BETWEEN SCREENS AND TERRITORIES: FESTIVALS AND LIVE STREAMS AS EDUCATIONAL SPACES FOR RESISTANCE, COLLECTIVE CARE, AND YOUTH HUMAN RIGHTS DURING THE PANDEMIC (2020–2022)

Abstract

This article examines formative experiences of Brazilian youth during the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on festivals and livestreams organized by civil society organizations between 2020 and 2022. Based on a qualitative approach, anchored in digital ethnography and document analysis, it investigates educational processes mediated by digital technologies and permeated by practices of resistance, collective care, and rights advocacy. The study considers festivals as digital environments of interaction and knowledge production, where young people led actions of sociopolitical mobilization, civic participation, and cultural communication The analyses highlight how these experiences, despite being marked by inequalities in access and contextual limitations, served as vibrant spaces for learning, community engagement, and critical reflection in the face of the health crisis, emerging as venues for promoting public health and mutual care, facilitated by digital culture, in areas characterized by inequalities and the absence of public policies (Luz; Abramovay; Sales, 2025).  Drawing on frameworks from critical education (Freire, 2016; Walsh, 2009), youth studies (Abramovay, 2022), and digital ethnography (Hine, 2020; Gomes; Leitão, 2017), the article argues that such practices reveal relevant pedagogical dimensions and expand the horizons of non-formal education in times of crisis. It contributes to the appreciation of ways of learning and teaching that emerge outside conventional school spaces, reaffirming the importance of recognizing youth as epistemic subjects and protagonists in building more democratic and just societies.