Social Movement Ethnography in Latin America is a rapid qualitative study. Developed from March to September 2021 using secondary data in digital databases and data collection, through virtual ethnography in the social media of selected social movements in three countries: Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico.
The research was carried out in 3 stages:
A survey was carried out of social movements representing vulnerable populations that use social networks as vehicles for information and social mobilisation.
In the second phase, the virtual pages and groups that did not bring information or initiatives carried out to the pandemic of COVID-19, were excluded. Two populations in each country were selected, indigenous peoples being a common category. The second population was selected by the relevance of the movement for society and/or its participation on the Covid-19 response. Eight social movements from the three countries were selected.
With the selected movements, the phase of virtual ethnography was initiated (due to the covid-19 pandemic). Traditional ethnographic work requires face-to-face fieldwork, which allows the ethnographer to gain the trust of the group he will research (Polianov, 2013). Virtual space brings a novelty in relation to traditional ethnography, since people can interact from completely different geographical spaces and the "field becomes 'text on a screen'" (Evans, 2010).
To construct a field diary, the following ethnography script was used:
Description of the movement's agendas and which populations they represent, checking whether they are identified as being of local, regional, national or global scope
Description of the campaigns mobilized during the period of the study
Description of the themes, issues, agendas present and transversal issues and themes. For example: black feminism, indigenous LGBTTI.
Content about COVID-19 that are conveyed: observe according to the period of the pandemic, for example, the beginning of the confrontation, measures of social isolation and use of masks; period of relaxation of isolation rules; period of negotiation and production of vaccines and period of the beginning of vaccination
Observe, in addition to the contents, the opinions, positions, demands and mobilizations of these networks
Observe which were the most frequent contents on covid-19 at the moment of observation (for example, in February the urban and slum movements focused on the issue of emergency aid, while the indigenous peoples focused on the claim to guarantee vaccination)
Observation on the interactions and comments of the followers regarding the content on COVID-19
Identification of the key factors that appear on the page either as responsible, guests, interviews, opinion etc.
Events organized on COVID-19 - lives, virtual seminars, meetings (description of the period, themes, guests, participants, relationship networks with other movements, sponsors if any and interactions with followers - comments, like/unlike)
[Image - March of indigenous peoples against PL 490/2020, which wanted to create the The Indigenous Temporal Framework, a thesis that defends that indigenous people can only claim the demarcated lands where they were physically located until 1988 - Auá Mendes]
[Image - Women doing tapestry/handcraft - Auá Mendes]
[Image - A mix of ancestry and modernity in the context of indigenous peoples - Auá Mendes]
