Book, "Latin American Social Movements in the Twenty-first Century: Resistance, Power, and Democracy" Edited by Richard Stahler-Sholk, Harry E. Vanden, and Glen David Kuecker

Latin American Social Movements in the Twenty-first Century: Resistance, Power, and Democracy 
Edited by Richard Stahler-Sholk, Harry E. Vanden, and Glen David Kuecker

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List Price: $38.99
ISBN: 978-1-4616-0190-6
Publication Date: April 2008 404pp

When elected civilians replaced military authoritarian regimes in Latin America in the 1980's, democracy seemed at hand. Yet those nominally democratic regimes implemented widely unpopular neo-liberal policies, opening the economies to global market forces with devastating impact on the poor. This clearly written and comprehensive text examines the uprising of politically and economically marginalized groups in Latin American societies. Specialists in a broad range of disciplines interpret the new wave of social movements, including movements in Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina, the Vía Campesina global peasant network, and Mesoamerican coalitions against regional free trade agreements. This volume assembles original research from a variety of case studies in a student – friendly format. Section introductions help students contextualize the essays, highlighting social movement origins, strategies, and outcomes. Thematic sections address historical context, political economy, community-building and consciousness, ethnicity and race, gender, movement strategies, and transnational organizing, making this book useful to anyone studying the wide range of social movements in Latin America.

Abstract, "State-Society Dynamics in Contemporary Brazilian Land Reform" by Wendy Wolford

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State-Society Dynamics in Contemporary Brazilian Land Reform 
by Wendy Wolford

Over the past 15 years, land reform has returned from the “dustbin of history” to serve again as a viable policy option. Much has been written about its resurgence, with the research tending to focus narrowly on the role of prices, policies, and politics in shaping the design and outcome of distribution. While these are necessary elements to understand, their reification neglects the critical element of process. Land reform programs are implemented by an array of government actors and negotiated on the ground by beneficiaries, social movement activists, large farmers, and the general public. A messy assemblage of actors and interests shapes both the design and the outcome of distribution. Qualitative analysis of the federal agency in charge of land reform in Brazil, the Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform—INCRA), reveals that, in the context of increased citizen participation and reduced funding, the agency must work together with social movement activists to perform its task. The analysis suggests that the study of state-society relations today requires a new vocabulary that highlights substance and process rather than form.

Book, "The Rise of the Left" by Ronaldo Munck

The Rise of the Left 
by Ronaldo Munck

Book Review of:
The New Mole: Paths of the Latin American Left
by Emir Sader
London and New York: Verso, 2011.

Abstract, "Toward the Worker State, or Working for the State? Reorganization of Political Antagonisms in the Brazilian Amazon" by Brenda Baletti

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Toward the Worker State, or Working for the State? Reorganization of Political Antagonisms in the Brazilian Amazon 
by Brenda Baletti

The institutionalization of the Brazilian Workers’ Party has given rise to new tensions among emerging political actors, historic social movement mediator organizations, and the state. An analysis of the differences in strategies and practices between the Movement in Defense of Renascer and the Prainha Rural Worker’s Movement that emerged during the creation of the Renascer Extractive Reserve in the Lower Amazon highlights the fact that the movement’s emancipatory impulses indicate a break with the politics-as-usual of the union and the Workers’ Party more broadly. An examination of union political discourses and practices that seek to fold these emancipatory impulses back into the dominant logic indicates that the union continues to perform the work of the state—albeit a reconstituted one—both institutionally and effectively.