From Castro to Chiapas an Introduction to Contentious Politics in Latin America

7/28/2019 From Castro to Chiapas an Introduction to Contentious Politics in Latin America

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COURSE PROPOSALMartn Bar Lectureship

From Castro to Chiapas: An Introduction to Contentious Politics in Latin AmericaErica Simmons

[email protected]

NOTE TO CLAS: If readings for each week are too demanding for an undergraduatecourse, just let me know and I will happily cut!!

This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the major empirical and theoreticalthemes in the study of contentious politics in contemporary Latin America. While it is

impossible to cover every theoretical approach or Latin American case during the quarter,the course should give students the tools begin to think critically about where and why

people engage in collective action. We will develop and hone these tools throughthinking about Latin American cases, paying specific attention to revolutions, riots and

social movements. The course is designed in two parts. It begins by exposing students tothe dominant theoretical paradigms in the study of contentious politics as well as some

prominent critiques. The course then turns to empirical themes in Latin Americancontentious politics, challenging students to use and question the theoretical tools to

which they have already been exposed. Cases will focus on revolutions, challenges todictatorships and democracies, urban and rural organizing, identity based movements,

and resistance to globalization.

PART I: Theoretical Tools and Regional Overview

Week 1: Introduction to the course and to each other

- Discussion of course expectations and requirements- Discussion of the syllabus- Short film:Leasing the Rain

Week 2: An Overview of Approaches to Contentious PoliticsGoals:

- Ask: What is contentious politics? (and come up with a few answers!).- Understand the dominant paradigms and the context of their development- Relate those paradigms to some of your own experiences or case knowledge- Think critically about why this paradigms might be problematic- Begin to question whether we need different approaches when talking about less

developed countries or communities

Gurr, Ted. 1970. Why Men Rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 3-21.

Tarrow, Sidney. 1998.Power and Popular Protest. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, Introduction and Chapter 1 (p. 1-28), Part 11 (p. 29-70).
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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McAdam, McCarthy and Zald. 1996. Introduction: Opportunities, mobilizing structures,and framing processestowards a synthetic, comparative perspective on social

movements. In McAdam, McCarthy and Zald, eds. Comparative Perspectives on SocialMovements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1-22.

McAdam.1996. Conceptual origins, current problems, future directions. In McAdam,McCarthy and Zald, eds. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, p. 23-40.

Gamson and Meyer. 1996. Framing political opportunity. In McAdam, McCarthy and

Zald, eds. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

McAdam. 1999.Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency

**SECOND EDITION** Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Introduction to theSecond Edition, p. vii-xxxvii.

Week 3: Contemporary CritiquesGoals:

- Understand what the contemporary critiques are of approaches to contentiouspolitics

- Explore problems with these critiques (phenomena they still cant explain? Whatdo they explain?)

- Consider whether it is possible to develop theories of contentious politics thatapply across space and time

McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly. 2001.Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, p. 14-18, 38-71).

Goodwin and Jasper. 2004.Rethinking Social Movements. New York: Rowman andLittlefield, Ch 1 (p. 3-30) and Ch. 7 (p. 97-111).

Aminzade and McAdam. 2001. Emotions and Contentious Politics. In Silence and

Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics. Various, eds. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, p. 14-50.

McAdam and Sewell. 2001. Its About Time: Temporality in the Study of Social

Movements and Revolutions. In Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics.Various, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 89-125.

Goodwin, Jeff. 2001.No other way out : states and revolutionary movements, 1945-1991.

Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. Chs 1-2 (p. 3-64)

Week 4: Introduction to Contentious Politics in Latin America


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Goals:- Think specifically about how the theories weve discussed might or might not

apply to Latin America- Consider how/why theorizing about contentious politics in Latin America might

be different and whether these differences are warranted

Escobar, Arturo, and Sonia E. Alvarez. 1992. The Making of social movements in LatinAmerica : identity, strategy, and democracy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. Chs 1, 4,

and 18.

Eckstein, Susan, and Manuel A. Garretn Merino. 2001.Power and popular protest :Latin American social movements. Updated and expanded ed. Berkeley: University of

California Press. Ch. 1

Eckstein, Susan, and Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley. 2003. Struggles for Social Rightsin Latin America. In Eckstein, Susan, and Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley, eds. Struggles

for social rights in Latin America. New York: Routledge.

