Social Movement Ethnography in Latin America

AIM

To identify, observe, map, describe, and analyze the initiatives and mobilization strategies carried out by social movements of vulnerable populations, through the Internet, to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in three Latin American countries during the period from March 2020 to July 2021.

OBJECTIVES

• Map the social movements of vulnerable populations of three Latin American countries (Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador)
• Identify and select movements that, on the internet, have carried out actions to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic
• Identify the selected movement´s needs, positions, and claims during the pandemic, as well as, map virtual campaigns and organized actions of confrontation to the pandemic led by these groups and their possible consequences
• Conduct virtual ethnography of virtual pages of selected social movements that are on social media

WHY IS THIS STUDY IMPORTANT

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries have faced quarantine measures to try to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. In Latin America, along with the health situation, the economic and political crisis also affected already vulnerable populations, deepening existing social inequalities. 
Due to the measures of social distance, and in the interest of conducting a mapping with greater reach and scope, it was decided to work exclusively with digital sources and social media ethnography for a better understanding of the strategies adopted by the chosen population groups.
The reason for choosing social movements was due to our understanding of the importance of organized civil society in pressuring and setting government agendas, especially in periods of social and health emergencies. Moreover, we understand that the resistance movements of these populations, despite being vulnerable, are powerful and contest the social injustices in which they live. It is necessary to deconstruct the paradigm that these are passive and/or ill-informed populations - when, in reality, the silencing is much more due to the power and capillarity of the oppressive forces than to the capacities that these populations actually have to resist genocide, diverse discriminations, and the increasingly alarming impoverishment.