Abstract

The article aims to present results of a research that mapped communication technologies and arrangements designed and directed toward vulnerable populations in the territory of the Federal District (DF), Brazil, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research, which integrated a multicentric investigation, has a qualitative approach and was structured in five stages: virtual mapping of experiences; interviews with their leaders; individual and cross-sectional analysis of empirical material; collective validation of the results by virtual sessions and construction of a thematic map of the experiences. Fourteen initiatives on COVID-19 were mapped in the DF that had a communicational component and were aimed at the population of peripheral territories, with ten being selected for in-depth analysis.The respective leaders were interviewed, composing a thematic cartographic panorama of technologies and communication arrangements: life stories; “word of mouth”; network joints; in-person and organic communication; cards; advocacy; digital social networks; use of territorial equipment as communication tools; independent digital community newspaper; apps; solidarity network and community TV. The commitment of communication strategies and technologies regarding local realities, respecting the characteristics of communities, is highlighted, pointing to a crucial difference in relation to the predominant communication about the pandemic in public health institutions.

Keywords:
COVID-19; Health Communication; Health Education; Vulnerable Populations

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic, the first of the twenty-first century, represented a poignant contemporary health challenge (Bueno et al., 2021BUENO, F.T.C. et al. Notas sobre a trajetória da Covid-19 no Brasil. In: MATTA, G.C.M. et al (Org.). Os impactos sociais da Covid-19 no Brasil: populações vulnerabilizadas e respostas à pandemia. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz, 2021.). In parallel with the impacts caused by SARS-CoV-2 on the populations’ health at a global level, an “infodemic” also occurred-an exponential and excessive multiplication of production and circulation of information related to the virus and the disease, aimed at large audiences, which was, mostly, a disinformation generator (WHO, 2020WHO - WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. An ad hoc WHO technical consultation managing the COVID-19 infodemic: call for action. Geneva, 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1302999/retrieve >. Acesso em: 20 ago 2022.
https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstream... ).

In Brazil, social inequality has amplified the harmful COVID-19 effects in vulnerable populations, understood as population groups at greater risk of health problems as a result of the obstacles they face in accessing social, economic, political, and environmental resources. Skin color, address, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, and ethnic and cultural origin are also vulnerability determinants. We adopted, like Oliveira (2018OLIVEIRA, R. G. Práticas de saúde em contextos de vulnerabilização e negligência de doenças, sujeitos e territórios: potencialidades e contradições na atenção à saúde de pessoas em situação de rua. Saúde e Sociedade, São Paulo, v. 27, n. 1, p. 37-50, 2018. DOI: 10.1590/S0104-12902018170915a
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-1290201817... ), the terms vulnerable and vulnerabilization, instead of vulnerability, in alignment with the notion of social determination of the health-disease process.

As highlighted by Matta et al. (2021MATTA, G. C. M. et al. A Covid-19 no Brasil e as Várias Faces da Pandemia: apresentação. In: MATTA, G. C. M. et al (Org.). Os impactos sociais da Covid-19 no Brasil: populações vulnerabilizadas e respostas à pandemia. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz, 2021. p. 15-26.), the global scale of COVID-19 does not reflect a universal and homogeneous phenomenon. Understanding the pandemic in different contexts, places and languages exposes the issue multiplicity and specificity, from its macro-social to daily consequences (Matta et al., 2021MATTA, G. C. M. et al. A Covid-19 no Brasil e as Várias Faces da Pandemia: apresentação. In: MATTA, G. C. M. et al (Org.). Os impactos sociais da Covid-19 no Brasil: populações vulnerabilizadas e respostas à pandemia. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz, 2021. p. 15-26.). In this sense, vulnerabilization processes encourage us to think about local contexts, scenarios in which the scourges of inequalities develop and increase socio-spatial precariousness (Lima et al., 2021LIMA A. L. S. L. et al. Covid-19 nas favelas: cartografia das desigualdades. In: MATTA, G. C. M. et al. (Org.). Os impactos sociais da Covid-19 no Brasil: populações vulnerabilizadas e respostas à pandemia. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz, 2021. p. 111-122.).

However, the pandemic experience increased proliferation of communication initiatives from scientific and health institutions based on hierarchical structures that are not very participatory and collaborative (Nacif; Coqueiro, 2022NACIF, M. A.; COQUEIRO, J.M. Comunicação rizomática: reflexões sobre os movimentos de resistência em tempos da Covid-19. Saúde em debate, Rio de janeiro, v. 46, n. 132, p. 200-210, 2022. DOI: 10.1590/0103-1104202213214
https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-11042022132... ).

