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Theory, Practice and‘External Actors’in the Making of New Urban Social Movements in Brazil
Author(s) -
ASSIES WILLEM
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
bulletin of latin american research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1470-9856
pISSN - 0261-3050
DOI - 10.1111/j.1470-9856.1999.tb00084.x
Subject(s) - grassroots , social movement , democratization , militant , social movement theory , sociology , context (archaeology) , politics , new social movements , face (sociological concept) , political economy , middle class , resource mobilization , political science , contentious politics , democracy , social science , law , paleontology , biology
– Spontaneity and authenticity have often been key words in the analysis of the‘new urban social movements’that emerged in Brazil in the course of the 1970s. The movement discourse was often taken at face value and the involvement of other than‘popular’institutional and social actors tended to be concealed. Though in some analyses attention has been directed to the role of the Catholic Church and other institutional actors, very little has been said about the personnel involved and their class position. This article focuses on the latter aspect and in this manner draws attention to the role of segments of the emerging new middle classes in the social construction of the movements. It is argued that processes of professional affirmation in the context of the political conjuncture of the democratisation process contributed to a radical politicisation of segments of the emerging new middle classes. Such processes were related to the theoretical reflection on the new movements and the emergence of a‘militant perspective in research’which imbricated with the development of grassroots activism, amplified its impact, and furthered expectations over its role in the democratisation process. It thus contributed to the shaping of the movements. With the return to civilian rule and the changing configuration of state‐society relations the relations between middle class and popular grassroots activism changed and this initially reflected in disenchanted accounts of the new movements and their failure to live up to expectations. Analysis of such processes provides an insight into the epistemo‐politics of research and theory production on social movements.