FGV launches catalog that gathers 40 existing cultural projects in the Manguinhos Complex
Breaking the silence imposed on vulnerable populations. This is one of the objectives of the catalog, which gathers 40 cultural projects in the Manguinhos community, titled “Cultural Strategies in Manguinhos. Views on mental health care and the protagonism of favela residents.” Launched on October 5th, at an event at the Manguinhos Park Library, the initiative is led by a network of partners formed by Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), and Queen Mary University of London. The catalog describes the effort to generate social inclusion for individuals residing in the Manguinhos neighborhood through initiatives aimed at promoting mental health, by investing in local identity, cultural belonging, and historical and social appreciation.
In addition to researchers and partners from the three institutions, the launch ceremony was attended by the director of the FGV Research Network, Goret Paulo; Professor Paul Heritage from Queen Mary University and director of People’s Palace Projects; Rodrigo Correa de Oliveira, vice president of Research and Biological Collections at Fiocruz; and Hermano Castro, former director of the National School of Public Health Sérgio Arouca (ENSP) and researcher at Fiocruz.
The Catalog
In total, the catalog gathered 40 cultural projects of different natures in the 12 regions that make up the Manguinhos territory. Although it is impossible to translate the cultural expression of this population into numbers, the initiatives were divided into six categories: sports, art and culture, education, communication, sustainability, and human rights and citizenship, which aim to demonstrate how the population organizes, resists, and survives amid the scenario of social inequality. In addition to identifying these cultural projects, basic information and links about each of them were generated, as well as the proper way to access them, to facilitate access to these initiatives.
For the construction of the material, the cultural projects had to fit the following criteria: be a cultural initiative from the Manguinhos territory, be currently active, and provide online and publicly accessible information. This last pillar is an important point of the Catalog, as it is ethically supported to include in the survey only actions that provide public domain information.
Catalog Cover
(Catalog Cover - Cultural Strategies in Manguinhos. Views on mental health care and the protagonism of favela residents.)
Challenges
Even with the partnership of different institutions, this project faced a challenge that was the Covid-19 pandemic, which made field research impossible. However, it was through this obstacle that the project sought even more collaborations, as well as using research resources beyond the database, such as social networks. It is worth noting that not only the pandemic was responsible for hindering some processes of this project, but it was also one of the factors that worsened the emergency situation of the residents of the Manguinhos territory, as numerous activities, including cultural ones, which are so important for the social resistance of the population, had to be interrupted due to the “struggle for survival,” as exposed in the Catalog.
Culture as a way to promote population health
Long before the pandemic, the need for a project like this arose from the erasure of memory and local realities, promoted by the system that historically positions favelas as spaces of violence and conflict. According to researchers Franciele Campos and Luiz Soares, the works of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) and the presence of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) contributed to the silencing of sociocultural manifestations, which ignored the ways that population existed, behaved, and expressed themselves as individuals, whether through the inspection of personal objects such as cell phones, or attempts to control haircuts and ways of dressing.
“It is in this context that, in 2016, young people occupied public high schools in Manguinhos and appropriated the acronym PAC to re-signify it: PAC became ‘For the Love of Culture.’ But what culture? Ours! Which is prevented from being lived through the militarized presence of the police within the favelas of Manguinhos,” say the researchers in the preface of the catalog called “Making culture in Manguinhos: movements of lives in counterculture.” The researchers' speech aligns with the project's methodology, which understands the need to include local researchers as a way to better represent the reality of that region and meet inclusive criteria in science.
After the research conducted for the construction of the catalog, it was precisely the local researchers who included other cultural initiatives that could not be identified solely through online research. In addition, these researchers were essential to generate a closer relationship between the project and the community, which resulted in different editions of discussion circles, with the presence of leaders of the different social projects, who talked about their stories, providing a better understanding of the reality of that population.
The director of the FGV Applied Research and Knowledge Network, Goret Paulo, highlights that this report shows that cultural actions can increase the impact of health policies, including mental health. “When individuals gather in samba circles, reading circles, or for sports practice, they exchange numerous pieces of information about rights, society, health, among others. Also, through these conversations, there are benefits for mental health. So we realize how cultural actions can contribute to the physical and mental health of people living in vulnerable territories, and how these social interactions facilitate their survival and reinforce their identity,” she declared.
For Professor Silvia Monnerat from the FGV School of Social Sciences, who participated as a researcher in the project, it is fundamentally important to return to the neighborhood to present the results that were collectively built with the residents. “Launching the catalog in a cultural facility in the neighborhood, with the presence of initiatives that are not only part of the publication but are central to the construction, movement, and consolidation of the local cultural scene, reflects the collaborative milestone underlying the development of the project. Valuing and telling the story of these collectives and initiatives contrasts with the narrative of violence that is often related to the place, creating an opportunity for listening and exchange with those who enrich the pages of the publication.”
Partnerships and funding
Organized by Ana Paula Guljor (Fiocruz), Silvia Monnerat (FGV CPDOC), Paul Heritage (QMUL), and Paulo Amarante (Fiocruz), the Catalog originated through the Brazilian Accelerator Fund (BAF), a joint funding initiative between Fiocruz, Queen Mary, and the FGV Research Fund, aimed at building a multidisciplinary team for the development of research projects. The strategic partnership of the three institutions is characterized by the complementarity of their experiences: Fiocruz, located in the Manguinhos territory; Queen Mary, committed to being the most inclusive university in the world; and FGV, which achieved 3rd place in the ranking of the most important Think Tanks in the world and 1st place in Latin America, according to the Global Go To Think Tank Index Report by the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. Think Tank is a title given to institutions that develop studies aimed at social development and contribute to public debate through the applicability of their research.