Why research made by the territory
Black and peripheral communities have frequently been the victims of stereotyping and silencing throughout Brazil’s history — a distorted image fed by the media, by popular culture and by public discourse, and also by the absence of data production consistent with the reality of the territory. The idea that the periphery is only a place of precariousness reduces the complexity of these spaces and erases their strengths.
Bytes de Mudanças starts from the opposite principle: research produced inside the favela, coordinated and carried out by people who are of the territory. The people interviewed are subjects of the data produced, not mere objects — they hold control, agency and a part in building and narrating their own experience. As Grada Kilomba writes, “it is the moment when the speaking subject speaks of her own reality, a real act of decolonisation and political resistance” (KILOMBA, 2019 — translated from the Brazilian edition).
The context
The research grows out of the joint work of Casa Hacker and the Instituto Semear in two territories of Campinas (São Paulo State): Parque Via Norte and Vila Olímpia. The backdrop is Brazil’s digital chasm — the internet reaches 90% of households, but basic digital skills do not follow, and it is in the peripheries that this gap exacts the highest price: in access to rights, services, income and participation.
Measuring rigorously was part of the commitment: the research establishes a baseline and the measurement of results, practising citizen-generated data — data produced by the community, to guide the community’s decisions.
Methodology
Educators from both territories were trained and conducted every stage:
- Generative sessions — participatory workshops with adults in Vila Olímpia and with children in Via Norte, to surface themes, practices and desires around technology;
- Validation with the educators — the syntheses of the sessions went back to the local teams to be checked and adjusted;
- Questionnaires — applied in both territories, covering demographic profile (gender identity, colour/race, age), access, skills and interests;
- In-depth interviews — participants aged 10 to 65, asked about uses, fears and aspirations.
What the research mapped
- Demographic profile of the territories surveyed;
- Access: which devices and connections actually exist in the homes;
- Strengths and skills already held — what people already know and do with technology;
- Skills to develop and the difficulties along the way;
- Fears about using the internet (“is there anything you are afraid of when you use the internet?”);
- Interests: what people do on their phones, which courses they want, what they would create with technology and what they dream of working with.
What it produced
The findings underpinned the digital inclusion learning tracks by age group — the Inclusão Tech social technology transferred to social assistance organisations in Campinas — and remain open for use by researchers, educators and public managers.