Social Movements in Cities

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

How social movements are rooted in specific places has been of interest to scholars of collective action, as well as geography and sociology generally. Social movements, in general, are characterized by the sustained mobilization of people sharing social or political aims. The characteristics of cities, as distinct from rural geographies, play a role in the development of urban social movements, offering concentrations and a diversity of people, resources, and power. Academic literature on the topic examines how cities are conducive to, or constrain, the development of social movements. Although the term urban social movement first appears in scholarly literature in 1972, cities have been key sites of contention at least since industrialization in the 1800s. Cities remained prominent throughout the rise of new social movements and transnational summit protests. In more recent decades, networked movements such as Occupy have renewed questions about inequalities and the right to the city. In short, cities are both a prominent focus and locus of contention. This bibliography focuses on academic literature on the city as the locus and focus of social movements, aiming to provide a selection rather than a comprehensive list. Other, not specifically urban aspects of transnational and domestic social movements are covered in other Oxford Bibliographies articles. This bibliography pays particular attention to works which impacted debates in the field, including contrasting perspectives, as well as diverse methodological approaches.

scholarly journals What kind of commons are the urban commons?

Focaal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (66) ◽  
pp. 122-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Narotzky
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Right ◽  
Urban Commons ◽  
The City

Optimism of the will permeates this article, which builds on Lefebvre’s idea of The Right to the City ([1968] 2009) and its more recent revival by Harvey, specially in his last work where, after a period of scepticism regarding recent urban social movements as potentially politically transformative, he seems to vindicate their potential as part of a class understanding of these movements (2012).

Urban Policy, Social Movements, and the Right to the City in Brazil

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Friendly
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Positive Change ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Urban Reform ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Political Left ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Brazilian urban social movements have played a key role in bringing about change in urban policy since the 1980s and in light of the widespread protests across the country in June 2013. This insurgency and the urban reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s exemplify waves of mobilization and demobilization, signaling positive change at the level of praxis. More recent events have highlighted challenges for Brazil’s political left. Os movimentos sociais urbanos brasileiros tem desempenhado um papel chave na mudança da política urbana desde os anos 80 e em vista dos mega-protestos espalhados pelo país de junho de 2013. Esta insurgência e o movimento de reforma urbana dos anos 80 e 90 exemplificam ondas de mobilização e desmobilização, sinalizando mudanças positivas ao nível da praxis. Eventos mais recentes têm destacado desafios para a esquerda política brasileira.

A contribution to building unified movements for the environment: aligning interests, forming alliances

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
David O’Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

The aim of this paper is to outline a way in which research can contribute to the advance of environmental social movements. Current struggles under capitalism are fragmented and localized, which means that creating unity out of fragmented struggles is essential for movements to become more successful. The Right to the City (RTC) as a concept, in its most radical formulation, has this ambition at its core. I examine various attempts from the RTC literature to promote unity, paying particular attention to the use of ideas of justice. In general these attempts are too abstract to be of practical use to existing movements. They do provide useful insight to researchers, by showing the necessity of paying attention to the context that particular movements operate in, but means of formulating advice for movement activists remain vague. I argue that to be more useful to movements, research should and can have something to say about the practical issues movements face, such as, how demands are framed and how to engage with other organizations. I argue that this can be done by bringing together analysis at a number of levels. In the case of movements of labor for the environment, Marxist geographic structural analysis can be combined with political and cultural analysis based on Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and analysis of the dynamics of movement emergence and advance using social movement theory. I argue that such a framework can connect a vision for radical change with the more immediate problems of organizing social movements.

scholarly journals MORADIA NO SÉCULO XXI: ativo financeiro ou direito social?

