Search results

The social role of women in Brazil is subject to significant change in both capacity and scope. While women constitute the majority of the population in Brazil, they account for 40 per cent of the workforce, and thus, they remain comparatively invisible in public life. This is evident in political representation, as although Brazilian law stipulates that political parties must reserve at least 30 per cent of their nominations for women for legislative elections, this does not occur in reality. Furthermore, despite Afro-descendant Brazilians constituting the majority of the population, in the Chamber of Deputies, for instance, there are only 9 per cent Afro-descendant representatives. Therefore, this study focuses on understanding issues of political representation of Afro-descendant women in political spaces in Brazil – a country where politics is still predominantly white and male. Thus, despite a rhetorical position of an ‘open country’ with opportunities for all, the whiteness and masculinity of Brazilian politics illustrates the degree of mythology concerning the rhetoric of Brazil’s racial democracy. We employ a qualitative research approach in this study and we employ an oral-history-informed post-structuralist approach. We focus our empirical analysis on in-depth interviews with an Afro-descendant female accounting professor who was elected to an important political position. We argue that discussions about democracy in Brazil go beyond formal aspects of civil rights, as our study highlights the necessity of reshaping political processes to engender greater female and Afro-descendent participation, to engender both groups to seek political careers as well as to encourage political parties to include more female and more Afro-descendent candidates. The ultimate goal of such institutional reform is a reformation of ‘racial democracy’ as Afro-descendent women interact with, stand and succeed in Brazilian elections.

The goal of this study was to use census information to measure the level of occupational segregation of workers of African descent with respect to whites in various Latin American countries. I further investigated the extent to which segregation levels can be accounted for by different workers’ characteristics. The results show that Afro-Latinos are generally highly segregated across occupations but with high heterogeneity across countries. A large proportion of this segregation would not exist if Afro-Latinos had attained the same education as whites in Brazil and Ecuador, where most segregation occurs across major occupational categories. However, the proportion of occupational segregation explained by educational inequalities is much lower in other countries, where most segregation occurs within the major occupational groups. Further, occupational segregation would be even higher, especially in Costa Rica, if the geographical distribution of black and white populations were similar across these countries.

This chapter offers empirical evidence of the contribution of a local and popular festival to diversity and inclusion in the hosting territory. With this in mind, three impacts (economic, social, and cultural) are determined and measured from the triple perspective of the creation of value of cultural assets. We show the case of the XXII edition of the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival held in the city of Cali (Colombia) from August 15th to 20th, 2018. The estimates were taken from three sources: (i) an input–output model adapted for the economy of the city of Cali, (ii) A face-to-face survey of 1,030 festival attendees over 18 years old, and (iii) A face-to-face survey of a representatives of each of the 173 business positions that took part in the Festival (e.g., handicrafts, musical instruments, traditional beverages, cuisine, hairstyles, and cosmetics). The results show that the festival: (i) generates inclusive material wealth, which is measured through income and employment for Afro-colombian communities, traditionally marginalized and economically disadvantaged; (ii) is shown as an opportunity to promote intercultural dialogue and diversity for the local community and tourists; and (iii) the community attending the festival (both locals and tourists) contribute to the cultural enrichment of the territory. The applied method might be replicated for other festivals case of studies in other countries in order to generate evidence that can be used for designing cultural policies which encourage diversity and equity in a specific territory.

This paper aims to expose the violence intrinsic to globalization and to suggest a conceptual and practical domain focused on arresting and preventing the structural violence of globalization.

The paper integrates theory, scholarly literature and the author’s fieldwork analyzed through solidarity and liberationist methodologies.

The paper shows that severe, violent and irreparable destruction of formerly thriving and sustainable cultures and communities around the globe is an inherent component of globalization; current notions of “development” and “poverty” provide ideological cover for such destruction; a wide range of mainstream institutions and organizations (including governments, trade and financial institutions and national and multinational corporations) benefit from the destruction and collude in these dynamics, while a passive majority participates through its silence and consumptive lifestyle; and to arrest these dynamics requires awareness of the structural violence of development and globalization, and that those of us living in currently unsustainable societies commit both to re-localize our effects to our own communities and to change the operating rules of the global system.

This paper offers analysis, perspectives and practical considerations toward transformations essential to ending the structural violence of globalization, while inviting broad-based solidarity for further advancements.

Bridging global and local realities, the paper exposes systematic large-scale structural violence endemic to globalization, “development”, mainstream ideas about poverty and practices of “poverty reduction”. The paper identifies some fundamental requirements for arresting the structural violence of the global system.

This paper aims to unveil colonial racist elements related to the cases of racism in advertising judged by the Brazilian Council of Advertising Self-Regulation (Conar), from 1980 until 2020.

