BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MARCH IN SÃO PAULO (2011 - 2022): BLACK PROTEST AND IMAGETIC REPERTOIRES OF ACTION

Abstract

This paper brings together part of the findings of a broader research project that analyzes how visual and performative resources are mobilized by social movements in the production of meanings, the construction of collective identities, and the public communication of claims, focusing on the São Paulo Black Consciousness March between 2011 and 2022. Given that the visual dimension remains relatively marginal in social movement studies, the research brings together Political Process Theory, particularly the contributions of Charles Tilly, and Jeffrey Alexander’s Cultural Sociology, understanding protest simultaneously as a process of political contention and meaning-making. Methodologically, the research proposes the development of a Visual Analysis of Protest Events (VAPE), which expands Protest Event Analysis (PEA) through the systematic incorporation of images as both empirical sources and objects of analysis. The corpus comprises 315 news reports and 1,324 images from 113 media outlets. The findings indicate that, although the March’s claims are reconfigured in response to different political contexts, its forms of visual
expression display recurring patterns and continuities, becoming organized into relatively stable and continuously updated visual repertoires. The paper thus argues that the visual dimension is a significant component of the processes of meaning-making, identity construction, and symbolic contestation that structure collective action.