As Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch prepares to travel to Quito to participate in Habitat III, current and former postgraduate students reflect on their experience of travelling to Brazil to observe first-hand how socio-cultural psychologists research and work in complex urban environments

Dedios Sanguineti, Maria Cecilia

Mazari, Haani

Nogueira, Mara

Okoroji, Celestine

Reddy, Geetha

Dedios-Sanguineti, Maria Cecilia

Open Research Online 

Reflections on a Research Field Trip to Brazil

LSE Research Online

brazil912/10/2016Reflections on a Research Field Trip to Brazilblogs.lse.ac.uk /psychologylse/2016/10/12/reflections-on-a-research-field-trip-to-brazil/As Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch prepares to travel to Quito to participate in Habitat III, current andformer postgraduate students reflect on their experience of travelling to Brazil to observe first-hand howsocio-cultural psychologists research and work in complex urban environments.   ‘Resilience and Porosity of City Borders: A psychosocialinvestigation in three Brazilian cities’ is an internationalinterdisciplinary collaboration project studying the relationshipbetween the porosity of internal city borders, self esteem and resilience. The project aims to examine the role ofbottom up development initiatives in building resilience and enhancing the flexibility of city borders in segregatedneighbourhoods, or favelas, and underground socialibilities in Porto Alegre, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.Principal investigators on the project Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch and LSE PhD graduate Dr Jacqueline Priego(currently Research Fellow in Bournemouth University), and Professor Gareth Jones and Assistant Professor RyanCentner from the Department of Geography and Environment formed the research team from the LSE. As part of acapacity building initiative, 5 postgraduate students from the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciencesand the Department of Geography and the Environment also travelled with the research team to Brazil.Haani Mazari, MSc Social & Cultural Psychology graduate, summarised her experiences traversing different spacesin Rio:“Brazil is often romanticised as a place of beautiful beaches, models, and football. Yet what I will remember of Brazilis the pride that Brazilians share in their country and culture. In Rio de Janeiro the quaint Favelas colour the hillsand are at one with the landscape. We were lucky to go beyond viewing the Favelas from afar and explored twoFavelas in the north of Rio. A favela-dweller asked to take a picture with me when he heard that I am from Pakistan.He told me, “Your country is like mine.” I agreed with him to an extent. However in my hometown, Karachi, there isminimal interaction between the various segments of society. What I found to be the most enchanting about Rio washow, despite social inequalities, there seemed to be a meeting point at which society interacts. We went to a Sambaclub that was frequented by locals of diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds. Yet everyone swayed to thesame rhythm and sang the same lyrics. The physical space in the South of Rio is unreachable to many, yet thevivacious realm of Samba is open to all.” From left to right: Celestin with recycling centre staff in Porto Alegre; View of Complexodo Alemão from cable car; Haani and Geetha on a site visit in the 4th district in PortoAlegre. This research-intensive trip included a workshop in Porto Alegre and a visit to a numberof potential field sites in Porto Alegre and Rio. It was a rare opportunity for postgraduatestudents to engage with senior faculty on an international research project and gave the students first-handexperience of research-led teaching, where learning could happen in the field.1/4Celestin Okoroji, MSc Social & Cultural Psychology student at the time and now a PhDstudent at the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, spoke about hisexperience engaging in academic environments outside the LSE:“We often have visions of the lone genius working up the latest theoretical revolution,alone, in a dusty room, with dim lights. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, atleast in this project, skills of communication and negotiation seem just as important astheoretical knowledge or academic understanding. I came to realise then, that academiais not a solo career. Also, having had the opportunity to visit some potential researchsites and interact with the people there it became starkly apparent that there really isvery little comparison between context, culture and action in a Brazilian favela and inLondon, even on the estates. As social scientists, having some opportunity to workinternationally really brings home the understanding that universal laws aren’teverything! Actually, anything you could formulate into a universal law of humanbehaviour or sociality probably wouldn’t be that interesting. Finally, it can feel likeacademics, especially at a university like LSE, are larger than life. To be involved in aresearch project and spend some time together, both formally and informally, you realisethat they are just people too, intelligent, very experienced, but people nonetheless, withfoibles and failings like the rest of us. If you think you need to be perfect to fit