ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 details the last of the five examples of protest literacies covered in the book: demonstration literacies. As the archetypical example of protest events, demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro typically involved three phases referred to locally as their concentration, march, and dispersal. Chapter 8 describes one such demonstration from start to finish – highlighting across the performing of each of these phases, firstly roles played by a range of traditional and eccentric literacy practices including multiple uses of placards and banners, then secondly how these overlapped with older and newer forms of media practices and mediated public space. The demonstration in question happened to be the most important in a series of three protest events organized by social movements from favelas contesting negative impacts associated with the hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Rio whilst this was underway. Indexing the themes of the demonstration, the route of the march starts in one “pacified’ favela, parades along Rio’s world famous Copacabana beach and FIFA spectator and media centres set up there, before ending in another pacified favela.
