Autonomy and participation in contemporary Latin American social

movements: a multidisciplinary comparative perspective

Alternating between authoritarian political regimes and fragile democracies, Latin

American countries have had their history built in a context of significant
instability. Economic inequality, extreme in the region, is expressed in the disparities of
access to spaces where political power is exercised and reproduced. Many social groups
are prevented from, or at least have considerable difficulties, expressing their interests
through the institutional channels of the state. Due to this exclusionary reality, attempts
to broaden access or to horizontalize politics have been developed to a greater or lesser
degree of success in different countries. Experiences of participatory public budgeting
and planning sought to bring marginalized social groups to the state decision-making
spheres. But beyond these initiatives – which are the subject of critical reflection and
debate - several popular movements sought to broaden the political role of
disadvantaged social groups outside, and sometimes in open opposition to the capitalist
state. Claims for autonomy and self-government are expressions of collectivities that
regard the state in its liberal representative democratic form as insufficient or even an
obstacle to the project of society they wish to build. The purpose of this panel is to
congregate research on how different Latin American social movements deal with the
conceptualization and practice of the notion of autonomy in contemporary
times, incorporating studies from a variety of countries, disciplines and methodologies.

Autonomous Infrastructures:

Building and Sustaining Autonomy in Community Water Systems in the Andes

Geoff Goodwin

University of Oxford

geoff.goodwin@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Abstract

Infrastructure performs a crucial role in building, sustaining, and mediating the

autonomy of community organisations and social movements. While some forms of
infrastructure foster autonomous capacity and support alternative forms of
organisation and politics, others increase dependency on the state and narrow the scope
for radical social and politic change. In this paper, I will explore the connection between
autonomy and infrastructure through the analysis of community water systems in rural
Ecuador. Drawing on postdoctoral research conducted in Ecuador since 2015, I will seek
to show that while community water organizations have built autonomous capacity
through sustained, collective engagement with hydraulic infrastructure, the type of
infrastructure that has been introduced has created long-term constraints and
dependencies. To develop and sustain potable and irrigation water systems, community
water organisations are reliant on contributions from local governments, state agencies,
overseas development agencies, and non-government organisations, and these
contributions and relations create tensions within rural communities and indigenous
movements. I will combine literatures on infrastructure and autonomy to provide new
insights into this dilemma and seek to draw out wider conclusions for the practice and
theory of autonomy in contemporary Latin America.

The Catholic Agrarian Youth’s organizational methods and the resistance against the
Brazilian Dictatorship (1964-1985)
Mariana Affonso Penna
Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Goiás
mariana.penna@ifg.edu.br
Abstract
In 1964 a coup d'état overthrew the weak Brazilian democracy, established two decades
earlier. In addition to the economic motivations – flagship of the coup movement – a
series of religious moralistic demands were also launched as a way of garnering
supporters to depose João Goulart. Therefore, a significant portion of the Catholic
Church engaged in the coup. However, as repression advanced, the Catholic opposition
to the regime grew, especially in the midst of youth. The year 1968, marked by the
deepening of authoritarianism with the cancellation of the few remaining political and
civil rights, is a milestone. Many Catholic youth groups got interested in Marxist and
socialist ideas. Some decided to join the urban or rural guerrilla movement as a last
resort to oppose the regime. But others were critical of this practice, considering it
avant-garde and ineffective because their goals didn’t reflect ordinary people’s values
and longings. The Catholic Agrarian Youth, a lay group focused on spreading the Catholic
doctrine among peasants and rural workers through a method called “see-judge-act”,
came into contact with resistance movements to the dictatorship in 1969, especially
with Popular Action. This interaction generated a very significant change of perspective:
the desire for a radical transformation of society. Merging the heritage of “see-judge-
act” method with Paulo Freire's educational thinking and methodology, and later with
Maoist-based “masses line” method, the Rural Evangelization Movement was founded.
Responsible for organizing various Grassroots Ecclesial Communities and rural workers
unions they are the cradle of the current autonomist People’s Communities Movement.
 The Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae: lessons from the first indigenous
autonomous government recognized by the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Rafaela Pannain
Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP)
rafaelapannain@yahoo.com.br
Abstract

In January 2017, Charagua Iyambae became the first indigenous autonomy recognized
by the Plurinational State of Bolivia. In Charagua, the indigenous autonomy is presented
as a form of liberation from different oppressions to which the Guarani were subjected,
and the first piece of the puzzle of the reconstruction of their nation's territory. This
research analyses how, although the memory of previous periods of autonomy is
present in the local discourse; the autonomy currently under construction is a novelty.
This new organization is being built based on a memory of the past, expectations of the
future, and limits set mainly by state institutions and the organization of the territory.
As in previous centuries, the autonomy is in dispute, and it is negotiated with the state
– but on new bases, since its frameworks were created with the recognition of the
plurinationality of the Bolivian state. The case of Charagua Iyambae sheds some light on
how the limits between the state and the indigenous communities are still in dispute in
Bolivia.

Housing activism in sub-national policy-making: an opportunity for learning and

democratic innovation?

Valesca Lima
Maynooth University, Ireland
valesca.lima@mu.ie
Abstract

In the past 30 years, urban policies in Brazil undergone intense transformation, both in
terms of regulatory frameworks and in involvement of citizens in the process of policy-
making. For this reason, the country was seen as a laboratory of democratic innovations
and citizen participation by many scholars. As an intense process of institutional
innovation and mobilisation for decent public services took place, academics started to
consider the impact of institutionalisation on social movements autonomy. This paper
examines the impact of institutional participation on social movements and the
differences between social movements integrated in participatory institutions and those
acting outside them. Using empirical evidence from a city in the Northeast of Brazil, I
examine what occurs when social movements become involved in government
institutions. In particular, this paper explores the learning processes that underlines
citizens participation by showing how participation in housing policy councils
collaborates to accountability and strengthens contemporary activism. This study found
the learning of deliberative skills led to changes in the objectives and repertoires of
housing movements, with the inclusion new components to their objectives that provide
room for creative agency on participation of SMOs through learning experiences. This
conclusion shows the extraordinary vigour of the public sphere and social movements
around the housing issue, and contributes to studies of participatory innovations and
democratic participation