Social Movement Dynamics

New Perspectives on Theory and Research from Latin America

Federico M. Rossi, Marisa von Bülow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317053705
• Subtopic: Peace & Global Development
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book presents an overview of new approaches to the study of social movements emerging out of Latin America, based on original and innovative analyses of the recent changes in collective action across the region. Over the past decade, new repertoires of contention have emerged in parallel to changes in the configuration of actors, in previously established patterns of relationship between social movements and political institutions, and in the shapes of collaborative networks, both domestic and transnational. The authors analyze a broad set of countries and social movements, while focusing on three key theoretical debates: the interactions between routine and contentious politics, the relationship between protest and context, and the organizational configurations of social movements. The research agenda put forward by this book is neither defined nor restricted by geographical boundaries, even though the chapters are based on field research undertaken in Latin America. In doing so, this volume contributes to a still underdeveloped dialogue in theory-building in social movement studies, among scholars from the South and from the North, as well as among scholars specialized in different regions.

1 Introduction: Theory-Building Beyond Borders

Federico M. Rossi Marisa von Bülow¹

¹ Authors' names appear in alphabetical order, having both contributed equally to this chapter. We thank comments made on a previous version by Rebecca Abers, Adrian Gurza Lavalle, Margaret Keck, and an anonymous reviewer.

DOI: 10.4324/9781315609546-1

The publication of this book comes at a moment of profound changes in the scholarship on social movements, characterized not only by the broadening of the empirical boundaries of the field, but also by greater methodological and theoretical pluralism. This book stretches the current horizons in social movement studies even further, by proposing new concepts and questions. Contributors have very different objects of study and theoretical backgrounds, but they all share a commitment to a dynamic and relational approach to the study of collective action. The volume is organized around three broad themes, which address key current debates in social movement theory: the interactions between routine and contentious politics, the relationship between protest and context, and the organizational configurations of social movements.

The research agenda put forward by the authors is neither defined nor restricted by geographical boundaries, even though the chapters are all based on field research undertaken in Latin America. As such, this volume contributes to what we consider a much-needed and still underdeveloped theory building dialogue in social movement studies, among scholars from the South and from the North, as well as among scholars specialized in different regions.

In the late 1980s, a group of United States and Western European scholars led an important North Atlantic debate that proposed to build common ground for social movement studies (Klandermans et al. 1988; McAdam et al. 1996). In the same spirit of this pioneering dialogue, this book contributes to current efforts to further expand the theoretical frontiers of social movement studies. More specifically, as other authors have been arguing for the past two decades (Foweraker 1995; Gohn 1997; McAdam et al. 2001), we believe that much more can be done in terms of fostering exchange among researchers that study Latin America and other social movement scholars. We propose neither the uncritical adoption of the theories developed in the Global North, nor a stark opposition between the Global South and the Global North. Instead, we hope to contribute to overcoming what Sidney Tarrow (2012, p. 8) has recently called a “tendency to closure” in the social movements literature, in reference to the lack of integration between the “growing strand of theorizing” coming from the Global South and research by other scholars.

In Latin America, research groups and publications have bourgeoned, without necessarily committing to any specific or rigid set of methods or theories. Whereas in the 1980s the focus of debates in the region was on the challenges and opportunities created by transitions to democracy (Jelin 1985; Eckstein 1989), in the 1990s this focus changed, with a more explicit recognition of the plurality of subjects, repertoires, and processes (Gohn 1997; Álvarez et al. 1998). More recently, we have witnessed an increase in the number of scholars studying Latin American social movements and protests from diverse social science traditions (Johnston and Almeida 2006).²

² For an analysis of these changes in the recent literature produced by Brazilian scholars, see Abers and von Bülow 2010 and Kunrath 2011.

Important research agendas within social movement studies have emerged as a result of Latin American scholarship.³ A prominent example is Keck and Sikkink's (1998) path-breaking analysis of advocacy coalitions, which kicked-off a boom in studies about the multi-scalar dimension of social movements in Latin America and all around the world.⁴

³ In part, of course, the visibility of important texts has been hindered by the lack of translations from Spanish and Portuguese. In the past few years, however, social movement scholars studying Latin America have sought increasingly to publish their work in English. According to Poulson et al. (2014, Figure 1), between 2002 and 2010 Latin American movements have been the focus of 16 percent of the articles published in the two main journals of the sub-discipline—Mobilization and Social Movement Studies. ⁴ For example, Hochstetler (2002); Bandy and Smith (2005); della Porta and Tarrow (2005); Tarrow (2005); Grimson and Pereyra (2008); Pleyers (2010); von Bülow (2010); Silva (2013).

