THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES:

POLICING, CONTENTION

AND INSURGENT CITIZENSHIP

One of the most extensive debates in contentious politics and social movement studies has been about the explanatory value of the political-institutional context. Th e question that scholars have sought to answer is how institutional arrangements and prevailing patterns of political power infl uence the rise and decline of contentious politics, repertoires of ac-tions, organizational forms and policy outcomes (Rootes 1999; Meyer and Minkoff 2004). From the political process theory this question has been addressed through the concept of political opportunities. Th e diversity of defi nitions of this concept have covered both broad conceptualizations that include any event or social process that modifi es the foundations on which the political establishment is structured and specifi c defi nition focused on particular aspects of the political system, such as relative openness or closure of state institutions, con-fi guration of elites alliances and informal procedures to deal with challengers (Caren 2007).In their critical analysis of political process theory, Goodwin and Jasper (1999) argue that one of its main problems is the tendency to search for universally valid proposals and mod-els, without considering historical context and situational contingencies that may give rise to diff erent forms of contentious actions. Th e response to this criticism led to the formula-tion of a dynamic approach to contentious politics (McAdam et al. 2004; Tilly and Tar-row 2007) whose objective is no longer the search for general causalities, but rather the identifi cation and analysis of specifi c mechanisms and processes that shape these actions.

Sebastián Ibarra González

THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF URBAN STRUGGLES: GOVERNANCE AND CONTENTION IN SANTIAGO DE CHILE

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largest, most organized demonstrations occurring on a common ‘day of rage’. Protests have also triggered similar unrest in Palestine, Morocco, Djibouti, Iraq, Bahrain, and Kuwait.After the Arab uprisings social movements soon spread in some European countries such as Portugal and Spain. In Portugal, Geração à Rasca (Portuguese label to the NEET Genera-tion – not in employment, education or training) is the name given to a signifi cant number of street protests that took place in the country on March 12, 2011 (Figure 1). Th ese were the greatest public manifestations, not linked to political parties, since the 1974 Portuguese

1 Geração à Rasca parade, March 12, 2011.

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of Aleixo).In Aleixo, opinions on whether or not the neighborhood should be demolished diverged. Although the large majority of the residents that were interviewed seemed begrudged with the fact that the city council’s decision had been taken without regard for the promises made before and the expectations and desires of local families, only few tenants actively participated in the protests and other legal and public action put forward by the tenants’ association to stop and revert the demolition process. In the summer of 2008, only a very small portion of the neighborhood’s residents took part on the demonstration the tenant’s association organized in front of the City Hall to protest against the approval of the demoli-tion. Th e number of tenants actively engaged with the association’s initiatives was always small and several residents actually refused to participate, because they feared they would be assimilated to those interested in preserving the status quo of the local drug economy, or simply because they feared that taking part in the protests would negatively infl uence the negotiation with the city council concerning their own rehousing process. It should be noted that the city council had dismissed any collective negotiation and opted to set with each of the soon-to-be displaced families its rehousing conditions, this way furthering the fragmentation of local social relations and diffi culting any form of collective debate and collective action. With the transfer of several local families to other council housing estates,

1 People watching the demolition of Aleixo’s Tower 5, in a location nearby, in December 2011

Architecture Tendencies

Conflicts around urban development and planning issues represent an important di-mension of urban politics. Issues of social cohesion and democratic representation are all the more relevant in times when cities are undergoing a severe economic crisis and when local politics tends to meet its challenges with “post-political” responses. The relevance of local conflicts as moments of political mobilization is particularly apparent as institutions and procedures of urban politics fall short of meeting the expectations of local communities.The case-studies from cities throughout the world explore the potential of planning conflicts to raise questions about urban democracy. They point at some of its key challenges: the multi-scalar nature of urban policies; the tension between “policing” and “politics”, between institutional control and popular resistance; the spatial dimen-sion of protest and social mobilization; the limits to institutional practices of citizen participation and conflict resolution; the struggle for new democratic exercises and forms of citizenship. The volume is a contribution to rethinking conflicts in urban de-velopment and planning in a multidisciplinary perspective, raising questions about the role of planning theory and practice in turning conflict into a transformative resource for local policy.

Softcover16.5 cm x 24 cmapprox. 288 pages with approx. 30 b/w EnglishEUR (D) 32.00ISBN 978-3-86859-355-6September 2015

ConfliCt in the CityContested Urban Spaces and Local Democracy

Enrico Gualini / João Morais Mourato / Marco Allegra (eds.)

jovis VERLAG GMBH I KURfüRSTENSTRASSE 15/16 I 10785 BERLIN I foN 030-26 36 72-0 I fAx 030-26 36 72-72 I JoVIS@JoVIS.DE

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