Rhizomatic communication: reflections on resistance movements in Covid-19 times

Abstract

Historically, the public health risk and emergency communication model has been hierarchical, less cooperative and democratic. However, when it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is possible to observe that the guarantee of universal, equitable and integral communication, to expand citizen participation in health policies and in the guidance of care, has not been an exclusive task of the authorities, of health experts, science communicator and journalists, but it has incorporated the participation of health professionals and collectives in different territories. This essay proposes to discuss rhizomatic communication in the field of health, highlighting some resistance movements, protagonists in communication processes, such as the actions developed by the residents of Complexo da Maré (RJ), Xingu and Rio Negro peoples and quilombola communities. The forms of rhizomatic communication developed by these movements, using podcasts, newspapers, radio, for example, produce new forms of life and new modes of existence, as they do not have a pre-established aspect, in which different points connect in the flow between different factors, situations, key elements, areas and knowledge in a systematic and creative way of thinking about the world and its complexities, sustaining as differences and heterogeneities within the communicational territory.