Human rights in the policy response against Covid-19: discourse analysis of the case of São Paulo, Brazil
In: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/32206
This study examines the policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic enacted by the government of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, from the perspective of its human rights discourse. Through a case study research strategy, we delve into the critical discourse analysis of 491 pieces of municipal legislation enacted with the specific purpose of addressing the global health emergency of COVID-19 in the city of São Paulo between March and October of 2020. We mobilize Norman Fairclough's (1992) text-oriented, three-dimensional critical discourse analysis method to make sense of how human rights law and policy influenced or were influenced by the political choices guiding the city government's handling of the pandemic in the context of the federative battle fought between subnational governments and the central government in Brazil, following up on the findings by Abrucio et al. (2020). We conclude that the policy responses enacted by São Paulo to fight COVID-19 were informed by previous human rights policy frameworks, which contributed to its political effort to adopt a different policy philosophy from the one endorsed by the central government of Brazil under the leadership of President Jair Bolsonaro. ; Este trabalho examina as políticas públicas de resposta à pandemia de COVID-19 promulgadas pelo governo do município de São Paulo, Brasil, da perspectiva do seu discurso de direitos humanos. Por meio de um estudo de caso, mergulhamos na análise crítica do discurso contido em 491 legislações municipais promulgadas com o propósito específico de endereçar a emergência de saúde global representada pela COVID-19 na cidade de São Paulo entre os meses de março e outubro de 2020. Mobilizamos o método tridimensional e orientado a textos de análise crítica do discurso de Norman Fairclough (1992) para compreender como o direito objetivo dos direitos humanos ou as políticas públicas de direitos humanos influenciaram ou foram influenciados pelas escolas políticas que guiaram o modo como o governo municipal lidou com o desafio da ...