Beyond Civil Society: Activism, Participation, and Protest in Latin America - Hardcover

"The authors of this important edited collection interrogate what they call the 'civil society agenda.' . . . Beyond Civil Society thus offers a sober analysis of the effectiveness and degree of political autonomy of movements working with Pink Tide governments or international organizations." -- Dolores Trevizo * Mobilization * "The individual case studies of Beyond Civil Society include rich detail that will be of interest to activists and scholars of social movements alike, and the book's discussion of the Civil Society Agenda and its consequences is an important contribution to scholarship on Latin America, democracy, and collective action." * Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe *

The contributors to Beyond Civil Society argue that the conventional distinction between civic and uncivic protest, and between activism in institutions and in the streets, does not accurately describe the complex interactions of forms and locations of activism characteristic of twenty-first-century Latin America. They show that most contemporary political activism in the region relies upon both confrontational collective action and civic participation at different moments. Operating within fluid, dynamic, and heterogeneous fields of contestation, activists have not been contained by governments or conventional political categories, but rather have overflowed their boundaries, opening new democratic spaces or extending existing ones in the process. These essays offer fresh insight into how the politics of activism, participation, and protest are manifest in Latin America today while providing a new conceptual language and an interpretive framework for examining issues that are critical for the future of the region and beyond. Contributors. Sonia E. Alvarez, Kiran Asher, Leonardo Avritzer, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Andrea Cornwall, Graciela DiMarco, Arturo Escobar, Raphael Hoetmer, Benjamin Junge, Luis E. Lander, Agustin Lao-Montes, Margarita Lopez Maya, Jose Antonio Lucero, Graciela Monteagudo, Amalia Pallares, Jeffrey W. Rubin, Ana Claudia Teixeira, Millie Thayer