Another urban grammar: Black perspectives on social mobility in twentieth century São Paulo

“Another Urban Grammar: Black Perspectives on Social Mobility in Twentieth Century São Paulo,” is a social history primarily situated in the years of Brazil’s Second Republic (1946 – 1964). This dissertation rethinks Black paulistanos’ pursuit of upward mobility across class and gender in addition to race. It makes three claims. First, Black paulistanos, I argue, actively made new and recast existing prevalent symbols of economic, social, and cultural capital to fit their needs for upward mobility. Second, because Black paulistanos were not a homogenous group, I assert that many of these efforts created counter-knowledges and discourses rejecting or transforming practices and symbols of upward mobility common to São Paulo’s middle-classes. And third, I believe Black paulistanos, and especially women, innovated critiques and interventions in the domestic family sphere, labor market, education, and consumption, demonstrating that they routinely participated in the debates surrounding social cohesion under the Second Republic’s crises of urban development, migration, and inflation. I analyze photo essays and advertisements from national and local magazines, newspapers, and tabloids; educational debates in Black newspapers; pre-existing intergenerational family oral histories; and two interviews I conducted with Black women of divergent education, neighborhood, and class markers. Using these visual and textual sources while adapting Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of capital, my work conceives of social mobility as an opportunity to reconceive race, class, and gender hierarchies during periods of political and economic turmoil. Thus, the study of Black social mobility in São Paulo during the Second Republic offers insight into the construction of social mobility as both a dynamic, active practice of historical subjects and archives alike.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Osei, Cassandra Abena

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dávila, Jerry
• Hertzman, Marc
• Harrison, Faye V.
• Brosseder, Claudia

• Brazil
• social mobility
• race
• gender
• class
• Black Brazilians
• São Paulo
• Black women
• Latin America
• housing
• schools
• labor
• radio
• media
• popular culture
• oral history
• African Diaspora
• archives

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Cassandra Abena Wirekuaa Osei

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115766

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115766