As part of the Grupo Popular Pesquisa em Ação  – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the 29 og August 2014 I co-gave a presentation at the Royal Geographical Society – IBG Annual International Conference 2014 in London that this year was dedicated to ‘Geographies of Co-Production’.  Title of the presentation was: “Towards a production of knowledge from the movements for the movements: the experience of ‘Grupo Popular Pesquisa em Ação’ in Rio de Janeiro”. More information HERE.

After many corrections, the article that I presented at the XIII Coloquio Internacional de Geocrítica in Barcelona (you can found HERE all the program), was published online, and it can be found HERE (in Italian), LE PROTESTE POPOLARI A RIO DE JANEIRO A PARTIRE DA GIUGNO 2013: UNO STUDIO PRELIMINARE.

Please send me any critique/comment/suggestion!

I want to stress one critical point (more than the grammatical errors) of my document: I stated there that there were no published works dedicated to the analysis of the social struggle in Rio de Janeiro. However, after more research, I now am happy to suggest two well written and important books (both in Portuguese, a translation in English is needed!) that are based on the events in Rio de Janeiro and, starting from a Marxist and Negri viewpoint, offer an invaluable tool to understand what happened.

1. A multidão foi ao deserto: as manifestações no Brasil em 2013, author Bruno Cava.

2. Amanhã vai ser maior: o levante da multidão no ano que não terminou, editor Bruno Cava and Giuseppe Cocco.

Since the end of July I am back in Italy and I was not able to write a single post since the last time while in Brazil. This can be define as a complete failure: the initial plan was to report very often on the blog the various events during the FIFA World Cup. However, this did not occur and the reason is very simple: I had not time to sit down for a bit to concentrate and write a coherent post with some photos. Many things happened. I thought that my knowledge of the city and of the movement would make things easier and help me manage everything… that was unrealistic. Too many things has happened: I was deeply involved with the FIP which was at the forefront of the struggle against the FIFA World Cup and it was heavily repressed on the eve of the final by a huge state’s repression. Moreover, I was heavily involved with a project of the Grupo Popular Pesquisa em Ação, shootings of a video on the area of the Marakana stadium that, hopefully, will be ready for the beginning of September. Happily, I was able to do all the things that I planned before going to my last field trip in Brazil and to collect all the information that I needed (even there are never enough; behind every peace of information collected there is an unexplored world and impossible to explore due to time constraints world). Here I repeat my wish, I hope to be able to update now more often the blog, filling some of the gaps. Now I am back in Italy, recovering from the intense period in Brazil and at the end of the month I will go to a conference in London, to co-present a work “Towards a production of knowledge from the movements for the movements: the experience of ‘Grupo Popular Pesquisa em Ação’ in Rio de Janeiro”. Now, the most important (and stressful) activity of a PhD is waiting me: writing and finalizing the thesis as soon as possible!

You can find HERE a small article that I wrote one month ago for my department, with the title Why is the country of football screaming “FIFA Go Home”?

Usually at the end of a trip or after an important journey there is a part that acknowledge all the people/groups met and during my PhD I had several incredible encounters. However, I think that now is not the right time to do this and will say only one things to all the comrades that, despite a heavy state repression, are still fighting for a better world in Rio de Janeiro: “Estamos juntos!”.

 June traditional festival – FIFA GO HOME, 2º Festival of FIP-RJ 20.06.2014 (more info HERE)

Just few hours more and the Fifa World Cup 2014 will officially start.

It will begin for politicians, for tourists (the gringos), for the rich, for the bureaucrats of FIFA.
For poor people, the vast majority of the population, there will be no World Cup.
Hundreds of marches, protests and strikes, combined with the evidence inability of the state to improve the living conditions and stop the violence (especially from the police) have determined that this will not be the Cup of the people.
And this is already a result of the mobilizations of the past year.

What will happen during the cup?
All the international media are waiting for the news that will pierce the first page …
All politicians flaunt certainties but are holding their breath, hoping that nothing can ruin their dream of grandeur …
All the FIFA bureaucrats hope that nothing can spoil the show around the stadiums, modern temples for the God of money …

On the other hand, there are activists and people, committed for years against a mega-event marked by waste and corruption in a country that clearly need urgently to schools and hospitals.

What will happen nobody knows.
What is certain is that there are all prerequisites (mobilizations that continue from last year, daily marches, ongoing strikes, repression …) for a month to be interesting and intense.

All the world is watching.

Interesting and well written article with many information HERE

On the 19 of May I came back in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I will stay here till end of July, with the aim to answer some of the questions that come out from the preliminary analyzes that I did on my material and to see what will happen during the FIFA World Cup 2014.

I arrived only few day ago but I found myself again back in a city where demonstrations, assemblies or mobilizations are the normality …For example the bus drivers and the teachers are (again!) on strikes and maybe other categories will follow.

The Cup will start on the 12 of June, we will see what happen!

As I announced, I attended the XIII Coloquio Internacional de Geocrítica “EL CONTROL DEL ESPACIO Y LOS ESPACIOS DE CONTROL” (HERE the program) in Barcelona. HERE you can find my presentation. After few corrections, I will post the article in this post.

I was also able to give a talk at the Ateneu Llibertari del Casc Antic (thank you to everyone to help to organize!). I presented my experiences in Rio de Janeiro, using my presentation, photos and short video. We also screened the documentary Com Vandalismo (Nigéria Audiovisual production)(in Portuguese and Spanish subtitles).

This was the flyer of the event.

More photos coming!

In April I took part in the second meeting of the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology in Marathon, Greece.

HERE more information with the program.

I gave two presentation:

1. Methodology in research: looking at social movements

2. My ‘classical’ presentation on my preliminary results from Rio de Janeiro (the same presentation that I did few months ago in Leeds)

I hope to add soon to this post some photos from the trip in Greece!

My partner and I have just written an article (in Italian) on the event of last period in Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, with the title “Guida semiseria ai prossimi mondiali di calcio” (Semi-serious guide to the next FIFA World Cup) and was publishd on a eletronic italian newspaper, NewsTown – Le notizie dalla città che cambia.

 You can find our article HERE.

Yesterday in athe School of Geography I helped to organize the seminar Recovering Bookchin with Andy Price as part of the Leeds School of Geography Seminars. Murray Bookchin is a key author in Social Ecology which is an important political reference and framework for my research/activism.

Flyer of the event: Recovering Bookchin flyer

Through an extensive body of political and philosophical ideas he called social ecology, Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) elucidated one of the first intellectual responses to the ecological crisis. However, over the last two decades of his life Bookchin’s ideas slipped from focus, obscured by the emergence of a crude caricature that portrayed him as a dogmatic sectarian who intended to dominate the radical left for his own personal motivations. In Recovering Bookchin, Andy Price revisits the Bookchin caricature and critically discounts it as the product of a largely misguided literature that focused on Bookchin the individual and not his ideas. By looking afresh at Bookchin’s work, Price argues that his contribution can be seen to provide a coherent practical and theoretical response to the ecological and social crises of our time.

Dr Price is Principal Lecturer in Politics at The Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University. His research focus is on political theory of currently emerging social movements. Please find Price’s staff profile HERE.

Thank you to Andy for the vivid talk (and all the suggestions for my research!) and to all the people that have participated.

For all who could not attend and are interested, I post here the audio of Andi’s presentation.

Andy Price

An attentive audience

Thank you to everyone who turn up at the event of yesterday at the School of Geography.Pablo’s and my presentations were well received and we had a vibrant debate afterwards.

To all who could not attend, no worries, HERE the presentation (if you have any problem, please write me) and soon the audio recording, a report and photos from the Contested Cities network!