Racial Politics: Central Themes in Academic Scholarship in the Social Sciences in Brazil (2012–2019)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Black Lives Matter in Latin America

Abstract

This chapter presents a bibliographic review of Brazilian academic studies on race, racism, and race relations produced between 2012 and 2019. The first section highlights the relevance of studies on Black and intersectional feminism and analyzes articles published in selected journals and scholarship presented at conferences. Four topics are examined that are part of the racial policy studies agenda: black movements, elections and political attitudes, affirmative action policies, and violence and genocide of the Black population. The conclusion assesses current studies and points to future research.

“Racial Politics: Central Themes in Academic Production in the Social Sciences in Brazil (2012–2019)”, Paula Cristina da Silva Barreto, Dyane Brito Reis, Cláudia Monteiro Fernandes, Yuri Brito, Translated from the Portuguese by Ramon J. Stern.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The journals analyzed were: Caderno CRH (UFBA); Cadernos Pagu (UNICAMP); Dados (IESP-UERJ); História, Ciências, Saúde—Manguinhos (FIOCRUZ); Horizontes Antropológicos UFRGS; Lua Nova (USP); Mana (MN-UFRJ); Novos Estudos (CEBRAP); Opinião Pública (UNICAMP); Religião & Sociedade (ISER); Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais (ANPOCS); Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (IBRI); Revista de Antropologia (USP); Revista de Sociologia e Política (UFPR); Revista Estudos Feministas (UFSC); Sociedade e Estado (UnB); Sociologias (UFRGS); Tempo Social (USP).

  2. 2.

    The article analyzed 422 references, adding together published articles from 2014 to 2018 (181), papers presented at the meetings of ANPOCS (118) and at SBS conferences (123), from 2012 to 2019.

  3. 3.

    We are grateful to Professor Luiz Campos (IESP-UERJ), for making the Database available that had a detailed description of the articles included in the Corpus, which was essential for this phase of our research.

  4. 4.

    The Brazilian women were Matilde Ribeiro, Lourdes Siqueira, Luiza Bairros, Maria Aparecida Silva Bento, Marcia Lima, Edna Roland, Maria Aparecida da Silva and Sueli Carneiro; the women from the United States were bell hooks, Rebecca Reichmann, Angela Gilliam and Onik’a Gilliam.

  5. 5.

    According to Rodrigues (2013), the MMN consisted of more than 100 groups at the time that were diverse in terms of structure, size, financial organization and participation. The principal areas of operation were: preservation and affirmation of Afro-Brazilian culture; promotion of self-esteem for Black women; support and defense of sexual and reproductive rights; advances in the struggle for human rights; and monitoring of public policies based on gender and race.

  6. 6.

    The emergence of the Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality—SEPPIR led to the creation of equivalent bodies on a state and municipal level. These actions gave visibility to Black project managers and administrators, male and female, as well as to the work of intellectuals in different regions of Brazil.

  7. 7.

    The corpus of this research included articles published in A1 journals in the three disciplines of the Social Sciences and papers presented in the working groups and thematic symposia of ANPOCS conferences from 1994 to 2013. As related to the articles, 16 journals available on Scielo were included in the study. In the initial phases, 540 issues of the journals were analyzed, and by the end 266 articles.

  8. 8.

    The Quotas Law (Law n° 12.711, August 29, 2012) determined that federal universities, institutes and centers reserve 50% of the spots in their selective processes for candidates originating from public schools, giving priority to Black and Brown candidates according to the local demographic profile. Some public universities had already (since the beginning of the 2000s) developed their own affirmative action policies for the enrollment of students.

  9. 9.

    In a span of two decades, the proportion of texts on gender and race was 24.1% of the total. However, when each one of the four five-year periods was analyzed separately it was evident that the first two had much lower numbers (3 and 4%), growing much more in the last two (10 and 11%).

  10. 10.

    In this study, a database formed from the Databank of Theses and Dissertations (BTD) from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) was used.

  11. 11.

    Artes and Mena-Chalco (2017), for example, indicate that the production of thesis and dissertations on race in Masters and Doctoral programs in Political Science does not even crack the top ten disciplines in this area of study.

  12. 12.

    Communities, rural or urban, formed by Africans and their descendants, throughout the Brazilian national territory.

  13. 13.

    Cais do Valongo is an archeological site found during excavations for works of revitalization of the port area of the city of Rio de Janeiro and declared Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO. At the location, enslaved Africans arrived in Brazil and innumerable amulets and objects of worship were found there that they had brought.

  14. 14.

    Artes and Mena-Chalco (2017) highlighted that the number of graduate students increased by 57.1% from 1987 to 2011, while the population only grew by 12.3%. As regards distinction by race and gender, Artes and Mena-Chalco affirm that the rate of growth of Black students (194.6%) was greater than that of women (61.5%) which, in turn, was greater than that of men (52.3%). This positive variation gains importance upon taking the following fact into consideration: Black people (Black and brown according to Brazilian racial categories) represented only 24.8% of the body of graduate students, while adding up to 50.9% of the total population.

  15. 15.

    Students who accessed opportunities created in research and training centers (such as the Program Color of Bahia and CEAFRO at the Federal University of Bahia, UFBA, and the Center for Afro-Asiatic Studies at the University of Candido Mendes, UCAM), as well as in intensive courses (such as the Fábrica de Ideias (Factory of Ideas, created in 1998), were able to fill in the existing gaps in the curricula and training of teachers in undergraduate and graduate programs in the humanities and especially in the social sciences.

  16. 16.

    This tradition dates back to the 1950s with research surrounding the UNESCO project and the creation of centers such as the Center of Afro-Asiatic Studies (CEAA) at University Cândido Mendes, or the Center of African Studies (CEA) at the University of São Paulo (USP). In the Northeast, Bahia stands out with the creation of the Center of Afro-Oriental Studies (CEAO), connected with the Federal University of Bahia or UFBA.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

da Silva Barreto, P.C., Reis, D.B., Fernandes, C.M., de Brito, Y.S. (2024). Racial Politics: Central Themes in Academic Scholarship in the Social Sciences in Brazil (2012–2019). In: Luiz Pereira Oliveira, C., Mitchell-Walthour, G.L., Morrison, M.K.C. (eds) Black Lives Matter in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39904-6_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39904-6_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-39903-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-39904-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Navigation