Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper presents an evaluation of the information literacies used by community representatives when engaging with participatory budgeting in São Paulo City, Brazil. Using questions established from context-setting interviews with stakeholders, a focus group was held in English and Portuguese in January 2019 with eight participative councillors, with in situ interpretation, resulting in a translated transcription of the focus group discussion. Thematic analysis was used to develop insights into information issues faced by community representatives in relation to past findings in this area. It was found that the community representatives face informational barriers to their engagement with participatory budgeting, in (a) learning about their role (b) understanding the information needs of the communities served and (c) gathering and sharing information about local issues with stakeholders. These findings allow the refining of CILIP’s definition of IL for citizenship, and provide the basis for proposing a model for the IL of community representatives. It is also proposed that future IL research could develop further the role of digitally-enabled place and community in shaping the landscape of literacy and the role of hyperlocal representation. Additionally, the role of translation in cross-lingual information literacy research is considered.