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.