Eckstein, Susan. 1983. "Revolution and Redistribution in Latin America." In CynthiaMclintock and Abraham Lowenthal, eds., The Peruvian Experiment Reconsidered.

Princeton: Princeton University Press. p.347-386.

PART II: Revolutions, Riots, and Social Movements

Week 5: Comparative Approaches to RevolutionGoals:

- Compare prominent approaches to Latin American revolutions- Identify strengths/weaknesses in these approaches- Focus explicitly on the role of class and the state

Paige, Jeffrey. 1978.Agrarian Revolution. Free Press. Exact pages TBD

Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 1992. Guerrillas and revolution in Latin America: acomparative study of insurgents and regimes since 1956. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton

University Press. Chapter 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12 (the chapters are relatively short)

Goodwin, Jeff. 2001.No other way out : states and revolutionary movements, 1945-1991.Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. Part III. (p. 137-216)

Week 6: A Closer Look at Success and FailureRevolutionary Movements in Cuba El

Salvador, and Peru

Goals:- Think about whether which/any theoretical approaches are appropriate for the

Cuban, Salvadoran, and Peruvian cases


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o What were the political opportunities in each case? The resourcesavailable to the movements? What do these help us explain, if anything?

- Explore potential explanations for the contrasting outcomes- Ask explicitly: How important is leadership? Class structure? Demonstration

effects? International involvement?

Eckstein, Susan Eva. 1994. Back From the Future: Cuba Under Castro. Princeton:Princeton University Press. p. 3-59.

Suchlicki, Jaime. 2002. Cuba: From Columbus to Castro. Fifth Edition; Brassey. pp. 87-

133.

Prez Jr., Luis. 2006. Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution. Third edition; OxfordUniversity Press, pp. xii-xiv, 210-236.

Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2003.Insurgent collective action and civil war in El Salvador.

New York: Cambridge University Press. Chs 1, 4, 8 and Epilogue

McClintock, Cynthia. 1998.Revolutionary Movements in LatinAmerica: El SalvadorsFMLN and Perus Shining Path. U.S. Institute of Peace. Selections TBD (another book

that is in Chicago while I am not).

Week 7: Resisting Dictatorship and Challenging Democracy

Goals:- Explore how and why people were able to resist dictatorships- Pay careful attention to what kinds of political opportunities democracies and

dictatorships create

- Contrast movements resisting dictatorships to those challenging democracies. Dowe note any particular patterns? Are there more similarities than differences?

Navarro, Marysa. 2001. The Personal is Political: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo. In

Eckstein, Susan, and Manuel A. Garretn Merino, eds.Power and popular protest : LatinAmerican social movements. Updated and expanded ed. Berkeley: University of

California Press.

Garretn, Manuel Antonio. Popular Mobilization and the Military Regime in Chile: TheComplexities of the Invisible Transition. In Eckstein, Susan, and Manuel A. Garretn

Merino, eds.Power and popular protest : Latin American social movements. Updatedand expanded ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Moreira Alves, Maria Helena. 2001. Interclass Alliances in the Opposition to the

Military in Brazil: Consequences for the Transition Period. In Eckstein, Susan, andManuel A. Garretn Merino, eds.Power and popular protest : Latin American social

movements. Updated and expanded ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.


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Mainwaring, S., and Viola, E. 1984. "New Social Movements, Political Culture and

Democracy," Telos, no. 61. pp. 17-52.

Hochstetler, K. 2000. Democratizing Pressures from Below: Social Movements in theNew Brazilian Democracy. inDemocratic Brazil, ed. P. R. Kingstone and T. J. Power.

University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 162-182.

Week 9: Urban and Rural, Labor and LandGoals:

- Return to concepts of class and consider how well they explain both rural andurban organizing

- Consider how the changing dynamics of labor in Latin America affect thepossibilities for other kinds of social organizing or collective behavior

- Contrast the resources, opportunities and frames available to rural and urbanmovements

Nash, June. Cultural resistance and Class Consciousness in Bolivian Tin MiningCommunities. 2001. In Eckstein, ed.Power and Popular ProtestCollier, R. B., and Mahoney, J. 1997. Adding Collective Actors to Collective Outcomes:Labor and Recent Democratization in South America and Southern Europe.

