Community panels: the dispute for the truth of the pandemic in Rio’s favelas (article)

Author: Palloma Menezes, Alexandre Magalhães and Caíque Azael.

Artigo publicado originalmente em: Revista Horizontes Antropológicos

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the experience of COVID-19 community mapping panels organized by residents of slums in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Such panels are devices that quantify the extent and intensity of the pandemic in these territories, presenting different arrangements that involve data produced by residents, health services or public agencies. Mobilized from the inconsistency or lack of systematic information about the pandemic in their territories, the panels operate a dispute for the truth of the pandemic in the favelas, in a context of devaluation of the policies to fight the virus and negativism. The tension produced with the panels draws attention to the existence of such territories in the urban fabric and the relationships that the government maintains in each location. To understand this process, we will start from data compiled by the Marielle Franco Favelas Dictionary, newspaper news, websites of the collective promoters of these panels, as well as public speeches from residents of these locations.