abstract

The link between marriage and migration is usually considered in terms of international migration. However, domestic migration provides another lens in which to view this connection. In Brazil, despite the large migration from the northeast to the southern regions in the twentieth century, [...] Read more.

The link between marriage and migration is usually considered in terms of international migration. However, domestic migration provides another lens in which to view this connection. In Brazil, despite the large migration from the northeast to the southern regions in the twentieth century, the role of domestic migration in race-mixing has been unacknowledged. Since race in Brazil is highly regionalized, with black and brown Brazilians comprising most northern regions and white Brazilians being in the majority of the southern areas of the country, migration can open possibilities for interracial marriage that are less likely to occur for non-migrants. At the same time, as gender plays an important role in opportunities for intermarriage, the effects of migration likely vary according to intersections of race and gender. An examination of the data on marital unions from the 2009 Brazilian National Household Survey, which includes large numbers of earlier cohorts of mass migration, demonstrates the influence of migration on interracial marriage. This study finds that the effect of migration on the odds of being interracially married (in comparison with being in a same-race marital union) vary according to the race and gender of the spouse. This study is one of the first to tie together two demographic phenomena—migration and interracial marriage—that have not previously been examined in the Brazilian context. It also provides a new lens through which to understand interracial marriage in Brazil and has implications for future studies of family formation in Latin America and the Caribbean. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

25 pages, 3381 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Do Segmented Assimilation Theory and Racialized Place Inequality Framework Help Explain Differences in Deaths Due to COVID-19 Observed among Hispanic Subgroups in New York City?

by Alfredo Cuecuecha

Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010019 - 25 Dec 2023

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Abstract

This article studies the differences in the correlation between deaths and the Hispanic share for different Hispanic subgroups in New York City. Such differences are predicted by Segmented Assimilation Theory as different assimilation paths. The study is carried out at the level of [...] Read more.

This article studies the differences in the correlation between deaths and the Hispanic share for different Hispanic subgroups in New York City. Such differences are predicted by Segmented Assimilation Theory as different assimilation paths. The study is carried out at the level of PUMAs, and it is argued that such geographic locations are macro-level factors that determine health outcomes, as the theory of Racialized Place Inequality Framework claims. The study presents a spatially correlated model that allows to decompose the spatial effects into direct and indirect effects. Direct effects are linked to the macro structure where the individual lives, while indirect effects refer to effects in the adjacent macro structures where the individual lives. The results show that both types of effects are significant. The importance of the direct effects is predicted by RPIF, while the importance of the indirect effects is a new result that shows the complexity of the effects of macro structures. The article also shows results for subsamples that allow to test the importance of different factors that have been linked to the excess deaths observed among Hispanics. The effects of such factors are also found to be heterogenous among the different Hispanic subgroups, which also provides evidence in favor of the Segmented Assimilation Theory. Access to health insurance and doctor density are found to be the most important elements that serve as protective factors for all Hispanic subgroups in New York City, signaling its importance in achieving assimilation for Hispanic immigrants to New York City. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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15 pages, 342 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Angels at the Top, Rocks at the Bottom: Naturalized Inequality in Brazilian Conservative Thought

by Georg Wink

Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(12), 692; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120692 - 18 Dec 2023

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Abstract

Racialized social inequality is considered a structural problem in Brazil and has been a political priority of recent progressist governments. This understanding is not backed up by the so-called New Right, who understands inequality as an inherent principle of a God-given “order” and [...] Read more.

Racialized social inequality is considered a structural problem in Brazil and has been a political priority of recent progressist governments. This understanding is not backed up by the so-called New Right, who understands inequality as an inherent principle of a God-given “order” and question of personal capability and merit. In this study, I explore the ideological roots of this powerful Rightist narrative by looking at the Brazilian canon of traditional conservative thought and its influence on New Right discourse. The results show that the core ideas stem from neo-Thomist interpretations of late-scholastic scholarship, which were promoted in Brazil through the Vatican’s integrist reaction to modernization during the First Republic. Since then, Brazilian conservatives have successfully used these religious legitimizations of naturalized inequality to constrain State-driven social reformism and join forces with neoliberalism through the invention of the supposed late scholastic roots of the Austrian School of Economics. After redemocratization, a recycled version of this liberal-conservative claim for less “State” and more “Brazil” (as guided by theocratic traditional order), promoted mainly by the philosopher and online influencer Olavo de Carvalho, has fueled the desecularizing discourse of the New Right and their attempt to conserve the colonial social hierarchy in Brazil. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

19 pages, 715 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Providing Consumer Credit to Low-Income Populations in Brazil—The Case of Complexo da Penha

by Danielle Santanna

Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(12), 691; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120691 - 18 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1234

Abstract

The financial inclusion (FI) literature claims that expanding access of the poor to consumer credit in the formal financial system is an instrument to alleviate poverty. This view has been increasingly challenged by the financialization literature, which highlights unsustainable indebtedness of low-income borrowers [...] Read more.

