"Se a gente não fala, ninguém vai falar por nós": comunicação comunitária e o tecer de narrativas sobre as periferias

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how narratives about urban peripheries are produced within community communication collectives operating in contexts marked by violence and pauperization. Grounded in the field of Community Social Psychology, the study is based on the understanding that hegemonic media plays a central role in the production of stigmas, fears, and processes of criminalization of poverty, contributing to the naturalization of social inequalities and the violence directed at peripheral populations. In contrast to this scenario, the research investigates the potential of community communication as a practice of resistance, meaning-making, and the construction of alternative subjectivities. This is a qualitative, descriptive-exploratory study structured as a multiple case study involving three community communication collectives located in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pará. The methodological procedures included semi-structured interviews with representatives of the collectives and documentary analysis of content published on social media platforms. The findings indicate that these collectives function as spaces for denouncing police and media violence, producing counter-narratives about peripheral territories, and articulating networks of solidarity and political education. Beyond the symbolic dispute over representations of poverty and violence, the communicational practices analyzed reveal strategies that integrate art, culture, education, and political action, strengthening community ties and affirming the periphery as a legitimate space of enunciation, knowledge production, and resistance. In sum, community communication, by challenging hegemonic meanings about urban peripheries and creating fissures in normative ideological discourses, constitutes a fundamental practice in the construction of ethical-political projects committed to social justice and the valorization of peripheral experiences.