Dossier: Social Movements
“By observing the actions of these movements, we realize how they accomplish a kind of widening of the political space. Rejecting traditionally instituted politics and politicizing everyday questions of the workspace and of housing, they ‘invented’ new forms of politics” (SADER, Eder. Quando Novos Personagens Entram em Cena, 1988. Our translation).
The year of 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the Movement for Rural Workers Without Land (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), the MST. Having land reforms as their flagship issue, the MST largely contributed to bring forth and publicize the struggle of marginalized classes for land - a problem that pervades the territorial history of Brazil, since the times of the colonization to the present day.Throughout its trajectory, the MST established itself as a symbol of social struggles, helping to widen their reach beyond institutional spheres. A complex and rich historical phenomena, the entering of new figures - in the terms of Eder Sader - unfolds, currently, in countless places and practices. Globalization, the development of the internet, and of social media, are only some of the elements that have (re)shaped the tactics and actions of social movements around the world. Alongside greater media access and the chance to exchange and circulate political agendas, the current environment presents regressions, expressed in several attempts to delegitimize social movements. Furthermore, there’s been a growth in conservative movements that, appealing to practices and modes from progressive movements, like direct action and broader mass appeal, propose to present themselves as social actors, further widening the political space, in real and virtual ways.
With these debates in mind, RAN dedicates its 2024 dossier to the subject of “Social Movements”. Papers that propose to reflect, discuss, and analyze the groups, practices and agendas that form the current constellation of action and organization of social movements, in its various forms, shall be accepted from all fields.
