THE ARTS AND EDUCATION AS DEVICES FOR SHAPING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES OF SOCIETIES
Art is considered a strategy for the permanence of humanity, and artistic activities shape the adaptive process that human beings need in order to exist in time, as Jorge de Albuquerque Vieira (2003) states. In a world in which wars, violence and authoritarianism continue to oppress societies, what mechanisms have been used or strengthened to foster the development of democratic dimensions through acts of creation or through participation and opposition (Dahl, 2009) in our countries, institutions, and in both our artistic and educational practices? How have we organized ourselves collectively, and which strategies remain valid or need to be adjusted, given times marked by unreflective beliefs based more on the prestige of ideas than on the ideas themselves? When we encountered the student strike in Novi Sad, Serbia, during the 58th International Congress of Americanists in 2025, we observed resistance through student groupings, the occupation of bridges and schools, silent vigils, and the use of apps to move from one place to another. The support of family members, including the grandparents’ generation and children, demonstrated the intergenerational importance of strengthening resistance movements. This symposium proposes to share experiences in order to recognize current strategies within our environments of existence, and to reflect on how we have understood the relationships among power, resistance and revolution. Oppressions, resistances and movements have always existed throughout time, but the question is how we have learned and built upon our knowledge of power relations and social movements.
