|
Abstract:
|
This MA thesis attempts to achieve three main goals in setting the stage for a case study on Afro -Brazilian community social organizations . First among these goals is to demonstrate that scholarly and activist criticism of community organizations’ inability to generate broad -based political constituencies overlooks a key component of what community organizations actually strive for , and thus , characterizing them as an inappropriate use of resources is an error . This is accomplished through a discussion of the reluctance of Afro -Brazilians to self -identify as such and the need to support consciousness -raising with a valorization effort that addresses the negative stigma associated with blackness . Second , this essay looks to theories of education , specifically the racialized nature of the educational experience , as an indication that valorization efforts must focus on supplementing or countering the racial subjectivities that schools establish with more positive experiences of blackness . Third , this essay considers how community social capital is among the most influential sources of valorization , and establishes several hypotheses about the mechanisms of community organizations that garner effective valorization . These hypotheses are tested in a case study of community organizations in Salvador da Bahia . |