Abstract

Our study was conducted within the scope of a broad research-participant project in vulnerable contexts of Baixada Santista, in the coastal region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, which aims at understanding the psychosocial elements of social participation and the involvement of community leaders in a local peripheral village, by pointing their strengths and weaknesses. Our article updates the reflections based on the actions to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, which has aggravated the consequences of social inequality. It also systematizes information using Atlas.ti software and analyzes them based on the perspective of Qualitative Epistemology and Thompson’s Depth Hermeneutics (DP). The results indicate that social participation happens by social organizations. On one side, the fragmentation of local forces and the strengthening of social bonds make it difficult to strengthen social participation; on the other side, awareness processes are present in the search for a common good.

Keywords:
Social Inequality; Social Vulnerability; Social Participation; Leadership; COVID-19

Introduction

The dominant ideology has ignored the scenario of poverty and the social inequalities produced by capitalism by propagating the bourgeois individualistic way of life as a parameter of the notion of success or failure, measured by the rule of meritocracy. However, the reality shows that the gap between the rich and the poor has become increasingly evident in neoliberalism - especially in Brazil, one of the champions of income inequality (WSR, 2020WSR - WORLD SOCIAL REPORT. Inequality in a rapidly changing world. New York: United Nations, 2020.), at a time when social conditions deteriorate with the precariousness of social rights and disrespect for human rights.

Patriarchy and patrimonialism (Mergen; Zanetti; Reschilian, 2018MERGEN, J.; ZANETTI, V.; RESCHILIAN, P. R. Estatuto da cidade e cidadania: reflexões sobre a participação popular e gestão democrática na revisão do plano diretor de desenvolvimento integrado de São José dos Campos/SP (2016). Revista Univap, São Paulo, v. 24, n. 46, p. 129-143, 2018.), the enslavement of Africans (Gohn, 2019GOHN, M. G. Teorias sobre a participação social: desafios para a compreensão das desigualdades sociais. Caderno CRH, Salvador, v. 32, n. 85, p. 63-81, 2019. DOI: 10.9771/ccrh.v32i85.27655
https://doi.org/10.9771/ccrh.v32i85.2765... ) and their exploitation for almost four centuries contributed to keeping the issue of social inequalities (Moura, 2019MOURA, C. Sociologia do negro brasileiro. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2019.), including the fact that, even after the abolition of slavery, this group of people could not enter the labor market due to the lack of state policies that included them as citizens.

In Brazil, participatory processes are marked by a contradiction. If the 1988 Constitution allowed the strengthening of democracy by the emergence of social movements, there is still a great challenge as for the delegitimization of these through traditional hegemonic sectors of society.

However, the social struggles touch the wounds of social inequalities that update and advance public policies. Thus, social participation becomes an important object of scientific reflection.

In our article, we propose a discussion on the aspects of social participation and political involvement of community leaders of a peripheral community of the Baixada Santista, coastal area of the state of São Paulo, by observing psychosocial elements that concern the role of socialization processes in the potentiation of collective actions.

In this perspective, we will point out some of the weaknesses and potentialities expressed in the forms of community organization and socialization, by observing the participatory processes that mark the history of struggles and practices of the current leaders, and then illustrate how the potentialities contributed to face the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, since it has intensified social inequalities in vulnerable communities due to the impossibility of observing some important aspects for the control of the pandemic (Rodrigues et al., 2020RODRIGUES, V. P. et al. Respostas à pandemia em comunidades vulneráveis: uma abordagem de simulação. Revista de Administração Pública, Rio de Janeiro, v. 54, n. 4, p. 1111-1122, 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/3cYmLB1 >. Acesso em: 18 mar. 2021.
https://bit.ly/3cYmLB1... ), due to the lack of hygiene conditions, and the difficulty of social isolation due to housing conditions and the necessary displacement for work and living activities.