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 839
Author(s):  
Sávio Silva de Almeida ◽  
Cristina Pereira de Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Process Of Urbanization ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

O presente ensaio tem como objetivo analisar o aprofundamento da mercantilização do direito à moradia, sob a hegemonia neoliberal. A metodologia empregada envolve uma extensa revisão de literatura com vistas a contribuir com os estudos sobre a urbanização, movimentos sociais urbanos, direito à cidade e à moradia digna. Na primeira seção, o texto trata do processo de urbanização sob o capitalismo. Na segunda seção, aborda as lutas promovidas no âmbito jurídico pelos movimentos sociais brasileiros que construíram a moradia como um direito humano social. Na terceira seção, apresentauma reflexão sobre a financeirização da moradia. Conclui que o aprofundamento da financeirização da moradia representa o novo paradigma da urbanização capitalista a ser superado pelos movimentos sociais, para que o Estado possa atuar no sentido de garantir a moradia como um direito social.Palavras-chave: Urbanização. Direito à moradia. Neoliberalismo.HOUSING IN THE 21th CENTURY? Financial asset or social right?AbstractThe present essay aims to analyze the deepening of the commodification of the right to housing, under neoliberal hegemony. The methodology involves an extensive literature review that approach the proposed theme intending to contribute to studies on urbanization, urban social movements, right to the city and right to housing. In the first section, the text seeks to reflect on the process of urbanization under capitalism. In the second, brings to reflect on the struggles promoted in the legal sphere by the Brazilian social movements that built housing as a social human right. In the third, the text presents a reflection on the financialization of housing. It concludes that the deepening of the financialization of housing represents the new paradigm of capitalist urbanization to be overcome by social movements, so that the State can act in the sense of guaranteeing housing as a social right.Keywords: Urbanization. Right to housing. Neoliberalism.

Urban Social Movements in ‘Weak’ Civil Societies: The Right to the City and Cosmopolitan Activism in Southern Europe

Urban Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1179-1203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lila Leontidou
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
The South ◽  
State Planning ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Civil Societies

The transition from fast spontaneous urbanisation in southern Europe, with popular squatting as a form of civil disobedience, to ‘new social movements’ (NSMs) for democratic globalisation in cities, is taking place in the context of a broader transition. In the 20th century, there were unstable politics, civil wars and also still dictatorships in the south, which contributed in a north—south divide in Europe, engulfing civil societies, the welfare state, planning and grassroots mobilisations for a ‘right to the city’. This paper focuses on social transformation during the 21st century and points to three directions. First, it explores the nature of several NSMs as urban social movements (USMs) organised by loosely networked cosmopolitan collectivities, social centres and flâneur activists demanding a ‘right to the city’, and interprets this with reference to globalisation, democratisation and the Europeanisation of southern civil societies. Secondly, it unveils innovative forms of ‘urban’ mobilisations in the south, influencing the rest of the Europe: squatting in the past, social centres and the ESF (both starting in Italy) at present. Thirdly, it traces transformations of USMs between two centuries and argues about the deconstruction of the north—south divide in Europe with regard to movements and definitions of the ‘right to the city’. Mediterranean USMs have offered new insights and have broadened geographical imaginations in Europe.

Social Conflict in Argentina (1989–2017): Democracy in Dispute

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 96-111
Author(s):  
Leandro Gamallo
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
The Right ◽  
Movement Participation ◽  
Multiple Actors

An analysis of the evolution of social conflicts in Argentina between 1989 and 2017 in terms of three aspects of collective action—the actors in contention, their main demands, and their chosen forms of struggle—reveals important changes since the country’s return to democracy. Collective action has extended to multiple actors, channeled weightier demands, and expanded its forms. With the emergence of progovernment and conservative social movements, it has become apparent that not all movement participation in the state implies weakness, subordination, or co-optation and that social movement action does not necessarily mean democratization or expansion of rights. The right-wing government of 2015 opened up a new field of confrontation in which old divisions and alliances are being reconfigured. Un análisis de la evolución de los conflictos sociales en Argentina entre 1989 y 2017 realizado a partir de tres grandes dimensiones de la acción colectiva (los actores contenciosos, las demandas principales que enuncian y las formas de lucha que emplean) revela cambios importantes. La acción colectiva se ha extendido a más actores, ha canalizado demandas más amplias y se ha expresado de maneras más heterogéneas. Con el surgimiento de movimientos sociales oficialistas y opositores de índole conservador, se ha hecho evidente que la participación de las organizaciones sociales en el estado no siempre significa debilidad, subordinación o cooptación por parte del estado y que la movilización social no necesariamente implica procesos de democratización o expansión de derechos. La llegada de una alianza de derecha en 2015 abrió un nuevo campo de confrontaciones que redefinió antiguas alianzas y divisiones.

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