New municipalism in South America? Developing theory from experiences in Argentina and Chile

Emilia Arpini, Alexander Panez, Andrew Cumbers and Bethia Pearson
Additional contact information
Emilia Arpini: University of Glasgow, UK
Alexander Panez: University of Bio Bio, Chile
Andrew Cumbers: University of Glasgow, UK
Bethia Pearson: University of Glasgow, UK

Urban Studies, 2023, vol. 60, issue 11, 2290-2306

Abstract: Working towards social transformation through forms of participatory and economic democracy is a core element of the new municipalist agenda. While utilising a ‘politics of proximity’ to develop citizen-led collectives in various forms and at various scales, these projects reimagine and reclaim the local state for social and ecological justice. However, much of the empirical literature that has fed into the development of this conceptualisation of new municipalism, while having a global ambition, has been based on European experiences. Thus, there are key questions around its applicability to other places, particularly in the Global South. South America has generated some of the emblematic cases of struggles against neoliberalism through reclaiming public services, from important interventions in reversing privatisations in the region to influential municipalist innovations, including participatory public policies such as participatory budgeting. This article seeks to critically interrogate new municipalism through an engagement with key social and political changes, state–civil society dynamics and political concepts in South America, illustrated with examples from municipal grassroots initiatives in Argentina and Chile. It argues that municipalism can be more extensively theorised by, first, engaging with a broader temporality than just moments of crisis; second, being attentive to the longer history of diverse participatory municipal initiatives in the region; and finally, incorporating the concept of territory ( territorio in Spanish), which has emerged as a key dimension for understanding social transformations in the region.

Keywords: new municipalism; post-neoliberalism; social movements; South America; territory; 新地方自治主义; å Žæ–°è‡ªç”±ä¸»ä¹‰; ç¤¾ä¼šè¿ åŠ¨; å —ç¾Žæ´²; 领土 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980221126269 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:11:p:2290-2306

DOI: 10.1177/00420980221126269

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().