Therefore, the following question arises: how did these vulnerable populations face the COVID-19 pandemic without having adequate information for their contexts? This reflection led to the conduction of multicentric research in five regional nuclei-the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Pernambuco, Paraíba, and the Federal District. The results presented in this article refer to the research carried out in the Federal District.

The Federal District (DF) is the most unequal federation unit in the country in relation to household income per individual, according to the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNUD), from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2021IBGE - INSTITUTO BRASILEIRO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua: notas técnicas versão 1.8. Rio de Janeiro, 2021. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv101733_notas_tecnicas.pdf >. Acesso em: 29 de agosto de 2021.
https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualiza... ). However, the enormous difference regarding the living conditions between people who live in Brasília-within the territorial boundaries of the allegorical wings of the plane designed by Lúcio Costa, or in its vicinity, and those who live in satellite cities- is not new. Schvarsberg (2017SCHVARSBERG, B. A carroça ao lado do avião: o direito à cidade metropolitana em Brasília. Cadernos Metrópole. São Paulo, v. 19, n. 38, p. 313-334, 2017. DOI: 10.1590/2236-9996.2017-3813
https://doi.org/10.1590/2236-9996.2017-3... ) uses the metaphor of the wagon coexisting with the plane to analyze the conformation of territories and peripheries around the DF since the construction of the city that would become the country’s capital. In addition to stimulating the emergence of peripheries and the populations that inhabit them, territorial and social exclusion in the construction of Brasília created a diffuse feeling of belonging among the residents of these areas of the state of Goiás to the plane territory.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, these vulnerable territories saw the emergence of coping initiatives by individuals and collectives. Many of these communication strategies created were presented in a series of workshops with popular communicators, organized by Fiocruz-Brasília, in 2020 (Oliveira-Costa, 2020OLIVEIRA-COSTA, M. Comunicadores populares do DF participaram de oficina online com a Fiocruz Brasília. Fiocruz Brasília, Brasília, DF, jun. 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www.fiocruzbrasilia.fiocruz.br/comunicadores-populares-do-df-participaram-de-oficina-online-com-a-fiocruz-brasilia/ >. Acesso em: 29 ago 2022.
https://www.fiocruzbrasilia.fiocruz.br/c... ). This survey not only highlighted the existence of these countless ways of communicating beyond health institutions, but also the need for us to learn more in depth about how they are organized, with the aim of learning from these experiences and seeking to advance institutional Communication and Health practices, which are to this day predominantly anchored in models from the 1960s-1970s, authoritarian in nature, merely transference-based, and without attention to contexts. In this sense, our research was based on the assumption that mapping initiatives like these can help health institutions in formulating policies that are more recognized and accepted by the population.

The terms technology and arrangement, which name the object of the research and its main objective, give rise to a brief explanation. It is not our intention to discuss the numerous possibilities for conceptualizing technology, which range from macro-processes and sets of knowledge with which we can satisfy our needs to the way specific instruments are produced and the instrument itself. Here, in a restricted and even figurative way, we mean technology as the devices that allow the achievement of an objective, in this case, the communication objective. Therefore, it is not only physical, digital or analog devices, but also relational processes. Arrangements are the ways found by communities to achieve their communication objectives, which combine different technologies, digital or with physical anchorage in territories according to local needs and possibilities.

Therefore, the article aims to present results of research that mapped technologies and communication arrangements produced and targeted at vulnerable populations in the territory of the Federal District-Brazil, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on these populations’ creative dialogues.

Methodology

This is a qualitative research, composed of a thematic cartography. This cartographic modality considers, in addition to fixed territorial points, more specific socio-spatial elements, such as elements of a subjective and abstract nature, mixing quantitative and qualitative data (Duarte, 1991DUARTE, P. A. Conceituação de Cartografia Temática. GEOSUL, Florianópolis, v. 6, n. 11, 1991.). The research was organized into five stages:

The research was approved by the Ethics Committee and all participants signed the Informed Consent Form, respecting all ethical procedures described in the resolutions of the National Health Council (CNS) no. 466/2012 and no. 510/2016 (Brasil, 2016BRASIL. Resolução Nº 510, de 07 de abril de 2016. Dispõe sobre as normas aplicáveis a pesquisas em ciências humanas e sociais. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Saúde, 2016.; ²⁰¹²BRASIL. Resolução Nº 466, de 12 de dezembro de 2012. Dispõe sobre diretrizes e normas regulamentadoras de pesquisas envolvendo seres humanos. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Saúde, 2012.).

