Barrio Women and Popular Politics in Chávez's Venezuela

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (03) ◽  
pp. 97-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujatha Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Women Activists ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Women's Labor ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Grassroots Politics ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Hugo Chavez

Abstract Since President Hugo Chávez came to power in Venezuela in 1998, ordinary women from the barrios, or shantytowns, of Caracas have become more engaged in grassroots politics; but most of the community leaders still are men. Chávez's programs are controlled by male-dominated bureaucracies, and many women activists still look to the president himself as the main source of direction. Nevertheless, this article argues, women's increasing local activism has created forms of popular participation that challenge gender roles, collectivize private tasks, and create alternatives to male-centric politics. Women's experiences of shared struggle from previous decades, along with their use of democratic methods of popular control, help prevent the state from appropriating women's labor. But these spaces coexist with more vertical, populist notions of politics characteristic of official sectors of Chavismo. Understanding such gendered dimensions of popular participation is crucial to analyzing urban social movements.

Wenn stadtpolitische Bewegungen das Terrain des Staats betreten

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (191) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Diesselhorst
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
City Government ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
Hierarchical Decision Making ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Hierarchical Decision ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

This article discusses the struggles of urban social movements for a de-neoliberalisation of housing policies in Poulantzian terms as a “condensation of the relationship of forces”. Drawing on an empirical analysis of the “Berliner Mietenvolksentscheid” (Berlin rent referendum), which was partially successful in forcing the city government of Berlin to adopt a more progressive housing policy, the article argues that urban social movements have the capacity to challenge neoliberal housing regimes. However, the specific materiality of the state apparatus and its strategic selectivity both limit the scope of intervention for social movements aiming at empowerment and non-hierarchical decision-making.

scholarly journals Urban social movements in South Africa today: Its meaning for theological education and the church

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan F. De Beer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

In the past decade, significant social movements emerged in South Africa, in response to specific urban challenges of injustice or exclusion. This article will interrogate the meaning of such urban social movements for theological education and the church. Departing from a firm conviction that such movements are irruptions of the poor, in the way described by Gustavo Gutierrez and others, and that movements of liberation residing with, or in a commitment to, the poor, should be the locus of our theological reflection, this article suggests that there is much to be gained from the praxis of urban social movements, in disrupting, informing and shaping the praxis of both theological education and the church. I will give special consideration to Ndifuna Ukwazi and the Reclaim the City campaign in Cape Town, the Social Justice Coalition in Cape Town, and Abahlali baseMjondolo based in Durban, considering these as some of the most important and exciting examples of liberatory praxes in South Africa today. I argue that theological education and educators, and a church committed to the Jesus who came ‘to liberate the oppressed’, ignore these irruptions of the Spirit at our own peril.

Urban Social Movements and the Production of Urban Space

1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Finquelievich
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Urban Social Movements

This article is a brief résumé of a three years' research work on urban social movements. A theoretical framework for the analysis of urban social movements is outlined and a methodology for their study is developed. The case of Barcelona is drawn on to illustrate the conclusions, and to demonstrate that urban movements can be social, e.g. that they can modify the power relationships between social classes. In the case of Barcelona these movements started when small groups of neighbours claimed better conditions in their urban environment and collective consumption, and have developed during the last fifteen years to become one of the most important social forces in the whole region of Catalonia, a force which cannot be ignored by the local authorities.

The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Rise of Urban Social Movements in Poland

2018 ◽  
pp. 1354-1375
Author(s):  
Maja Grabkowska ◽  
Łukasz Pancewicz ◽  
Iwona Sagan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Urban Issues ◽  
Activist Groups

The chapter examines the relationship between the use of Information and Communications Technology (ITC) and the emergence of social movements focused on urban agenda in Poland. The aim is to investigate how and to what extent a growing body of smaller activist groups use opportunities provided by the ITC to achieve their political objectives. The research results indicate that Web-based media have helped to raise the profile of local initiatives and increased awareness of systemic urban issues between different groups of grass-root actors. The findings of the chapter are based on the analysis of the Congress of Urban Movements (Kongres Ruchów Miejskich: KRM), a broad coalition of smaller non-governmental organizations and bottom-up activist groups, which use Internet-based tools to network. The results indicate that the Web-based tools increase the members' ability to connect and interact, consequently improving the ability to coordinate joint initiatives, expand real-life social networks, and in the result stimulate the rise of urban social movements.

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