We understand that social participation is defined as an action that occurs in the institutional sphere and in social movements in a parallel or simultaneous way; develops, according to its formation and character, the social and historical context, logics of internal deliberation and representation and before society and/or the State; one of its dimensions is psychosocial, and this is the focus of the concept of awareness proposed by Martín-Baró (1997), supported by Paulo Freire (1979FREIRE, P. Conscientização: teoria e prática da libertação: uma introdução ao pensamento de Paulo Freire. São Paulo: Cortez & Moraes, 1979.), which we will resume later.

Awareness, for this author, is a process characterized by different degrees of participation and political involvement, which concern the various ways of generating approximation and/or distancing between personal and collective identities that are produced in the relations of political subjects with a group, movement, collectivity or entity (Martin-Baró, 2017MARTIN-BARÓ, I. Crítica e libertação na psicologia: estudos psicossociais. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 2017.; Vieira; Ximenes, 2008VIEIRA, E. M.; XIMENES, V. M. Conscientização: em que interessa este conceito à psicologia. Psicologia Argumento, Curitiba, v. 26, n. 52, p. 23-33, 2008.). The leaders’ figures emerge from these relationships, being either more or less democratic, fostering different degrees of social participation, strengthening a certain way of reporting collective history.

The contradictions of what the Constitution founded under the aegis of Social Welfare and its operationalization become more explicit in the peripheries of capitalism, especially in countries whose origins come from colonization and patriarchalism and that have institutionalized political violence as a method of confronting movements of resistance and defense of social rights.⁷7YAGIU, H.; CASTRO-SILVA, C. R. Social participation and empowerment in vulnerable communities: scoping review. Revista Psicologia Política. To be published. 2020.

Recent literature review on social and political participation in Brazil (Delenogare; Araújo, 2018DELENOGARE, L. G. C.; ARAÚJO, M. A. D. Participação social e política no Brasil: revisão sistemática de literatura. In: CIDESP - CONGRESSO INTERNACIONAL DE DESEMPENHO DO SETOR PÚBLICO, 2., 2018, Florianópolis. Anais […]. Florianópolis, 2018. p. 1427-1447. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/3fZmujv >. Acesso em: 12 dez. 2020.
https://bit.ly/3fZmujv... ) observed that most studies seek to understand its development based on historical-cultural and political influences; different shapes, spaces and actors; of the effects produced in collective needs, emphasizing as limitations the lack of space in government agendas, the restricted institutional actions and lack of engagement of the subjects and pointing to the need to expand the relationship between society and managers, creation of forms of promotion of social participation and ways that subjects appropriate them.

According to Aguiar (2000AGUIAR, N. Patriarcado, sociedade e patrimonialismo. Sociedade e Estado, Brasília, DF, v. 15, n. 2, p. 303-330, 2000. DOI: 10.1590/S0102-69922000000200006
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-6992200000... ), one of the factors that favored the weakening of social participation movements was the legacy of Portuguese colonization, in which its leaders administered the country favoring their own interests, thus circumventing the separation between the public and the private.

These perspectives point to the need to examine and deepen the understanding of participatory processes based on the quality of bonds and intersubjective relationships.

The possibility that we find in the theorizations of socio-historical psychology regarding the valorization of the concept of affectivity approximates us to concrete experiences, makes the coexistence and life histories of subjects and groups indicators of a potential to change reality. This allows the understanding of the production of subjectivity dialectically articulated with the experiences in its social environment and emphasizes the political aspect of social participation (Sawaia, 2014SAWAIA, B. B. Transformação social: um objeto pertinente à psicologia social?. Psicologia & Sociedade , Belo Horizonte, v. 26, p. 4-17, 2014. Número especial 2. DOI: 10.1590/S0102-71822014000600002
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-7182201400... ).

According to Sawaia (2003SAWAIA, B. B. Família e afetividade: a configuração de uma práxis ético-política, perigos e oportunidades. In: ACOSTA, A. R.; VITALE, M. A. F. (Org.). Família: redes, laços e políticas públicas. São Paulo: IEE/Pusp, 2003. p. 39-50.), socio-historical psychology understands the construction of social bonds as a phenomenon that cannot be separated from the political relations established in a society that is structured around poverty and violence, in which power relations and asymmetry appear as a social pattern - even producing affections, promoting approximations and dissents at the ethical and political level.