Results and discussion

Initially, 14 DF initiatives related to community and peripheral activities that had some communication component about COVID-19 aimed at the community in their practices were mapped via the internet. This first survey was based on monitoring popular communication movements during the pandemic on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube live transmissions, Google searches, WhatsApp groups and the experiences of researchers in third sector organizations, cultural centers and collectives and social institutions that acted/act to combat COVID-19. After a first analysis, 10 experiences that met the scope of the study were selected, briefly described below:

The respective leaders of these 10 experiences were contacted and interviewed. The empirical material resulting from the mapping of initiatives, transcription of interviews, and validation with the subjects was analyzed and categorized. Its synthesis allowed us to identify the main strategies, technologies and communication arrangements produced/used by these collectives, as shown in Figure 1:

Network communication, more than ever, has become a fundamental integrated circuit for dealing with practical issues within communities. Popular communication, during the pandemic, needed to be articulated as a network in peripheral territories in a process of facing a series of challenges, in a country that still suffers from inequalities and a lack of digital literacy in the peripheries. The strength of connections with online and off-line tools, digital and analog element, attentive listening to demands, and solidarity were fundamental in addressing the most vulnerable population’s demands in a way that tried to alleviate the social grievences of inequality that have intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, the mapped communication technologies give shape to this network in different uses by the experiences, as will be detailed below.

Digital social networks

In general, all experiences have profiles on social networks-such as Instagram and Facebook-with the aim of disseminating important information and work carried out by the groups, via texts, cards, podcasts, art, and articles. During the pandemic, social networks and WhatsApp groups acted as central communication channels with the population, facilitating the dissemination of preventive information (whether official information or proprietary content), in addition to enabling fundraising and donations to finance solidarity actions for the communities in which they operate.

Live transmissions on digital platforms that have become popular around the world (Neves et al., 2021NEVES, V. N. S. et al. Utilização de lives como ferramenta de educação em saúde durante a pandemia pela COVID-19. Educação & Sociedade, Campinas, v. 42, 2021. DOI: 10.1590/ES.240176
https://doi.org/10.1590/ES.240176... ) were used by some collectives as a communication device to debate central issues to communities, such as health education on COVID-19, domestic violence, mental health, unemployment, and cultural presentations, among others.

The increasing spread of fake news related to COVID-19 on social media, promoting the discredit of science and health institutions (Galhardi et al., 2020GALHARDI, C. P. et al. Fato ou Fake? Uma análise da desinformação frente à pandemia da Covid-19 no Brasil. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, Rio de Janeiro, v. 25, n. suppl 2, p. 4201-4210, 2020. DOI: 10.1590/1413-812320202510.2.28922020
https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232020251... ), as well as the distancing of pandemic prevention official recommendations from poorer Brazilians’ daily possibilities (Oliveira-Costa; Fernandes; Vasconcelos, 2022OLIVEIRA-COSTA, M. S.; FERNANDES, M. F. M.; VASCONCELOS, W. O recado está dado: a COVID-19 e suas repercussões para a comunicação em saúde nas instituições públicas. Cadernos Ibero-Americanos de Direito Sanitário, Brasília, DF, v. 11, n. 2, p. 175-182, 2022. DOI: 10.17566/ciads.v11i2.923
https://doi.org/10.17566/ciads.v11i2.923... ) formed a backdrop for the collectives’ actions via digital social networks, increasing the relevance of their actions on these platforms, as in other spaces. For example, online periodicals, such as Portal Canário and Diário de Ceilândia, transmitted official information from health agencies in their newspapers using an accessible language, acting as important knowledge translators for the peripheral DF population. The discursive circulation of diverse information, understandable by vulnerable populations, via digital media, was not only well received but also enhanced physical-based actions. And as observed by the collectives’ coordinators, this was only possible because it was enhanced by the relationship of trust established between the actors, built on this proximity, and by listening to the public, experiencing their needs and knowledge.

