Researching Protest Literacies Literacy as Protest in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro Routledge Research in Literacy Series

By focusing on the textually mediated reactions of local residents, social movements, and media producers to policy changes implemented in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, this book studies the development of literacy as a tool to mobilize, perform, and disseminate protest.

Researching Protest Literacies presents a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and extensive archival research to analyse how traditional and technology-driven literacy practices informed a new cycle of social protest in favelas from 2006-2016. Chapters trace nuanced interactions, document changing power balances, and in doing so conceptualize five forms of literacy used to enact social change - campaigning literacies, memorial literacies, media-activist literacies, arts-activist literacies, and demonstration literacies. Building on these, the study posits protest literacies as a new way of researching the role of contemporary literacy in protest.

This insightful monograph would be of interest to doctoral students, researchers, and scholars involved in the fields of literacy studies, arts education, and social movement studies, as well as those looking into research methods in education and international literacies more broadly.

Part I: Introduction and Background

1. Wheres and Whys of Researching Protest Literacies

2. Socio-Political Contexts: Brazil, Rio, and Maré

3. Methodological Approaches: Ethnography and History

Part II: An Emerging Cycle of Protest 2006–2013

4. Symbolization Trajectories and Campaigning Literacies

5. Memorialization Trajectories and Memorial Literacies

6. Memorialization Trajectories and Media-Activist Literacies

Part III: A Continuing Cycle of Protest 2014–2016

7. Mega-Events and Arts-Activist Literacies

8. Protest Events and Demonstration Literacies

9. Periods of Protest and Protest Literacies

Part IV: Conclusions and Contributions

10. Protest Studies Through Literacy Studies

Jamie D. I. Duncan completed his PhD at Lancaster Literacy Research Center, Lancaster University, UK. His academic research is situated within the ethnographic and historical traditions of the New Literacy Studies and his professional background includes work in the UK and Brazil across the fields of social housing, adult education, and applied linguistics.