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Paper short abstract

Following left wing brazilian activists in Lisbon, organized in contestation groups, for 7 months, after the election of Bolsonaro, lets us understand the importante of public space as a place of speech and resistance. At the same time, it challenges the city of Lisbon in its heart, the streets.

Paper long abstract

Starting from Brazilian activist groups in Lisbon, we tried to understand how public space is used in times of contestation and its relationship with a transnational political sphere.

The occupation of public space is addressed, in this case - Praça Luís de Camões - through the importance it demonstrates to the group, the central role in the idea of resistance and how it becomes a moment of connection between the participants, helping to create a sense of belonging among all those who occupy the public space. The relationship between Lisbon and Brazil is exposed in the various actions and discourses, with the objective of claiming a place for Brazilian issues on the Portuguese political agenda. This way, it was possible to understand the use of public space as a place for contestation and the transnational political sphere as a necessary field for the group’s existence.

This presentation, based on a master dissertation, with extensive fieldwork, starts from an anthropological work done in a migratory context, with an empirical basis in the urban environment, where the discussions of the interlocutors are not only focused on the migratory process, but also on a general problem; belonging to a global citizenship. This belonging goes beyond the street and the individual struggles to position itself in an international project to defend democracy.