Flavia Medeiros Santos

FLAVIA SANTOS, in collaboration with EDILMA NASCIEMENTO, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil, were awarded a Global Initiatives Grant in June 2020 to aid “Social and Moral Regulations of the New Corona Pandemic in Brazil: An Ethnographic and Intersectional Analysis.” The research project was carried out between July 2020 and June 2021 by researchers based in metropolitan regions of Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro, João Pessoa and Salvador in Brazil. Research teams explored the perspectives of vulnerable social groups to analyze the social and moral regulations implemented during the covid-19 pandemic in Brazil from a comparative perspective. The research built upon pre-established relationships between our team of researchers and their respective interlocutors in different contexts. Our comparative perspective has allowed us to gain insights into how people in favelas, cemeteries, social services, public transportation, legislative houses, and educational environments such as schools, universities, have reconfigured their daily life practices through creative survival strategies to gain access to basic needs. There is a gap between State discourse and practice. Instead of fulfilling its role as managers for accessing basic rights, the State and its institutions create tensions and friction. It is through these gaps and junctures that citizens find possibilities for escaping and reorganizing the conditions that allow them to reduce inequality and regain their dignity.