(= A LCS 472) Social Movements in Latin America

Catalog description

This class takes an anthropological perspective to discuss contemporary Latin American social movements. It considers why the intensification of social movements throughout the region may follow some traditional forms of resistance and mobilization, but also why it is a response to neoliberal globalization. These new movements seek to define a novel relation to the political realm. Unlike traditional guerrilla movements or electoral expressions of the left, they are not fundamentally organized to seize state power. Yet they have contributed to destabilizing, even, ousting governments. Social movement formation and resistance to neoliberalism are explored. Social movements, such as the indigenous mobilizations in Ecuador, mobilizations against water privatizations and gas pipeline investments in Bolivia, the Zapatista movement in Mexico, landless rural workers in Brazil, Afro-Colombians resisting investors, and the urban worker strikes in Argentina, are covered. Only one version may be taken for credit. Prerequisite(s): one course in anthropology, sociology, political science or geography.