Territorial facilities as communication instruments

In relation to people living on the streets (PLS), in-person and oral contact in the territory was identified by two experiences (No Setor and Rede Barba na Rua) as the most predominant and effective strategy. At the same time, there are territorial facilities that act as communication instruments, such as the community vegetable garden and the public bathroom, managed by the residents themselves with the help from Coletivo No Setor. The vegetable garden works as a “dialogue handling” that, based on on-site actions, encourages conversations and bridges communication with PLS. The public bathroom also functions as a meeting point, where they fixed posters with preventive guidelines about COVID-19 and requirement to use masks when in the place. Thus, micro-structural mechanisms of action are created within the community, based on orality and popular customs, in addition to living examples-upon seeing volunteers from the collectives wearing masks, the community was encouraged to wear them as well.

The presence of territorial facilities as physical places and symbolic communication spaces was considered one of the most important findings of the research in the DF nucleus, highlighting the frequent devaluation and invisibility of these places as communication and organic communication spaces. thus, we understand that institutionally created means are of-ten decontextualized and have no relationship with local practices and cultures.

The complex mosaic of social exclusion and fragility of rights that result in the PLS reality, in general, ends up strengthening the logic of charity as a strategy for social “reckoning,” giving subjects a place of passivity, like that which Silva et al (2021SILVA S.S. et al. Coletivo Nós Nas Ruas e Programa Corra Pro Abraço: ações para o enfrentamento da Covid-19 em Salvador, BA, Brasil. Interface, Botucatu, v. 25, n. Supl. 1, 2021. DOI: 10.1590/interface.200690
https://doi.org/10.1590/interface.200690... ) addressed in another analytical context. At the same time, the scarcity of educational and communication technologies aimed at PLS reinforces this exclusionary stigma, making it essential to develop participatory communication strategies with these subjects-such as offering sensitive listening, development, and validation of materials such as posters, illustrations, and serial albums (Aragão et al., 2022ARAGÃO, C. P. et al. Validação de álbum seriado sobre redução de danos para pessoas em situação de rua. Saúde e Sociedade, São Paulo, v. 31, n. 1, e200939, 2022. DOI: 10.1590/S0104-12902022200939
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-1290202220... ). It is in this same line of thought that using local territorial facilities for communication purposes, as done by No Setor and Rede Barba na Rua collectives, reveals itself to be emancipatory and pertinent in the face of this scenario of poignant inequalities that PLS experience first-hand.

Advocacy articulation practice

Practicing advocacy is to articulate towards and pressure public entities, aiming to defend a cause or change in the political sphere, in order to claim a problem resolution or a right guarantee (Hermsdorff et al., 2020HERMSDORFF, H. H. et al. Advocacy e controle social na saúde. Viçosa: RENOB-MG, 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www.ippds.ufv.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Controle-Social-e-Advocacy-2.pdf >. Acesso em: 10 ago 2022.
https://www.ippds.ufv.br/wp-content/uplo... ).

Distrito Drag practices advocacy, which, in the pandemic context, was aimed at welcoming the LGBTQIAP+ population who had suffered violence or family rejection, as well as at the creation of an Emergency Support Fund for LGBTs, from which there would be (as in fact there was) the formation of a solidarity network, also guiding the community to submit support notices and promoting awards on online events.

In order to inform organizations, the press, and public opinion about the difficulties faced by PLS during the pandemic, other experiences, such as No Setor and Rede Barba na Rua, also used advocacy as a communication articulation and promotion to public debate, even if they did not name the experience as such. These collectives cover, in an extensive manner, the indispensable condition of society involvement, which is highlighted by Hermsdorff et al. (2020HERMSDORFF, H. H. et al. Advocacy e controle social na saúde. Viçosa: RENOB-MG, 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www.ippds.ufv.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Controle-Social-e-Advocacy-2.pdf >. Acesso em: 10 ago 2022.
https://www.ippds.ufv.br/wp-content/uplo... ) as way to develop a successful advocacy strategy. The importance of this practice on the part of the collectives participating in the research becomes more evident if we consider that, despite being a Unified Health System (SUS) organizational guideline, the population’s participation in the construction of public policies has been far from ideal, especially if we consider dialogue with the most vulnerable populations, such as PLS.

Strategic cards pack

RUAS collective highlights the relevance of using arrangements that include an overlap of different paths, languages, and aesthetics to communicate with different social groups. In this sense, it highlights the production of a “pack” of a maximum of 10 information cards, shared in strategic groups on WhatsApp and Telegram.

