Peace Profile: Rene Silva

Few social media activists have had as large of an influence as Rene Silva, a 27-year-old from Rio de Janeiro's most notorious group of favelas known as the Complexo do Alemao. At the age of 11, Silva founded a community newspaper called Voz das Comunidade (Voice of the Community). By 2020, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPeace review (Palo Alto, Calif.) Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 155 - 163
Main Author Scott, Jason B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Taylor & Francis 02.01.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Activism
Activists
Community
Companies
Demonstrations & protests
Development policy
Drinking water
Ethnography
Grass roots movement
Journalism
Mass media
Mobilization
Multinational corporations
Police community relations
Slums
Social media
Social movements
Social networks
Young adults
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Summary:Few social media activists have had as large of an influence as Rene Silva, a 27-year-old from Rio de Janeiro's most notorious group of favelas known as the Complexo do Alemao. At the age of 11, Silva founded a community newspaper called Voz das Comunidade (Voice of the Community). By 2020, the paper had a monthly circulation of 20,000 and Silva had hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. Silva has various accomplishments outside of journalism including partnering with multinational corporations to bring clean drinking water to his community and helping to organize thousands-strong protests against deadly police policies. For invested observers of Brazilian social movements, Silva is the archetype of a millennial activist. Scott met Silva in 2014, as he began a long-term ethnographic dissertation project regarding the intersection of anti-gang policy and development policy in Rio's favelas. He conducted dozens of interviews with community members about the role of digital inclusion in their recently "pacified" community. On the ground, he heard near daily mention of Silva's work. For Afro-Brazilian youth and young adults, he was the favela's principal role model. For older activists, Silva represented the product of decades of grassroots mobilization.
ISSN:1040-2659
1469-9982
DOI:10.1080/10402659.2021.1956149