The political performance of Black women in the Afro Carnival Groups Association of Minas Gerais - ABAFRO:
a strategy for expanding participatory democracy.
black women; political activity; carnival; participatory democracy; gender and polítics.
The research seeks to investigate the political participation of black women who belong to the Associação de Blocos Afro de Minas Gerais - ABAFRO and who work in and from this social organization, in the Street Carnival in the city of Belo Horizonte. To what extent do these women's actions in the bodies that organize the BH street carnival represent an expansion of participatory democracy in Brazil? Thus, the research seeks to identify and analyze the political actions of these actresses and the developments of this movement in order to point out: how the social mobilization of the Street Carnival, in the city of Belo Horizonte, from 2007 to 2023, impacts the political actions of black women of the Association of Afro Blocks of Minas Gerais? How does this political participation influence other forms of action by this group? Is there or is there no political articulation carried out by these women in these spaces of action? What does this articulation consist of? Finally, what is the political strategy of these women when participating in these spaces? To answer these questions, the research uses a qualitative methodology approach through participant observation, interviews and/or focus groups, analysis of documents such as meeting minutes, diaries, audiovisual data, among others. Its main objective is to: identify, understand and analyze the political activity of black women from the Associação de Blocos Afro de Minas Gerais - ABAFRO, in the social mobilization of the Street Carnival in the city of Belo Horizonte/MG, between 2007 and 2023. To this end, , the specific objectives include: a) carrying out a historical survey of women's participation in political construction, inside and outside the street carnival, in these territories, based on the blocks that make up the Associação de Blocos Afro de Minas Gerais; understand the influence and consequences of these people’s political actions in other political spaces; b) analyze how and at what moment the political articulation carried out by these women in these spaces of activity is elaborated; c) and finally, analyze the political strategy of these women when participating in these spaces. The dissertation