in, youdon’t!” From left to right: Dr Priego conducting a research methods session during theworkshop; Santa Rita de Cassia (photo credit – Dr Ryan Centner); Prof Jovchelovitch,Dr Priego, Mara and Maria-Cecilia fielding questions during the workshop. Geetha Reddy, 4th year PhD Candidate in the department, found the opportunity to beinspiring, and drew parallels between her own PhD research project and the ESRC-CONFAP funded project:“While postcoloniality in Brazil is different from Singapore and Malaysia, andmulticulturalism manifests in a varied forms in the 3 countries, I am interested inunderstanding how porosity of boundaries, both physical and metaphysical, influencehow individuals negotiate their ethnic identities, and the impact this has on their self-identity. I found that looking at how physical boundaries in the favelas in Rio, and the 4thDistrict in Porto Alegre, influence the building of resilience among communities andindividuals helped me to probe deeper into how housing quotas in Singapore andMalaysia challenge individuals’ construction and maintenance of ethnic identities. I amalso focused in exploring how identity is communicated to individuals through governmental and social discourse,and found that individuals in both Brazilian cities resisted the dominant discourse around spaces they lived andworked in, and contested the meanings that different spaces held for them. As the research project develops, itwould be interesting to discover how barriers to communication between different communities in Brazil influencesocial capital, social networks, self-esteem and perceived qualities of life. On a broader scale, there’s much to learnfrom understanding how porosity of borders impacts the agentic self.”It was an eye-opening experience for the students who are interested in issues of community, social exclusion,representations of inequality and social change, and the opportunity to network, discuss their own research with and2/4learn from Brazilian postgraduate students, academics and social organisations was invaluable. We would also liketo take this opportunity to thank our hosts from Porto Alegre, especially Professor Simone Mainieri Paulon andProfessor Pedrinho Guareschi from the Institute of Psychology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul,representatives from CUFA and UNESCO who made the field trip a success. Photo credits: Geetha Reddy (unless otherwise specified). Celestine Okoroji is a 1st year doctoral candidate at the Department of Psychologicaland Behavioural Science at the LSE, supervised by Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch.After graduating from Brunel University with a degree in Psychology, Celestin took up aposition on the National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP) at IslingtonCouncil. The NGDP is a highly competitive 2-year graduate scheme for localgovernment, seeking to fast track new talent into senior management. Whilst at Islingtonhe worked in a number of roles including Corporate Strategy and Policy, AlternativeEducation provision, Youth Offending and Community Safety. Leaving Islington after 3years in 2015, Celestin took up an MSc in Social Psychology at the London School ofEconomics and Political Science, where his MSc research focused on the interplaybetween unemployment and inequality.  Haani Mazari has grown up in Karachi, Istanbul, Dubai, Singapore and London. Herinterests lie in identity politics and, in particular, how individuals react to stigmatisationand social exclusion. She has completed her MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology.For her MSc dissertation, she explored Pakistani identity and the exclusion of religiousminorities.  Geetha Reddy is a 4th year doctoral candidate pursuing a PhD in Psychology at theDepartment of Psychological and Behavioural Science, supervised by Dr Ilka Gleibs.Her research focus is on diversity and multiculturalism, researching ethnic identityconstructions and negotiations among individuals in Singapore and Malaysia. Her otherresearch interests include perspective taking among individuals, the socio-culturaldeterminants of health related behaviour as well as safety culture within public healthsystems. 3/4Maria Cecilia Dedios Sanguineti is a 3rd year doctoral candidate pursuing a PhD inPsychology at the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the LSE,supervised by Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch. Her doctoral work explores theintersubjective processes fostering resilience among vulnerable youth in two socio-cultural contexts (Colombia and the UK). Her research focuses on psychosocialdevelopment during adolescence and young adulthood, and how this process unfoldsin different socio-cultural contexts. Mara Nogueira is a 4th doctoral candidate in Human Geography and Urban Studies.She is supervised by Dr Hyun Bang Shin in the Geography and EnvironmentDepartment at LSE. Her doctoral research in about the urban everyday politics of theWorld Cup in Belo Horizonte/Brazil. The work analyses how different groups affected bythe mega-event preparation in the city organize to engage with the State and claim theirrights.Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics4/4

Reflections on a research field trip to Brazil

Reflections on a research field trip to Brazil

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