The choice of socio-historical psychology also involves a political conception, because it has questioned and fought the colonization of social psychology by North American and European theories since its emergence in the country, showing that we can understand the singularities of our reality based on theoretical frameworks formulated in the Latin American context.

Methods

Studies⁸8These are the research projects “Social inequality and subjectivity: life trajectories and struggles for better living and health conditions in vulnerable territory of Baixada Santista” (National Council for Scientific Development (CNPq) no. 407836/2016-0 ) and “Ethics of care and construction of rights: psychosocial reception in family health practices in situations of social exclusion” (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) no. 2016-23973-2). conducted in vulnerable territories of Baixada Santista focused on the relationship between the health unit and the community, thus contributing to an expanded conception of health. Its social determinations have become an important reference for understanding the complexity of health-disease processes and care in these territories.

This methodological perspective guides our activities since 2009 and the questions that motivated the research arose from the diversified insertion of researchers in teaching, extension and research developed in line with the Pedagogical Political Project of the Unive rsidade Federal de São Paulo, Campus Baixada Santista (Unifesp/BS), in the search for meanings and shared meanings about the understanding of health, care and participatory processes in territories of social vulnerability (Anhas; Rosa; Castro-Silva, 2018ANHAS, D. M.; ROSA, K. R. M.; CASTRO-SILVA, C. R. Afetividade e práxis transformadora na pesquisa qualitativa. Psicologia & Sociedade, Recife, v. 30, e173315, 2018. DOI: 10.1590/1807-0310/2018v30173315
https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-0310/2018v3... ).

These projects allowed the emergence of others, including the master’s thesis of one of the authors, from which it was possible to update the information on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in this territory.

Since it is a study of social relations, representations and perceptions of subjects and our source is constituted by a database, we determinated the qualitative approach as the most appropriate method for understanding the object of study, because it allows systematizing the knowledge of how human beings live, feel and think. The documentary model was also adopted due to the use of primary sources and the quality of information that this method allows to be extracted from the documents, thus contributing to the understanding of the object studied.

Theoretically and methodologically, this investigation is supported by socio-historical psychology based on Marxism, with historical materialism and dialectical logic as philosophy and method, understanding the human being as a social and historical being and society as a product of the relationship between them (Bock, 2011BOCK, A. M. B. A psicologia sócio-histórica: uma perspectiva crítica em psicologia. In: BOCK, A. M. B.; GONÇALVES, M. R.; FURTADO, O. (Org.). Psicologia sócio-histórica: uma perspectiva crítica em psicologia. São Paulo: Cortez, 2011. p. 15-35.).

Construction of qualitative information: location, participants and collection of information

The community where the study was conducted is located between the Casqueiro River and the Anchieta Highway, is the second largest favela in a municipality of Baixada Santista and is built on mangroves, which shows the complexity of its urbanization, considering the preservation of the environment and living conditions. Regarding the state’s presence in the territory, it has only one mixed-model Health Unit composed of three family health teams. There is also a day care center, a church and community-based organizations.

Most of the houses are made up of stilts built close to each other and residents live with poor basic sanitation, lack of leisure and socialization options, violence of drug trafficking crime and a high rate of juvenile pregnancy (Anhas; Castro-Silva, 2017ANHAS, D. M.; CASTRO-SILVA, C. R. Participação social e subjetividade: vivências juvenis em uma comunidade vulnerável. Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, São Paulo, v. 19, n. 3, p. 139-148, 2017. DOI: 10.5935/1980-6906/psicologia.v19n3p139-148
https://doi.org/10.5935/1980-6906/psicol... ). The most recent references of the São Paulo Social Vulnerability Index place it in the very high vulnerability group - subnormal clusters (IPVS, 2018IPVS. Índice de vulnerabilidade social em Cubatão (2018). Disponível em: Disponível em: https://bit.ly/2Rj03ex . Acesso em: 12 dez. 2020.
https://bit.ly/2Rj03ex... ).