Thus, one seeks a dynamic and objective manner to address important issues (such as childcare assistance, preventive measures for COVID-19, financial assistance, etc.), with quick messages and visual resources.

By opting for the card pack, a resource typically suited to the current practice on the digital world of fast and highly image-based texts, the collective appears to be in tune with recent analyses of these discursive environments, which have become, as Abreu et al. point out (2021ABREU, N. R. F. O.; CARVALHO, A. L. B. Avanços e desafios da comunicação digital em saúde na era da pandemia. Revista APS, Juiz de Fora, v. 24, n. Supl 1, p. 165-184, 2021. DOI: 10.34019/1809-8363.2021.v24.35190
https://doi.org/10.34019/1809-8363.2021.... ), spaces for participation and construction of care and knowledge, which are globally crucial for combating the coronavirus. Or, as another study (Freitas et al., 2021FREITAS, V. P. et al. Produção de redes sociais digitais como estratégia de educação em saúde no contexto da pandemia da COVID-19. Revista APS, Juiz de Fora, v. 24, n. 3, p. 617-627, 2021. DOI: 10.34019/1809-8363.2021.v24.33965
https://doi.org/10.34019/1809-8363.2021.... ) explains based on Instagram analysis, collectives seek to generate greater people’s interest and engagement by using more direct and visual formats, thus discarding the use of long texts. Likewise, Abreu et al. (2021ABREU, N. R. F. O.; CARVALHO, A. L. B. Avanços e desafios da comunicação digital em saúde na era da pandemia. Revista APS, Juiz de Fora, v. 24, n. Supl 1, p. 165-184, 2021. DOI: 10.34019/1809-8363.2021.v24.35190
https://doi.org/10.34019/1809-8363.2021.... ) state that short videos on social networks, such as TikTok, had better repercussions among users.

Software application

The Guardiões da Saúde [Guardians of Health] application was created to identify possible epidemiological outbreaks in Brazil and around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, resources are focused on monitoring cases in the UnB academic community, as well as producing and making general bulletins available based on the data obtained. Thus, “Guardiões” become a reliable source of information for the academic community, carrying out campaigns and developing active surveillance and partnerships with other universities.

It is observed that, in a pandemic context, access to information-a basic citizen right-also appears as a way of coping with a crisis, as it influences individual and collective decisions (Article 19, 2020ARTIGO 19. 8 anos Lei de acesso à informação: transparência para superar a crise. São Paulo, 2020. Disponível em: <https://artigo19.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/24/files/2020/05/RelatorioAcessoInformacaoCrise2020.pdf>. Acesso em: 01 ago. 2022.
https://artigo19.org/wp-content/blogs.di... ). In this sense, the technological development of a piece of software, initially designed for other objectives, acts as a relevant communication initiative, as it highlights how quick responses were adopted in order to guarantee access to quality information and combat the health crisis. This scenario was presented by Valentim et al. (2021VALENTIM, R. A. M. et al. The relevance a technology ecosystem in the brazilian national health service’s Covid-19 response: The case of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Ciência e Saúde Coletiva, Rio de Janeiro, v. 26, n. 6, p. 2035-2052, 2021. DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232021266.44122020
https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232021266... ), which showed the relationship between the use of digital technologies in the field of health communication and their ability to bring about the pandemic control, demonstrating the importance of encouraging the development of health technologies.

Community TV program

Barba na Rua, a weekly TV program, promotes communication with the general population, mainly related to the agendas of vulnerable communities and PLS in the DF and surrounding areas. Coordinated by Rogério Barba, who lived on the streets until 2014, the program guarantees the participation of citizens and representatives from public authorities, composing an agenda for raising public and private resources, as well as sharing quick and direct information for situations of disappearances, aid, collection of warm clothing, and distribution of food.

According to Peruzzo (2008PERUZZO, C. M. K. Televisão comunitária: mobilização social para democratizar a comunicação no Brasil. Em Questão, Porto Alegre, v. 14, n. 2, p. 177-189, 2008.), community TV programs have the potential to bring a non-hegemonic agenda, built according to their communities’ perspectives and needs. In this way, the creation of plural broadcasters is enabled and, consequently, dialogue is promoted with different populations, unlike what happens in the mainstream media, in which specific classes are perpetuated only as message receivers and the information shared is determined by market logic (Peruzzo, 2008PERUZZO, C. M. K. Televisão comunitária: mobilização social para democratizar a comunicação no Brasil. Em Questão, Porto Alegre, v. 14, n. 2, p. 177-189, 2008.).