A qualitative critical and historical research was developed, based on a decolonial perspective, with the use of critical discourse analysis (CDA).

By analyzing such phenomenon, the present study can discuss how self-regulatory codes that are based on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) 1937 Code are not equipped to deal with racist issues.

Discussions that focus on how racial elements in advertising are treated by a regulatory agency are scarce. Despite the focus being on the Brazilian case, this phenomenon should not be understood as a particularity of this country, since problems related to racism in advertising in countries that also have ICC-type self-regulatory codes are frequent.

In this study, I analyze two Brazilian experiences, their main characteristics and quandaries in Brazil. I collect and analyze social–historical documents and statistic data related to the Program of Indigenous Inclusion (PROIND) and University For All Program (PROUNI). It was noticed that both the experiences have contributed for the growth in school registrations of college students from sub-represented ethnical groups, and there was an increase of cultural diversity; although there were marks of resistance from some students and professors, these marks have been overcome by the perseverance and success obtained by those who have been contemplated by these programs.

The objective of this chapter is to outline an integrating picture of the situation, representativeness, contradictions, and challenges that the treatment of diversity assumes in Brazilian society and in its organizations. The aim is to reply to the research question: “How are public policies and organizational practices constructing ways of inserting and valuing the diversity of Brazilians?” We provide a brief background of the changes in the global and Brazilian contexts over the last few decades and analyze the demographic data presented in the 2010 Census and in studies on diversity that were published in the main periodicals in the Administration area in Brazil, between 2000 and 2014 with regard to the segments most widely studied in the academic literature: Afro-descendants, homosexuals, the elderly, Indians, women, and people with a disability. The conclusion reached is that, in a short period of time, Brazil has made great strides in constructing the mechanisms and legal devices for recognizing the rights of its diverse population and that private companies are in the initial stages of introducing diversity programs.

This ethnographic study explores how local and global forces influence a unique set of self-employed people in Havana’s tourism industry – dance instructors – and how these circumstances drive the strategies and rationalities they use to navigate socioeconomic transformations. Cuba’s recent history of economic crises, the decline in welfare assistance, and an array of market-driven economic reforms have driven many Cubans to search for incomes in Havana’s lucrative tourism industry. Global circulations of people, wealth, and ideas shape the opportunities Cubans find in this type of work. Furthermore, strict state policies and regulations, in conjunction with underlying systems of oppression, hinder and constrain Cubans who work in tourism-based ventures. Building on theories of neoliberalism and tourism, we discuss how Cuban dance instructors develop professional skills, standardize their activities, and address global consumer desires/demands while simultaneously drawing from collectivized social norms cultivated under Cuban socialism. These hybridized formal/informal business tactics reveal how self-employed Cubans are positioned between socialist configurations and the capital-driven tourism industry. These innovative socioeconomic logics are also critical in understanding how people living in centrally planned economies, some of which are socially marginalized because of patterns of inequality, gain access to and participate with contemporary modalities of the global economy.

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: in the first part, we will provide comprehensive, state-of-the-art urban and visual studies across the domains of visibility, urban aesthetics and the legitimate use of the urban. We will show that what we see is foremost what is accessible and legitimate as a vision, while the urban provides multiple realms of invisibility that are often neglected or rendered invisible. Art, architecture, urbanism and place-making will be used as examples of these dynamics.

In the second part of the chapter, we will present a research study on the decolonial practices of re-signification of colonial urban traces. Despite the dominant representation of Italians as ‘good people’ (a local version of ‘white innocence’), in recent years, Italy has witnessed a new interest stemming from bottom-up local movements dealing with colonial legacy in the urban space. We will show a research example (‘Decolonising the City. Visual Dialogues in Padova’) based on participatory video, arts-based methods and walking methods.

This chapter critically examines dialogues between indigenous feminists and academic feminists about the role and significance of indigenous epistemologies in constructing social scientific knowledge, particularly feminist epistemologies. We argue that the term indigenous feminisms must be understood as broadly linking gender equality, decolonization, and sovereignty for indigenous peoples. In Latin America, this term typifies an activist and practical movement with cultural, economic, and politically specific dimensions. We posit that analytical and theoretical frameworks developed from indigenous women’s ways of knowledge production should be recognized and legitimated in feminist discourse because much is learned from their worldview about women’s emancipation, the importance of intersectionality in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender in indigenous contexts, in addition to political and cultural critiques. We show that indigenous feminist theoretical formulations are not homogenous but overlap in some areas of theoretical and practical formulations that involve new conceptualizations of the body, space, time, action/movement, and memory.