"This book analyses a South-to-South connection between media activists and artivists – artists who are activists – in the Global South. The authors, Andrea Medrado and Isabella Rega, emphasise the urgent need to engage in South-to-South dialogues in order to create more sustainable connections ... between Global South communities and as an essential step towards identifying and facing global problems, such as state repression, social inequality and climate crises. Medrado and Rega analyse the characteristics of this connection, identify its unique contributions to the study of media and social change and discuss its long-term sustainability. They do so by focusing on instances when media narratives in countries of different Global South(s) intertwine and transform each other; specifically, the exchanges between Latin America (Brazil) and Africa (Kenya). They explore how media activism and artivism can be used as tools for global movement building and to challenge colonial legacies. They also discuss how to connect people with varied skill sets in different Global South contexts, promoting South-to-South solidarity, in a cross-continental challenge to marginalisation." (Publisher description) more

"In this article, we analyze experiences in which Brazilian and Kenyan artivists (artists who are activists) used animation to challenge colonial hierarchies that devalue Global Southern knowledges, histories, and stories. We draw from ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews, and artivists ... f experiences in two animation workshops: (a) Portrait of Marielle, produced with Kenyan artivists in Nairobi; (b) Homage to Wangari Maathai, produced with Brazilian artivists in Salvador. We ask: how can artivist creative practices be used as tools for global movement building, contesting the colonial legacy of fragmented relationships between Global South peoples? We evoke decolonial and standpoint intersectional feminist perspectives to propose an understanding of artivism that considers the specificities of Global South contexts, connecting it to two axes: (a) establishing dialogical spaces and (b) mobilizing memories and histories. Our understanding of South-to-South artivist dialogues results from the ways in which notions of "pluriversality", "incompletness" and "humility", which stem from Latin American and African scholarship are intertwined. When marginalized groups exchange "situated knowledges" and express themselves through artivism from "intersectional standpoints" or "lugares de fala", this can have a binding nature, creating transformative connections between Global South peoples." (Abstract) more

"This article discusses activists’ need to reflect on how achieving social media visibility might translate into vulnerability. In order to provide activists with a tool for this reflection, the Stepping into Visibility Model has been developed and applied to two case studies: (a) an activist grou ... p in a Brazilian favela using social media for protection against police brutality and (b) a Kenyan photographer, affiliated to an art-ivist (artistic and activist) collective, producing images of Nairobi at night to tackle social anxiety issues. The research draws from sociological insights on the concept of ‘visibility’ and adopts a case study methodology combined with ethnographic approaches. By adopting a Global South perspective, it discusses counter surveillance efforts in ways that go beyond techno-legal solutionism (Dencik et al, 2016) and in periods outside that of big-scale protests (McCosker, 2015). By devising this model, we hope to offer a contribution on how marginalised communities can be better informed when they encounter unintended negative visibility." (Abstract) more