The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy

400 Pages·1992·45.67 MB·English

by  Arturo Escobar, Sonia E. Alvarez

The Making
of Social Movements
in Latin America
Series in Political Economy
and Economic Development in Latin America
Series Editor
Andrew Zimbalist
Smith College
"j" The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and
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|Available in hardcover and paperback.
The Making
of Social Movements
in Latin America
Identity, Strategy,
and Democracy
edited by
Arturo Escobar
Smith College
Sonia E. Alvarez
University of California-Santa Cruz
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
New York London
Series in Political Economy and Economic Development in Latin America
First published 1992 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The making of social movements in Latin America : identity, strategy,
and democracy / edited by Arturo Escobar, Sonia E. Alvarez,
p. cm. — (Series in political economy and economic
development in Latin America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-1206-X. - ISBN 0-81334207-8 (pbk.)
1. Social movements—Latin America. I. Escobar, Arturo.
II. Alvarez, Sonia E., 1956- III. Series.
HN110.5.A8M325 1992
303.48/4/098-dc20 92-9068
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-1207-1 (pbk)
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
About the Editors and Contributors
1 Introduction: Theory and Protest in Latin America Today,
Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez
PART 1
CONCEPTUALIZING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
IN CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICA
2 Social Movements: Actors, Theories, Expectations,
Fernando Calderon, Alejandro Piscitelli,
and ]ose Luis Reyna
3 Marxism, Feminism, and the Struggle for Democracy in
Latin America, Norma Stoltz Chinchilla
4 The Study of New Social Movements in Latin America
and the Question of Autonomy, Judith Adler Hellman
5 Culture, Economics, and Politics in Latin American
Social Movements Theory and Research,
Arturo Escobar
PART 2
THE MAKING OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES
6 "I Dreamed of Foxes and Hawks": Reflections on Peasant
Protest, New Social Movements, and the Rondas
Campesinas of Northern Peru, Orin Starn
7 From Resistance to Social Movement: The Indigenous
Authorities Movement in Colombia,
Maria Teresa Findji
vi Contents
8 Power, Gender, and Development: Popular Women's
Organizations and the Politics of Needs in Ecuador,
Amy Conger Lind 134
9 The Venezuelan Ecology Movement: Symbolic Effectiveness,
Social Practices, and Political Strategies,
Maria Pilar Garcia 150
10 Rethinking the Study of Social Movements: The Case
of Christian Base Communities in Urban Brazil,
John Burdick 171
11 Homosexual Identities in Transitional Brazilian Politics,
Edward MacRae 185
PART 3
ARTICULATING STRATEGIES A ND
DEMOCRATIZING DEMOCRACY
12 Feminisms in Latin America: From Bogota to San Bernardo,
Nancy Saporta Sternbach, Marysa Navarro-Aranguren,
Patricia Chuchryk, and Sonia E. Alvarez 207
13 The Evolution of Urban Popular Movements in Mexico
Between 1968 and 1988, Vivienne Bennett 240
14 Radical Opposition Parties and Squatters Movements
in Pinochet's Chile, Cathy Schneider 260
15 Democratization and the Decline of Urban Social Movements
in Uruguay: A Political-Institutional Account,
Eduardo Canel 276
16 Popular Movements in the Context of the Consolidation
of Democracy in Brazil, Ruth Correa Leite Cardoso 291
Social Movements and Political Power in Latin America,
Orl.indo Fals Borda 303
Contents vii
18 Conclusion: Theoretical and Political Horizons of Change
in Contemporary Latin American Social Movements,
Sonia E. Alvarez and Arturo Escobar 317
List of Acronyms 331
Bibliography 334
About the Book 365
About the Series 366
Index 367

Preface and Acknowledgments
This book grew out of our shared and growing interest in contemporary social
movements and the vast theoretical literature on these movements produced
during the 1980s, particularly in Latin America and Western Europe. The fact
that this literature was very little known in the United States was one of the
motivating forces behind our effort. This anthology, however, was also a logical
extension of our respective previous projects. Sonia Alvarez's study of the rise
and development of the Brazilian women's movement pointed toward the broader
problem of understanding the nature and impact of social movements under
conditions of "transition to democracy." Arturo Escobar's dissertation on the
"invention" of development and the crucial role played by this discourse in the
production of post-World War II Latin America equally called for an investigation
of the actual and potential role of collective action in transforming entrenched
notions and strategies of local, regional, and national development.
We first conceived this project in 1988, when we both were teaching at the
University of California at Santa Cruz. We wanted to convey to our students the
excitement that we sensed in the writings of our Latin American colleagues about
the forms of protest observed in the region during the 1980s, perhaps as an
antidote to the otherwise gloomy picture offered by what has been called Latin
America's "lost decade." Although the Nicaraguan revolution and the struggle in
El Salvador had fueled the hopes of many—and rightly so—we nevertheless
wished to provide a view of the multiple forms of organized resistance that many
people had been able to maintain during the 1980s, though perhaps less glamor-
ously and against all odds. We both had the opportunity to teach undergraduate
courses on social movements, with partially different but complementary orien-
tations. We also started to meet regularly with a small group of Bay Area people
interested in social movements issues, which included Vivienne Bennett, Cathy
Schneider, and Teresa Carrillo. The momentum provided by these activities
crystallized in the organization of panels on the topic for both the 1989 and 1991
Latin American Studies Association (LASA) congresses, to which we were able
to invite some of the authors represented in this anthology—Orlando Fals Borda,
Maria Pilar Garcia, Vivienne Bennett, Judith Hellman, Amy Lind, and Cathy
Schneider.
The LASA panels were but one of the strategies we used in working closely
with our contributors to develop a coherent framework for this anthology and
encourage fruitful debates and collaboration among contributing authors. What
we have assembled is an interdisciplinary collection that examines comparatively
ix