Dynamics of Autonomous Action in Social Movements: From Rejection to Construction

• Author: Gustavo Moura de Oliveira,Monika Weronika Dowbor
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20939965
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20939965

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 234, Vol. 47 No. 5, September 2020, 49–61

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20939965

© 2020 Latin American Perspectives

49

Dynamics of Autonomous Action in Social Movements

From Rejection to Construction

by

Gustavo Moura de Oliveira and Monika Weronika Dowbor

Translated by

Luis Fierro

A review of the recent literature on social movements identifies three types of autono-

mous action of movements in relation to the state: (1) rejection of the state and the con-

struction of ways of life on its margins; (2) rejection of the state’s ways of functioning and

the construction of alternative modes of organization and action; and (3) rejection of his-

torical inequality in state decisions on public policy and the proposal of alternatives to that

policy. From a theoretical point of view, it shows that autonomy as action may coexist with

the institutionalization of demands, projects, and movement organization.

A sistematização da produção bibliográfica sobre a autonomia de movimentos sociais

dos últimos dez anos chegou a três tipos analíticos de ação autônoma de movimentos em

relação ao Estado: (1) negação do Estado e construção de modos de vida à sua margem; (2)

negação das formas de funcionamento do Estado e construção alternativa de organização

e ação; (3) negação da desigualdade histórica nas decisões do Estado para produção de

políticas públicas e construção de propostas alternativas para aquelas políticas. Do ponto

de vista teórico, mostrou-se que a autonomia como ação pode coexistir com os processos de

institucionalização de demandas, projetos e organizações de movimentos.

Keywords: Autonomy, Social movements, State, Autonomous action, State-society

interaction

The redemocratization and reform of the state under both neoliberal and

democratic-participatory projects and even under the recent progressive gov-

ernments in Latin America have intensified and expanded the interactions of

social movements with the state, sometimes leading to institutionalization of

social actors and their demands (Lavalle etal., 2019). As a result, “autonomy”

as a term and analytical category has lost the centrality it once had for charac-

terizing the relationships between social movements and the state (Avritzer,

2012; Lavalle and Szwako, 2015), being replaced by relational categories such

as interdependence (Avritzer, 2012), interaction repertoire (Abers, Serafim, and

Tatagiba, 2014), forms of connection (Bringel and Falero, 2016), and defense

coalitions (Barcelos, Pereira, and Silva, 2017). However, the term has begun to

Gustavo Moura de Oliveira is a doctoral student in the graduate program in social sciences at the

University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos. Monika Weronika Dowbor is a political scientist and a profes-

sor and researcher in the same program. Luis Fierro is a translator living in the Miami area.

939965LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20939965Latin American PerspectivesOliveira and Dowbor / Autonomous Action in Social Movements

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