Waves of Change Within Civil Society in Latin America: Mexico City and Sao Paulo


Autoria(s): LAVALLE, Adrian Gurza; BUENO, Natalia S.
Contribuinte(s)

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

Data(s)

19/10/2012

19/10/2012

2011

Resumo

For the past half a century, Latin American scholars have been pointing toward the emergence of new social actors as agents of social and political democratization. The first wave of actors was characterized by the emergence of novel agents-mainly, new popular movements-of social transformation. At first, the second wave, epitomized by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), was celebrated as the upsurge of a new civil society, but later on, it was the target of harsh criticism. The literature often portrays this development in Latin American civil society as a displacement trend of actors of the first wave by the second wave-""NGOization""-""and even denounces new civil society as rootless, depoliticized, and functional to retrenchment. Thus, supposedly, NGOization encumbers social change. The authors argue that NGOization diagnosis is a flawed depiction of change within civil society. Rather than NGOization related to the depoliticization and neoliberalization of civil society, in Mexico City and Sao Paulo, there has been modernization of organizational ecologies, changes in the functional status of civil society, and interestingly, specialization aimed at shaping public agenda. The authors argue that such specialization, instead of encumbering social change, brings about different repertoires of strategies and skills purposively developed for influencing policy and politics. Their argument relies on comparative systematic evidence. Through network analysis, they examine the organizational ecology of civil society in Mexico City and Sao Paulo.

Identificador

POLITICS & SOCIETY, v.39, n.3, p.415-449, 2011

0032-3292

http://producao.usp.br/handle/BDPI/21087

10.1177/0032329211415504

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0032329211415504

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC

Relação

Politics & Society

Direitos

closedAccess

Copyright SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC

Palavras-Chave #civil society #organizational ecology #NGOization #popular movements #coordinating bodies #Mexico City #Sao Paulo #network analysis #ORGANIZATIONS #NGOS #Political Science #Social Issues #Sociology
Tipo

article

original article

publishedVersion