The financial inclusion (FI) literature claims that expanding access of the poor to consumer credit in the formal financial system is an instrument to alleviate poverty. This view has been increasingly challenged by the financialization literature, which highlights unsustainable indebtedness of low-income borrowers following the introduction of FI policies. While a welcome contribution and antidote to mainstream assessments, much of the financialization literature on Brazil has, to date, focused on a macro-oriented analysis. As a major testing ground for FI, a better understanding of these dynamics in Latin America’s largest country deepens our understanding of the socio-economic consequences of inserting poor populations into the financial system. This paper contributes to the financialization literature by drawing on interviews conducted in a Rio de Janeiro slum to understand how debt dynamics operate in everyday life, along with its structural conditioners. It shows that FI policies provide limited consumption smoothing and instead increase the structural vulnerability of low-income households. Wage and welfare support along with greater oversight and control of financial products supplied to low-income borrowers are warranted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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20 pages, 1379 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Highly Educated Women: Exploring Barriers and Strategies for Labour Integration in an Emotional Migratory Process

by Concepción Maiztegui Oñate, Maria Luisa Di Martino and Iratxe Aristegui

Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(12), 687; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120687 (registering DOI) - 15 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1212

Abstract

This article explores the barriers and the strategies of a group of highly educated foreign women to obtain a job-education matching situation in the Basque Country (Spain) where they all permanently settled following a binational heterosexual marriage. Drawing on 21 biographical interviews with [...] Read more.

This article explores the barriers and the strategies of a group of highly educated foreign women to obtain a job-education matching situation in the Basque Country (Spain) where they all permanently settled following a binational heterosexual marriage. Drawing on 21 biographical interviews with women from Latin America and Europe, we examine new perspectives on the complexity and fluidity between their professional pathways and family projects. For that, we apply an intersectional lens to analyse their life experience. Our results show that respondents involved in a feminised labour market (education and health) have fewer difficulties to find a job-education match. In other cases, becoming self-employed is a way to gain independence and flexibility by running an open market-oriented business. Interviewees identified language, lack of personal networks, family reconciliation, traditional gender roles and the transferring of cultural capital as the main barriers for their incorporation into the labour market. The study finds that marriage support is not enough to overcome the barriers. We argue that for a more comprehensive understanding of labour integration of highly educated migrant women, motivation and agency, linked to family support, should be considered factors to cope with structural inequalities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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14 pages, 343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Promises and Pitfalls of Intersectional Politics: The Black Coalition for Rights in Brazil

by Sérgio Costa, Flavia Rios and Fernando Baldraia

Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(12), 684; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120684 - 13 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1125

Abstract

Based on evidence collected in a collaborative research project, this article studies the Black Coalition for Rights created in Brazil in 2019. Compared to previous experiences of antiracist struggles in Brazil, the Coalition stands out for its decentralized organization, its ability to convey [...] Read more.

Based on evidence collected in a collaborative research project, this article studies the Black Coalition for Rights created in Brazil in 2019. Compared to previous experiences of antiracist struggles in Brazil, the Coalition stands out for its decentralized organization, its ability to convey political content through adequate aesthetic forms, its capillarity in the domestic sphere, and its transnational articulations. Equally striking is its intersectional character understood as both the emphasis on the transversal character of racism and the stress of the interdependent character of social struggles against different forms of inequalities (with regard to gender, race, class, etc.). The Coalition has so far proven to be particularly successful in terms of its mobilization capacity, its public visibility, and its agenda-setting power. According to our preliminary findings, its success can be explained, to a great extent, by its ability to vocalize a broad set of political claims and, consequently, to fill the gap left by other civil society actors demobilized by the far right-wing backlash in Brazil and the pandemic. Since January 2023, in the context of a new progressive government, the Coalition has started facing difficulties in preserving its intersectional and socially encompassing character. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

Review

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24 pages, 1856 KiB

Open AccessReview

Situating the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

by Tyson Singh Kelsall, Jake Seaby Palmour, Rory Marck, A. J. Withers, Nicole Luongo, Kahlied Salem, Cassie Sutherland, Jasmine Veark, Lyana Patrick, Aaron Bailey, Jade Boyd, Q. Lawrence, Mathew Fleury, Alya Govorchin, Nathan Crompton, Chris Vance, Blake Edwards, Anmol Swaich, Amber Kelsall, Meenakshi Mannoe, Portia Larlee and Jenn McDermid Show full author list Hide full author list

Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(10), 549; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12100549 - 30 Sep 2023

Viewed by 6823

Abstract

This article centers on the nonprofit landscape in Vancouver, Canada, a city that occupies the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, which have never been ceded to the colonial occupation of Canada. Vancouver has a competitive nonprofit field, [...] Read more.

This article centers on the nonprofit landscape in Vancouver, Canada, a city that occupies the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, which have never been ceded to the colonial occupation of Canada. Vancouver has a competitive nonprofit field, with an estimated 1600+ nonprofits operating within city limits. This descriptive review starts by defining what a nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC) is, then outlines an abbreviated history of the nonprofit sector on the aforementioned lands. The article then explores issues related to colonialism, anti-poor legislation, neoliberal governance, the fusing of the public and private sectors, and the bureaucratization of social movements and care work as mechanisms to uphold the status quo social order and organization of power. Focusing on under-examined issues related to the business imperatives of nonprofit organizations in the sectors of housing, health and social services, community policing, and research, this work challenges the positive default framing of nonprofits and charities. Instead, we contend that Vancouver’s NPIC allows the government and the wealthy to shirk responsibility for deepening health and social inequities, while shaping nonprofits’ revenue-generating objectives and weakening their accountability to the community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racial Injustice, Violence and Resistance: New Approaches under Multidimensional Perspectives)

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