“Word of mouth” and organic and in-person communication

Local and interpersonal communication was a fundamental alternative for the process of building communication that could dialogue with people in territories that suffered the most from COVID-19 pandemic impacts, given that public health and assistance policies were unable to respond to the emergencies arising from this new health crisis context.

For example, in the experiences reported by No Setor and the Rede de Solidariedade Barba na Rua collectives-whose actions during the pandemic were almost exclusively directed at and together with PLS-“word of mouth” is the most effective tool as a communication instrument. It is important to note that, in this context, some printed materials promoting preventive measures and other content have proven to be ineffective, as they often become hygiene materials at the end of the night for PLS, corroborating the importance of using orality and highlighting it as a basic-but often underestimated-communication technology that can articulate with the reality of the community in question.

Another good example is Casa Akotirene which, despite having social networks, 90% of its audience is female, women from the local community in Ceilândia (DF) who do not have Instagram and Facebook and, therefore, advertisements made on the Internet did not reach them. Therefore, the communication technology of “word of mouth,” dialogues through the gates and even WhatsApp, which occurs through in-person activities and meetings, emerged as a mode of communication for those who are not on social media. Furthermore, the female leaders’ role, together with awareness-raising communication processes, expanded the possibilities of a new praxis of collective mobilization, as also pointed out by Yagiu et al. (2021YAGIU, H. et al. Social participation of community leaders in a context of social inequality and in the coping of the covid-19 pandemic: A psychosocial approach. Saúde e Sociedade, São Paulo, v. 30, n. 2, 2021.).

Similarly, community experiences such as the Coletivo Nós por Nós highlighted the relevance of using more organic communication in the territory, with a non-academic language. In this sense, Mercado Sul, cultural territory, disclosed its community’s life stories in order to show who the residents are and also their demands and, from this, obtain support for their projects.

Network connections

RUAS, Mercado Sul, Coletivo Nós por Nós and Casa Akotirene experiences consolidated constructions and partnerships with other collectives, mainly from the DF outskirts, even creating a national articulation for dialogue and support in order to face the pandemic.

Rede de Solidariedade Barba na Rua also organizes solidarity actions for the DF PLSR. The actions are led by coordinator Rogério Barba, but are not exclusively focused on his leadership, as the various network collaborators work in a decentralized manner on multiple initiatives (approximately 40 projects).

The Diário de Ceilândia newspaper also created a local network from sharing, on social media, requests for help from community people in vulnerable situations during the pandemic, observing great support from newspaper users.

Such solidarity connections of the experiences signaled the development of a network in the DF and surrounding areas, with the formation of “solidarity epicenters,” discussed based on a cartographic analysis below.

Communication and Solidarity Networks in the Federal District and Surrounding Areas

Used to design the spatiality of the communication and solidarity network that the experiences build, it is considered, based on Pereira and Silva (2001PEREIRA, G. C.; SILVA, B. C. N. Geoprocessamento e urbanismo. In: GERARDI, L. H. O.; MENDES, I. A. (Org.). Temas de geografia contemporânea. Rio Claro: Unesp; AGTEO, 2001. p. 97-137.), that georeferencing is a set of technologies, methods, and processes for the digital production of data and geographic information through different pieces of software. In this way, a Thematic Map of Communication and Solidarity Networks in the Federal District and surrounding areas was prepared (Figure 2), considering the socio-spatial process of experiences in formulating the spatiality that characterizes this solidarity network.

For Santos (1979SANTOS, M. Da totalidade ao lugar. São Paulo: Edusp, 1979.), space is understood as a set of forms representing past and present social relations, with different relationships occurring and manifesting themselves through different processes and functions. Therefore, the current spatial arrangement of experiences, on the DF outskirts or in the downtown city, reveals a continuous historical process of serving vulnerable populations, organized in collectives and movements at strategic community outreach points by this very population. In this sense, it is essential to understand the performance of experiences on both scales: a) local, in the community and its surroundings, and b) regional, where the experiences’ actions cover the DF as a whole and, at a certain point, go beyond the regional scale and reach the national level.

