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Social movements are purposeful, organized groups of people addressing the creation and reproduction of inequality, rights and access issues, seeking to transform sectoral policies. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, social movements have been acting in articulation with government and private companies and through other actions formulated within their networks, as service deliverers to the poor and vulnerable populations most heavily affected, often filling a gap created by unfulfilled policies. Our research with waste picker organizations in Brazil illustrates how their struggle for recognition has taken action in this context. Academic and government documents, social media and online material (blogs, posts, websites, etc.) and virtual meetings inform this research. We found that multiple actors have contributed to mitigate the urgent needs of waste pickers during the pandemic, but that at the same time, pre-existing challenges in waste management and the lack of wide-ranging social and economic inclusion have been further intensified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares how COVID-19 affected state–society relations differently in two relatively similar countries: Brazil and Argentina. Bringing together social movement theories and ideational institutionalism, we argue that variation in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic is explained by the different roles played by social movements inside and outside government and by contrasting ideational disputes. The extreme uncertainty introduced by the pandemic generated intense contestation about the meaning of the crisis and how to resolve it. In Brazil, progressive social movements not only were excluded from the government coalition, but also had to combat a powerful discourse that denied the existence of a crisis altogether. Such denialism did not flourish in the same way in Argentina, where progressive social movements were part of national government processes. The result was that in Argentina, movement–government dynamics revolved around constructing long-term policy proposals, whereas in Brazil movements focused on short-term emergency responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics of contemporary liberalism question whether the expansion of human and social rights can deliver radical social change. Drawing on ethnographic research in São Paulo, this article challenges this view by analysing how the discourse of rights has been critically redeployed by a radical Homeless Workers' Movement – the Brazilian Movimento dos Trabalhadores sem Teto (MTST). The MTST's strategic use of a discursive framework of social rights problematises existing scholarship which fails to account for the ways in which activists rework and redeploy ideas of rights in practice. In particular, the article demonstrates the centrality of rights discourse to the formation of radical political subjectivities and the emancipatory goals pursued by the MTST. This counter-hegemonic politics of rights re-signifies liberal discourse, exceeding its conventional juridical boundaries: it creates politicisation in occupations, and it constitutes a strategy of counter-conducts vis-à-vis neoliberal governmentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, focusing on the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) of Brazil, demonstrates how members of Latin America’s largest social movement perform the diverse compacts of obligation and reciprocity that characterise an MST occupation. MST encampments seek to enact a transformation of the land on which members are situated, but also emphasise a transformation of the human subject itself, from unproductive to productive. Performing this transformation and becoming truly ‘landless’, however, goes beyond merely being a willing new member: equally as important is the creation and maintenance of an ‘aesthetics of orderliness’ which makes visible the moral connotations that structure or undermine one’s right to become sem terra, landless. Through an analysis that foregrounds the temporality and territoriality of how the MST occupy and drawing a distinction between the precariousness of an MST encampment and the relative stability of an MST settlement, I suggest that movement members are content to perform in the former, but increasingly seek to issue performative acts in the latter. Building on Judith Butler’s distinction between performativity and performance, I argue that individual MST members, embedded in relational spheres, ultimately seek not only to transform themselves but also the wider movement by reconfiguring the very moral framework that structures their social movement from the ground up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mass movements in June and July 2013 were the largest and most significant protests in Brazil for a generation, and they have shaken up the country’s political system. They expressed a wide range of demands about public service provision and governance, and concerns with corruption. Their social base was broad, starting with students and left-wing activists and including, later, many middle-class protesters and specific categories of workers. The deep and contradictory frustrations expressed by those protests were symptomatic of a social malaise associated with neoliberalism, the power of the right-wing media, the limitations of the federal administrations led by the Workers’ Party (PT), the rapid growth of expectations in a dynamic country, and the atrophy of traditional forms of social representation. This article examines the political dilemmas posed by those movements, and suggests constructive alternatives for the left. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How do grassroots social movements respond to shifting perceptions within their bases on key issues? This article centres its analysis on the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST – Landless Rural Workers’ Movement) and instances of the movement’s cultural activity, in particular, mística. It is recognised that the MST’s cultural activity reflects a deep engagement with cultural politics, and further, that the movement’s culture sector contributes directly to the delineation and formation of the ‘landless’ identity. However, from an ethnographic perspective and privileging the experiences of the members of the movement, this article goes beyond cultural politics to suggest that shifting notions of individualism, in the context of the movement’s cultural activity, are having an impact on MST artistic expression and members’ daily lives. The article argues that from within the bases of the movement, there has been a shift from what can be termed a receptive individualism, where members internalise cultural activity, to an expressive individualism, where members actively seek to shape the movement’s cultural programmes. Members speak of a lack of visceral energy that the culture sector’s activities used to possess, which provides the impetus for the article’s concluding remarks on how social movements respond to transformation more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a framework for understanding social movements that address issues related to science, technology and expert knowledge. ‘Democratizing science movements’ contest, reframe, and engage in the production of official scientific research in order to achieve their goals. They contest the seeming objectivity and neutrality of science and seek to legitimate lay perspectives. In order to empirically explore why such movements arise and how they work, I discuss two cases: the anti-dam movement in Brazil and the environmental breast cancer movement in the USA. While there are obvious internal and contextual differences between these two movements, they both exemplify similar characteristics of democratizing science movements. In this sense, these cases are representative of a broader, transnational phenomenon. Qualitative data in the form of interviews, ethnographic observations and document collection were used to study these cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the assumption that professional associations are part of the privileged elite in Brazil. Tendency of international third sector literature to focus on non-governmental organizations and social movements; Autonomy and policy relevance of professional associations; Policy-relevant groups in Brazil.