Comparative Politics 29 no. 3, pp. 285-303.

Murillo, Victoria. 2003. Latin American Labor, in Domnguez and Shifter, eds.,Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America. Johns Hopkins. p. 100-117.

Murillo, M. V. 2000. From Populism to Neoliberalism: Labor Unions and Market

Reforms in Latin America. World Politics 52 no. 2, pp. 135-174.

Petras, James. 2005. The Centrality of Peasant Movements in Latin America:Achievements and Limitations. Synthesis/Regeneration v. 38. Online at

http://www.greens.org/s-r/38/38-10.html

Edelman, Marc. 2005. Bringing the Moral Economy back in . . . to the Study of 21st-Century Transnational Peasant Movements. American Anthropologist, Vol 7:3.Navarro, Zander. 2000. Breaking New Ground: Brazils MST, inNACLA Report on the

Americas 33(5): 36-39

Wolford, Wendy. Families, Fields, and Fighting for Land: The Spatial Dynamic ofContention in Rural Brazil.Mobilization 8 no. 2, p. 201-215.

Week 8: Organizing Around Identity: Women and Indigenous Movements

Goals:- Understand patterns (if any) in social movements organized around gender- Understand patterns (if any) in social movements organized around ethnicity
http://www.greens.org/s-r/38/38-10.htmlhttp://www.greens.org/s-r/38/38-10.htmlhttp://www.greens.org/s-r/38/38-10.html


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- Explore how/if movements organized around identity should beunderstood/analyzed differently.

- Explore contrasts/similarities between movements organized around women andthose organized around indigenous politics

Htun, M. 2003. Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under LatinAmerican Dictatorships and Democracies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.142-171.

Berger, Susan. 2003. Guatamaltecas:The Politics of Gender and Democratization. In

Eckstein, Susan, and Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley, eds. Struggles for social rights inLatin America. New York: Routledge.

Lynn Stephen. 1997. Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power from Below

Selections TBD (another book that I do not have with me right nowmy apologies).

Yashar, Deborah. 2005. Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of IndigenousMovements and the Postliberal Challenge. Cambridge University Press. Ch 1 (pp. 3-27

only), Ch 3, 4, 5, and Ch 7

Brysk, Alison. 2000.From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights andInternational Relations in Latin America. Stanford University Press. pp. 246-265.

Week 10: Resistance to Globalization and MarketizationGoals:

- Explore continuities with and differences from cases already discussed- Consider changes created by transnational networks- Question whether the tools we have help to explain riots- Think critically about whether we need new critical tools to understand

contemporary patterns

Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink. 1997.Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy

Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press. pp.1-29; 79-120.

Womack, John Jr. 1999. Chiapas, the Bishop of San Cristobal, and the ZapatistaRevolt. InRebellion in Chiapas. John Womack Jr, ed. New York: The New Press.

Veltmeyer, Henry. 2000. The Dynamics of Social Change and Mexicos EZLN Latin

American Perspectices 27, no. 5, p. 88-110

Walton, John. 2001. Debt, Protest, and the State in Latin America. in Susan Eckstein,ed.,Power and Popular Protest.


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Auyero, Javier and Moran, Timothy. 2007. "The Dynamics of Collective Violence:Dissecting Food Riots in Contemporary Argentina." Social Forces 85(3): 1341-1367.

Assies, Willem. 2003. "David versus Goliath in Cochabamba: Water Rights,

Neoliberalism and the Revival of Social Protest in Bolivia."Latin American Perspectives,

30 (3):22.

Eckstein, Susan Eva. 2001. Where Have All the Movements Gone? in Susan Eckstein,

ed.,Power and Popular Protest, p. 351-401

Cut:

Brysk, Alison. 1996. Turning Weakness into Strength: The Internationalization of

Indian Rights,Latin American Perspectives 23, No. 2.

Foran, John. 2005. Taking power : on the origins of third world revolutions. Cambridge,UK. ; New York: Cambridge University Press. Ch 1 (p. 5-32)

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From Castro to Chiapas an Introduction to Contentious Politics in Latin America