Thus, the spatial category is essential when thinking about the dynamics and capillarity of these experiences in the city, where the territory used, imagined from the perspective of the actors who use it (Seabra et al., 2000SEABRA, O; CARVALHO, M; LEITE, J.C. Território e sociedade: entrevista com Milton Santos. São Paulo: Fundação Perseu Abramo, 2000.), becomes an inseparable element that feeds and constitutes our being as a person in the world, and it is not possible to see experiences apart from the territory, as we are also an inseparable part of it, our own body-territory (Correa Xakriabá, 2018CORREA XAKRIABÁ, C.N. O Barro, o Genipapo e o Giz no fazer epistemológico de Autoria Xakriabá: reativação da memória por uma educação territorializada. 2018. 218 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Desenvolvimento Sustentável) - Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, 2018.).

Even selected randomly, the experiences carry the potential for aggregation, presenting the formulation of a solidarity network. This network, understood as a set of interconnected nodes (Braga, 2010BRAGA, R. M. Território, rede e multiterritorialidade: uma abordagem conceitual a partir das corporações. Revista Geografias, Belo Horizonte, v. 6, n. 2, p. 26-36, 2010. DOI: 10.35699/2237-549X.13293
https://doi.org/10.35699/2237-549X.13293... ), is represented in the study as geographical locations connected to each other, which promote relationships and exchanges, with mobile, integrated and fluid aspects, and this exchange between fixed points and flows characterizes essential part of this network that is changeable based on the support that experiences provide to each other in facing structural vulnerabilities.

The experiences intersect through the solidarity dynamics common in each community. In this way, this dynamic becomes spatialized, creating solidarity epicenters. Such epicenters are understood as small local support networks, aggregated in administrative regions, within this macro DF solidarity network, presenting communication, engagement and, in a pandemic scenario that increases vulnerabilities, predominantly assistance components.

Thus, an epicenter was created in Ceilândia, with three experiences: Casa Akotirene, the urban quilombo, Diário de Ceilândia newspaper and Instituto RUAS, the youth movement. In this epicenter, it is possible to add Mercado Sul, which is located in Taguatinga, but which maintains a close relationship with Ceilândia experiences, keeping daily dialogue with those territories and the use of common technologies such as the network connection that the experiences build in the long term. In addition to these experiences, there is the only one observed outside the DF-Coletivo Nós por Nós, in Cidade Oeste, state of Goiás-but which also maintains a continuous relationship with Ceilância’s Instituto RUAS.

Another solidarity epicenter was observed in Plano Piloto, downtown Brasília, with part of the experiences in the Setor Comercial Sul, containing: Distrito Drag, Instituto No Setor and Rede de Solidariedade Barba na Rua, where the last two work together with PLS. The second part of the Plano Piloto’s solidarity epicenter contains experiences within the UnB territory, namely the “Guardiões da Saúde,” software application, and O Canário, university newspaper focused on producing information for the academic community.

Therefore, in this differentiated way of living and doing the city, based on a non-hegemonic logic, experiences build collectively and organically a model of connecting in a network via solidarity practices. By territorializing a hegemonic space with practices based on the vulnerable populations’ well-being, a territory of hope is created: a spatiality that breaks with an authoritarian and cruel logic, presenting fissures in this city model. This new spatiality constructs the two DF solidarity epicenters.

Final considerations

The results showed that the main communication technologies used by the initiatives studied related to the local realities in which they were inserted, respecting their communities’ characteristics and representation. As an example, we highlight the prioritization of in-person activities in places with little access to social networks and the use of common territorial facilities (such as public bathrooms and community vegetable gardens) that functioned as dialogue devices with PLS, since the massive distribution of printed materials proved to be of little benefit to this public. In short, if we oppose this fundamentally organic communication, producer of solidarity networks, using each community’s living forces, seeking distance from anything that could be called charity or assistance, but also from a simple set of prescriptions to be followed, to communication mostly and historically produced by public health institutions, whose transference, speech-concentrating and decontextualized pattern was repeated almost everywhere during the COVID-19 pandemic, we can conclude that the starting point of this research-learning from popular communicators -was very successful.

Disseminating these results among managers and communication advisors of bodies responsible for public and collective health is the simplest of all tasks. The most difficult part is undoubtedly being able to open cracks in the wall of preconceived ideas that structure institutional practice, shaped by the assumption of the prerogative of the only-valid knowledge. But we were not the first, others had already preceded us in this movement, to which we converged by offering the rich learning from our research.

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