The Protestant Pentecostal phenomenon, rather recent in Brazil (1910), has taken root in the popular classes. Alter an initial period of implantation (1910-1930), its real growth began in the thirties. Its main progress though has to be situated at the contemporary period of Brazilian capitalism. During this period, a new element has appeared: the popular masses. Little by little, these come to participate, at least partially, in the national life, under the influence of the dominant groups and the populist leaders. This means that the popular classes are somehow present at the social and political levels. The Pentecostal movement has to be seen within the background of this new element. We can thus observe a first aspect, i.e. the links by which this religious phenomenon is attached to the historically determined social structure. These links are of a structural nature. Through them, the Pentecostal movement is attached to the class structure of the capitalistic Brazilian society as it appears today. In this regard, at the same time as the class relations determine this phenomenon, they also make it possible to consider it as one of the components of the capitalistic society. This first step leads us, then, to the study of the religious structure of the Pentecostal movement, as it is situated in the social super-structure. Even though it is determined by the economical infra-structure, Pentecostalism keeps its specific character, which we shall attempt to analyze from the point of view of its religious structure. Finally, we shall attempt to study the ideology of the Pentecostal movement and the way it, in turn, acts upon the first determining factor. We shall analyze in particular the function of this ideology in its relation to the dominant ideology. These are the three points which constitute the dialectical perspective under which we shall approach the Pentecostal movement in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, based upon a survey carried out in Brazil, is a study of the charismatic renewal as it presents itself within Brazilian Catholicism. First of all, it poses the question of the religious status of the members of this movement: the empirical data which have been gathered indicate clearly that the charismatic renewal is not a movement of conversion, but of re-activation of Catholic spirituality. When we approach the problem of the social bases of the Catholic charismatic movement in Brazil, it appears that these bases are composed of the culturally and professionally priviledged social strata, In this regard, the Charismatic renewal is clearly distinguished from the "popular Catholicism" widely present in the subordinate classes of society. The central theme of the Catholic charismatic renewal is that of liberation in Jesus-Christ. But this liberation is viewed in almost exclusively optimistic and intimistic terms. This corresponds well to the social position of the members of this movement which is composed of people whose basic needs--food, lodging, clothing--are satisfied. Does this necessarily lead to the conclusion that the Catholic charismatic renewal in Brazil is merely a spiritual movement? This is by no means the case, for its function within Brazilian Catholicism as a whole could well be that of opposition to the liberation movement as it is conceived in basic Church communities. It thus would oppose the religious movement which is developing in a popular milieu and which views the question of the Kingdom of God as a reality which occurs within history, through the struggle against diverse forms of oppression and injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Party system development in new democracies is impacted by various legacies of the previous authoritarian regime. This study employs survey research to test for the impact of the authoritarian experience on the orientation of Brazilian politicians toward party building. The manipulation of political parties by the Brazilian authoritarian regime of 1964-85 generated an antipathy towards disciplined parties on the part of civilian politicians who supported the military. This antipathy was strong in the first years of democracy but diminished over time, as the crisis of Brazil's New Republic heightened elite awareness of the necessity of effective parties. The findings generate hypotheses that can be tested in other post-authoritarian party systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]