According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2010IBGE - INSTITUTO BRASILEIRO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. Setor 351350405000136: síntese dos dados. Censo 2010, Rio de Janeiro, 2010. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/323K4Db >. Acesso em: 8 abr. 2021.
https://bit.ly/323K4Db... ), its estimated population is 128,748 inhabitants, and of these, 57.9.1% are brown and 8% black; its main economic activity is the petrochemical industries installed in the 1950s, which place it, according to the survey by the Municipal Information Observatory (Bremaeker, 2019BREMAEKER, F. E. J. Os municípios bilionários em 2018. Rio de Janeiro: Observatório de Informações Municipais (OIM), 2019. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/2OBsDXD >. Acesso em: 12 dez. 2020.
https://bit.ly/2OBsDXD... ), among the richest municipalities in the country with an annual budget revenue of more than R$ 1 billion (Carro, 2020CARRO, R. Uma em cada três cidades com orçamento maior que R$ 1 bilhão está em São Paulo. O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, 17 set. 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://glo.bo/2PDzwsd >. Acesso em: 12 dez. 2020.
https://glo.bo/2PDzwsd... ). However, according to Anhas (2019ANHAS, D. M. Construção e fortalecimento de redes de sociabilidade comunitária entre jovens moradores da periferia cubatense. 2019. Tese (Doutorado em Ciências da Saúde) - Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Santos, 2019), 54.02% of its population lives and resides in precarious or risky conditions.

For this study, we analyzed a database composed of information collected between June 2017 and October 2019 in five workshops, twenty-four field diaries, and in-depth interviews with four leaders (three women and one man). One of them works in a philanthropic institution in the community, another is retired and supplements her income with an on-site grocery store, one is retired and the other works in fishing and other occasional works. All have incomplete basic level of schooling and age between 30 and 65 years.

The techniques used were: research of official data and document analysis; thematic workshops; formation of research groups for in-depth interviews; participant observation and field diaries. The formation of research groups occurred in four stages from the meetings for the presentation of the project, by the formation of the research group to the development of research and discussions of the results.

The interviews and workshops were recorded and transcribed according to the Informed Consent Form approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of São Paulo - CEP/Unifesp no. 66235417.3.0000.5505, no. 68720217.8.0000.5505 and CEP no. 2,108,711 and no. 2,198,202.

In a later stage of updating the reflections due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, semi-structured distance interviews were conducted with community leaders via cross-platform messaging applications (WhatsApp, Telegram) or communication software (Skype, Zoom). The interviews were recorded according to the Informed Consent Form approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal de São Paulo - CEP/UNIFESP no. 4,530,562 and stored in digital files for study and analysis. Audio transcription was not necessary, since the management software allows the inclusion of audio files.

Information management and analysis

Information were organized and managed by the researcher himself using the Atlas.ti software and analyzed according to Depth Hermeneutics methodology (Demo, 2012DEMO, P. Pesquisa e informação qualitativa: aportes metodológicos. Campinas, SP: Papirus. 2012.; Thompson, 2000THOMPSON, J. B. Ideologia e cultura moderna: teoria social crítica na era dos meios de comunicação de massa. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes ., 2000.).

In the data analysis, we associate Qualitative Epistemology (González-Rey, 2011GONZÁLEZ-REY, F. Pesquisa qualitativa em psicologia: caminhos e desafios. São Paulo: Cengage Learning, 2011.), which comprises the guiding references of the analyses, as part of a continuous process of deepening the information, valuing the implication and the creativity of the researcher and favoring the emergence of new theorizations.

