Search results

English
In the last decade many Argentine enterprises became bankrupt, inspiring thousands of workers to take them over and resume production by forming cooperatives. In 2004, the Programme for Self-Managed Work became the instrument by which the government 'institutionalised' the takeovers, depoliticising the radical aspects of workers' actions in exchange for financial and technical assistance in pursuit of workers' objectives of job preservation and self-managed work. This article presents results from (1) an ongoing ESRC research project on 'The Movement of the Unemployed in Argentina'(RES-155-25-0007), NGPA Programme, LSE and (2) previous research on social mobilisation and policy change in Argentina (2002–03).

Social mobilizations that are devoted to contesting development and creating alternative economic arrangements conducive to the pursuit of a dignified life have recently sprung up. Not only do they criticize the current state of affairs but they actively seek and experience new ways of living, inspired by what Bloch calls the anticipatory consciousness of the 'not-yet-become', that is, another reality not yet materialized but which can be already experienced. This article argues that these mobilizations are not adequately captured by the term 'social movements'. The uniqueness of these mobilizations requires a conceptual and epistemological turn that is able to accommodate the post-development critique of development as well as their emancipatory dimension. We propose to name them 'hope movements' to account for the collective action directed to anticipate, imperfectly, alternative realities that arise from the openness of the present one. We conclude by discussing the political relevance of hope movements for the pursuit of the good life as an alternative to development.

In this reflection, we assess the theoretical faultline running through the contested current of Corbynist thought and politics at present. On one hand, we find a techno-utopian strand preoccupied with automation and the end of work. On the other hand, a nascent politics of social reproduction with a foreshortened potential to realise the promise of a continental-style solidarity economics in the United Kingdom. Both represent the latest in a series of left attempts to confront the crisis of social democracy that rages across Europe, a crisis to which the British Labour Party has not been alone in succumbing despite recent appearances otherwise. Deindustrialisation collapsed labour's role in everyday life, and a crisis in the society of work eventually passed over into its representative party's electoral decline. Subsequent financial crisis and subsequent austerity have only made things worse. A poverty of ideas prevails that all sides of social democracy's unsteady compromise seek desperately to solve. However, the recent UK General Election shows evidence that Corbynism has renewed Labour's fortunes to some extent. Surveying the competing intellectual currents behind its rise, we suggest that the politics of social reproduction offer a better route forward for the Labour Party than the popular siren call of postcapitalism, and reflect on what the recent general election result suggests for their future development.

Recent experiences of social movements in South America and the expansion of non-institutional forms of collective action have given rise to new conceptual frameworks such as participatory democracy, which aim to capture the impact of new forms of participation and collective action on democracy in the region. As a means of exploring the possibilities of deepening democracy, such frameworks have taken as their focal point the institutionalisation of 'alternative' forms and processes of participation. However, the focus on institutionalisation has usually bypassed the more radical dimensions of the discourses and practices of the movements-the 'disagreement' at their heart. By way of illustrative cases of two contemporary movements from Argentina (Piqueteros) and Brazil (Movement of Rural Landless Workers) we focus on two questions: What is the contribution of social movements to the process of democratisation? To what extent is such contribution being captured by new scholarly work on participatory and deliberative democracy? We analyse the political struggle within, against and beyond democratic 'borders' led by social movements in three historical moments. By distinguishing the dimensions of 'real policies' and 'imagined politics' we suggest that new conceptualisations such as 'participatory democracy' are unable to recognise the alternative democratic realities that emerge out of disagreement and play a regulatory role in transforming disagreement into dissent. Hope is then lost in translation. We suggest that Radical Democratic Theory can offer a better work of translation, as it is able to grasp the vital dimension of movements' collective action that resists integration into the hegemonic cannon, thus reflecting the movements' own reflection of their emancipatory collective action.

La bella búsqueda de la autonomía / Mabel Thwaites Rey --. - Conceptualizando la autonomía. Introducción. La autonomía y sus imaginarios prácticos en permanente construcción / Ana Cecilia Dinerstein --. - La práctica de la autonomía en América Latina : navegando tensiones. ¿Participación ciudadana o autoorganización popular? Movilización y resistencia en las Juntas Vecinales de El Alto, Bolivia / Daniel Contartese y Melina Deledicque ; ¿Empleo o trabajo digno? Crítica e imaginación en las Organizaciones Piqueteras, Argentina / Ana Cecilia Dinerstein ; ¿Agronegocio o soberanía alimentaria? El MST y la otra reforma agraria en Brasil / Juan Pablo Ferrero ; ¿Municipio libre o comunidad autónoma rebelde? Los zapatistas y la construcción del "nosotros revolucionario" / Ana Dinerstein, Luciana Ghiotto y Rodrigo Pascual --. - Repensando la autonomía a la luz de la experiencia. Autonomía y esperanza. La nueva gramática de la emancipación social / Ana Cecilia Dinerstein

With capitalism in crisis - rising inequality, unsustainable resource depletion and climate change all demanding a new economic model - the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has been suggested as an alternative. What can contribute in terms of generating livelihoods that provide a dignified life, meeting of social needs and building of sustainable futures? What can activists in both the global North and South learn from each other? In this volume academics from a range of disciplines and from a number of European and Latin American countries come together to question what it means to have a 'sustainable society' and to ask what role these alternative economies can play in developing convivial, humane and resilient societies, raising some challenging questions for policy-makers and citizens alike