Too often, however, arguments and research agendas from various regions have developed in parallel and opportunities for collaboration have been missed. We mention only a few potential areas of dialogue in this introduction. For instance, research on Latin America pioneered studies on the relationship between democratization and contentious politics in the 1980s and 1990s,⁵ but this literature is not well known among social movement theorists that study other regions (Rossi and della Porta 2009). The recent wave of studies about new participatory arenas presents other opportunities for dialogue and theory building. There is a large and fast growing literature that brings together social movement theories, democracy theories, and state theories to analyze a myriad of experiences, going from local councils to national conferences and participatory budgets.⁶ Research on this topic has promoted innovative ways to analyze the intricate and changing relationships between the state and social movements. As we explain in the next section, various chapters of this volume speak to this debate.

⁵ For example, Mainwaring and Viola (1984); Jelin (1985); Slater (1985); Calderón (1986); Boschi (1987); Mainwaring (1987); Eckstein (1989); Corradi et al. (1992); Escobar and Álvarez (1992); Brysk (1994); Doimo (1995); Oxhorn (1995); Schneider (1995); Collier (1999). ⁶ For example, Abers (2000); Avritzer (2002); Baiocchi (2005).

Another area that calls for a more intensive dialogue is the integration of identity and cultural studies with social movement research. Since the 1980s, for example, scholars of Latin American movements have been making connections between the cultural and economic dimensions of collective action that non-Latin Americanists would certainly find valuable.⁷ Finally, since the 2000s, another focus of debate and theory-building comes from the literature on the political economy of mobilization cycles, which integrates the economic and political dimensions of struggles.⁸ In the context of the recent wave of anti-austerity protests in the United States and the European Union, this literature gains renewed relevance, in order to better understand how economic crises and grievances affect mobilization. Again, various chapters in this book address these debates in different ways.

⁷ For example, Sader (1988); Jelin (1990); Escobar and Álvarez (1992); Dagnino (1994, 2003); Foweraker (1995); Álvarez et al. (1998); Garretón (2002); Lucero (2008); Warren (2012). ⁸ For example, Walton and Schefner (1994); Auyero (2003); Yashar (2005); Almeida and Johnston (2006); Rhodes (2006); Roberts and Portes (2006); Almeida (2007); Roberts (2008); Silva (2009); Rice (2012); Almeida (2014); Rossi (2015).

With this concern for expanding and diversifying the conversation among scholars of social movements everywhere, this book speaks to crucial contemporary debates in the general literature. Each chapter includes a review of the international literature, and identifies gaps highlighted by empirical research.

All chapters are empirically grounded in current Latin America and shed new light on key social movements, but they do not seek to present a comprehensive overview of the social movement landscape in the region. Thus, most relevant are not the empirical findings of each author (in many cases—though not all—these have been published elsewhere), but the efforts to situate the actions and challenges faced by the social movements they study in a broader conversation, shedding light on key research problems, and allowing us to move forward in sometimes unexpected ways.

Routine and Contentious Politics

The first section of this book brings together three chapters, all of which focus on the interactions between routine and contentious politics, or what are sometimes called “conventional” and “unconventional” forms of political participation. The chapters by Rossi, Mische, and Abers and Tatagiba present a common general approach to this problem. The authors go beyond the artificial boundaries that much of the social movement literature builds between routine and contentious forms of collective action, while acknowledging the need to analyze the challenges faced by social movements when choosing how and where to make claims. For all of these authors, this debate requires exploring the interaction between social movements, political actors, and state institutions.

The chapter by Federico M. Rossi presents an innovative conceptual framework for understanding the different strategies of social movements. By differentiating between the well-known concept of “repertoire of contention” and the new concepts of “repertoire of strategies” and “stock of legacies,” readers are offered a different window into the historically rooted processes of strategy making and performing by social movements. These concepts allow us to understand what happens when movements do not deploy their repertoire of contention. This chapter is empirically grounded in a study of the Argentine piquetero movement—one of the most important social movements of the region in the past decade. Based on in-depth fieldwork, the author walks us through the maze of organizations, strategies, and ideologies that together make up this fragmented movement.

Ann Mische analyzes the tensions between partisan and civic modes of engagement, thus presenting an important contribution to the literature on activism, and, more...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction: Theory-Building Beyond Borders
• Part I Beyond Contentious Versus Routine Politics
• Part II The Politics and Economics of Protests
• Part III Brokerage and Coalition Formation
• Conclusion
• Index