Results and discussion

We analyzed the narratives of community leaders in participatory processes that mark the history of struggles for the improvement of living conditions, pointing out some potentialities and weaknesses expressed in the forms of community organization and socialization, and presented some issues contextualized by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weaknesses expressed in the forms of organization and socialization and in the participatory processes of community leaders

Social participation is materialized as a collective force “that grows in power as it is shaped by the different reliefs and contours, valuing the modes and moments of the communities in which it is produced” (Costa; Castro-Silva, 2015COSTA, S. L.; CASTRO-SILVA, C. R. Afeto, memória, luta, participação e sentidos de comunidade. Pesquisas e Práticas Psicossociais, São João del-Rei, v. 10, n. 2, p. 283-291, 2015. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/3wMzuyX >. Acesso em: 12 dez. 2020.
https://bit.ly/3wMzuyX... , p. 288), whose quality is associated with the possibility of forming bonds with the objective of claiming or creating affirmative forms of overcoming the violation of rights (Costa; Castro-Silva, 2015COSTA, S. L.; CASTRO-SILVA, C. R. Afeto, memória, luta, participação e sentidos de comunidade. Pesquisas e Práticas Psicossociais, São João del-Rei, v. 10, n. 2, p. 283-291, 2015. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/3wMzuyX >. Acesso em: 12 dez. 2020.
https://bit.ly/3wMzuyX... : Gohn, 2019GOHN, M. G. Teorias sobre a participação social: desafios para a compreensão das desigualdades sociais. Caderno CRH, Salvador, v. 32, n. 85, p. 63-81, 2019. DOI: 10.9771/ccrh.v32i85.27655
https://doi.org/10.9771/ccrh.v32i85.2765... ; Lavalle, 2011LAVALLE, A. G. Participação: valor, utilidade, efeitos e causa. In: PIRES, R. R. (Org.). Efetividade nas instituições participativas no Brasil: estratégias de avaliação. Brasília, DF: Ipea, 2011. p. 33-43.). However, the lack of connection and mobilization of people represents one of the great difficulties.

In this line, gossip has a prominent role. For Elias and Scotson (2000ELIAS, N.; SCOTSON, J. L. Os estabelecidos e os outsiders. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2000.), gossip is phenomena whose dynamics explain norms, beliefs and relationships of a community, whether derogatory or complimentary; they are faces of the same coin, serving to affirm a dominant opinion, consolidate or undo relationships, move away or bring people together, being, therefore, a powerful tool in communication and instrument of social control. In this case, gossip plays a rather negative role in the bonds between the people of the community.

In the process of socialization and community organization, violence has contributed to the blurring of the social fabric. Among these, the organization of drug trafficking has interfered in the daily dynamics by dictating rules of conduct and coexistence (Medeiros; Sapori, 2010MEDEIROS, R.; SAPORI, L. F. (Org.). Crack: um desafio social. Belo Horizonte: Editora PUC-MG, 2010.). In this territory, the leaders note the influence of trafficking in the organization of community dynamics.

The minimization of the presence of the State causing situations of social helplessness (Dimenstein; Cyril Neto, 2020DIMENSTEIN, M.; CIRILO NETO, M. Abordagens conceituais da vulnerabilidade no âmbito da saúde e assistência social. Pesquisas e Práticas Psicossociais , São João del-Rei, v. 15, n. 1, e2935, 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/2Rl02H9 >. Acesso em: 16 fev. 2021.
https://bit.ly/2Rl02H9... ) favors the installation and growth of drug trafficking organizations and the consequent violence, which is a problem difficult to solve in practical and ideological terms, according to Zaluar (1997ZALUAR, A. Exclusão e políticas públicas: dilemas teóricos e alternativas políticas. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, São Paulo, v. 12, n. 35, p. 21-32, 1997.).

The aforementioned weaknesses are part of a context of extreme poverty and lack of basic sanitation that daily endanger the physical and mental health of the inhabitants, a condition that generates a feeling of humiliation and aggravates suffering, since the place where people live reflects in their own dignity, as described in the book Quarto de despejo (Jesus, 2007JESUS, C. M. Quarto de despejo. São Paulo: Ática, 2007.).

Potentialities expressed in the forms of organization and socialization and in the participatory processes of community leaders

According to Martin-Baró (2017)MARTIN-BARÓ, I. Crítica e libertação na psicologia: estudos psicossociais. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 2017., the perception of social injustices triggers a process of awareness, which, combined with subjective and intersubjective resources can awaken different forms of confrontation. Also according to Martin-Baró (1997)MARTIN-BARÓ, I. O papel do psicólogo. Estudos de Psicologia, Natal, v. 2, n. 1, p. 7-27, 1997. DOI: 10.1590/S1413-294X1997000100002
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-294X199700... , as it gradually decodes the world around, the subject captures the oppression and dehumanization mechanisms, thus transforming the consciousness that perceives the situation as natural and opening the horizons to new possibilities.

The human being is transformed as he modifies the reality, being a dialectical process that, according to the author, can only happen with dialogue between the subjects (Martin-Baró, 1997MARTIN-BARÓ, I. O papel do psicólogo. Estudos de Psicologia, Natal, v. 2, n. 1, p. 7-27, 1997. DOI: 10.1590/S1413-294X1997000100002
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-294X199700... ; Montero, 2010MONTERO, M. Crítica, autocrítica y construcción de teoría en la psicología social latinoamericana. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, Bogotá, DC, v. 19, n. 2, p. 177-191, 2010. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/3mwUV1T >. Acesso em: 6 dez. 2020.
https://bit.ly/3mwUV1T... ).

The awareness of a situation of deprivation leads a group of people to organize themselves to claim their rights or to create solutions, a group that mobilizes begins to demand better living conditions. As pointed out by Touraine (2007TOURAINE, A. O mundo das mulheres. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes ., 2007.), since they have lived male domination in their lives, women may take more general actions for the recomposition of life.

The active presence of female leaders from the beginning, based on awareness processes, has opened possibilities for a new praxis, including by effectively participating in the organization and collective mobilization in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the intensifying effects of social inequalities

A large part of the population that had already suffered from the lack of fundamental rights had the situation aggravated by the investment cuts proposed by PEC 241, which justified the containment of social programs that had been fighting enormous social inequalities by assuming that the country’s economic problems are caused by public spending, directly putting social rights at risk (Fiocruz, 2016FIOCRUZ - FUNDAÇÃO OSWALDO CRUZ. Fiocruz divulga carta A PEC 241 e os impactos sobre direitos sociais, a saúde e a vida. Portal Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 2016. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://bit.ly/2Q8ad0Y >. Acesso em: 15 mar. 2021.
https://bit.ly/2Q8ad0Y... ).

In this context, the covid-19 pandemic arrived in Brazil in 2020¹⁰10On February 26, 2020, the first case was confirmed in Brazil in the city of São Paulo (Croda; Garcia, 2020)., whose advance explained the consequences of social inequality by affecting more directly the populations with greater difficulties of putting into practice isolation and social distancing due to the need to fight for survival and the housing precariousness (Caponi, 2020CAPONI, S. Covid-19 no Brasil: entre o negacionismo e a razão neoliberal. Estudos Avançados, São Paulo, v. 34, n. 99, p. 209-224, 2020.; Santos, 2020SANTOS, B. S. A cruel pedagogia do vírus. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2020.). In this case, as explained by Nakamura e Silva (2020NAKAMURA, E.; SILVA, C. G. O contexto da pandemia do covid-19: desigualdades sociais, vulnerabilidade e caminhos possíveis. In: GROSSI, M. P.; TONIOL, R. (Org.). Cientistas sociais e o coronavírus. São Paulo: Anpocs, 2020. p. 154-158. , p. 156),

On the other hand, we see the “establishment of networks of solidarity, community initiatives and responses that, as in other health challenges already experienced, are fundamental links in the construction of answers that have required us to have uninterrupted reflections” (Nakamura; Silva, 2020NAKAMURA, E.; SILVA, C. G. O contexto da pandemia do covid-19: desigualdades sociais, vulnerabilidade e caminhos possíveis. In: GROSSI, M. P.; TONIOL, R. (Org.). Cientistas sociais e o coronavírus. São Paulo: Anpocs, 2020. p. 154-158. , p. 157), as happened in this community, which, despite all the stress, counted on the solidarity of the residents, which is a necessary cooperation to face the minimization of the presence of democratic institutions.

The leaders were also able to organize themselves to fight the spread of the virus by raising awareness among residents, by using technological resources offered, and partnering with companies and organizations to obtain the necessary items for protection.

Aggregating social participation and collective work has allowed leaders to make themselves subjects of history and assume the role that the neoliberal capitalist state is failing to fulfill. They know that, as Scaramboni reminds us (2020SCARAMBONI, K. ColetiVIDAdes em tempos de pandemia. In: SAWAIA, B.B. et al. (Org.). Expressões da pandemia . São Paulo: Nexin/Nepam , 2020. v. 5, p. 10-14. , p. 14), “the importance of lives lies in the actions built by the collectivisms, which insist on living and fostering society projects that imply not in the extermination of people, but in the end of inequalities”. They face adversities as they can, despite the set of affections that the pandemic is triggering and intensifying, especially the negative ones, generating psychic suffering, such as fear, anger, envy, and longing. However, they also trigger hope, “a constant partner (fear nourishes hope and hope allows us to live in spite of fear)” (Sawaia, 2020SAWAIA, B. B. Apresentação. In: SAWAIA, B. B. et al. (Org.). Expressões da pandemia. São Paulo: Nexin/Nepam, 2020. v. 5, p. 4-8. , p. 4).

In this regard, Scaramboni (2020SCARAMBONI, K. ColetiVIDAdes em tempos de pandemia. In: SAWAIA, B.B. et al. (Org.). Expressões da pandemia . São Paulo: Nexin/Nepam , 2020. v. 5, p. 10-14. , p. 11) emphasizes that:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought more than just medical and epidemiological consequences, for example: the social, political and economic effects, causing an intensification of existing precariousness such as poverty, vulnerability by the absence of fundamental rights, the unhealthiness of housing, besides the lack of either state interventions or private investments, bringing numerous challenges for leaders in a moment when the emergency aid ends in the country.

Final considerations

We found that community leaders have a history of achievements related to improvements in living conditions despite the existence of what are considered weaknesses, such as the current lack of mobilization existing in the community, the demotivating perception of corruption and the disarticulation between the leaders and violence of the drug trafficking organization.

Despite the existence of potentialities such as the processes of awareness, organization and dialogue with the community to achieve some objectives - such as the creation of the Mothers’ Club and the organization of an institute against the pit (ISAC) - most actions have not yet resulted in an implementation of public rights and policies of health, education, assistance or culture.

The precariousness of living conditions in the community, accentuated by the presence of the pandemic, triggers social participation, since this becomes a concrete need today. The question is: how to foster social participation beyond voluntarism?

The selective presence of the State in this and other communities has given rise to new movements of social participation, actors and leaders. The church and trafficking emerged, both fulfilling different functions, but often acting in a common field: assistance.

We found that making people appropriate the territory is one of the great challenges, thus boosting democratic and participatory processes aimed at combating the injustices and sufferings of populations put on the sidelines by an institutionalization, whose origins date back to colonialism and patriarchy that mark the origins of our country.

These processes can advance public policies and lead the State to a path of greater social equity by denouncing social inequalities, being, therefore, an important object of scientific research and reflection.

Our study has the gap related to the development of other themes related to the phenomenon of social participation, such as: overcoming assistance and voluntarism; gender issues, considering the leading role of women in this community; the aspects that lead to leadership in this community and the role that the State plays in vulnerable communities.

These issues remain as themes of desirable future investigation with the purpose of contributing to the necessary confrontation of inequalities.

Acknowledgements

We thank the reviewers of the journal for careful reading and for the contribution that improved our text.

References

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