Ph.D. Research Workshop on Latin America
Citizenship and governance at the margins of the state:
Latin America between post-conflict and neo-populism
September 2-5, 2008
Graduate School of International Development Studies,
Roskilde University
Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims
Copenhagen
Participants: Open to all PhD-students. Maximum number of participants 25
Organizers: Fiona Wilson and Henrik Rønsbo
Venue: Hotel Søfryd, Jyllinge, near Roskilde, Denmark
ETCS: 7 points
Speakers invited
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Evelina Dagnino, University of Campinas, Brazil
Kimberley Theidon, Harvard University, US
Javier Monroe, Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, Cusco, Peru
Charles Hale, University of Texas, US
Jenny Pearce, Institute for Peace Research, University of Bradford, UK
Background
Over the last decade the political map of Latin America has been changing rapidly.
Where civil wars and authoritarian regimes once dominated we have seen candidates
from ‘the left’ being voted into power. All over the continent one finds a resurgence of
established left-wing political parties with Lula in Brazil, Bachelet in Chile, Garcia in
Peru, and Ortega in Nicaragua together with the rise of more radical populist leaders such
as Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia and most lately Correa in Ecuador.
According to some commentators (e.g. NACLA,1), this move to the left is because people
in the Americas now understand the relationship between their poverty and subordination
and the penetration of local and national governments by the neo-liberal imperative.
Instead, democracy is being built ‘from below’ more strongly than by state action, argues
Avritzer2, as shown by movements mobilizing for human rights and against impunity in
Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala, for a more egalitarian distribution of resources in
Brazil, and against electoral fraud in Mexico. Also, quite significant and unprecedented
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2
Vol 40, Issue 1, 2007.
Leonardo Avritzer, 2002, Democracy and the public space in Latin America, Princeton.
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indigenous movements have emerged in Central America, Mexico and the Andes
demanding state recognition of multicultural citizenship.3
Through these different processes, the exercise of citizenship and participation in
parliamentary and presidential politics became central in the vocabulary of popular
movements from the late 1980’s onwards. Embedded in a human rights discourse, the
notion of national citizenship - albeit renegotiated in terms of language and culture - has
remained prominent as a galvanizing idea in political society and seen to lie at the heart
of struggles against genocides as well as social and economic exclusion, and widening
the conception and practice of ‘the political’.4
However, a critical look at political tendencies from the point of view of governance
suggests a more complex, less triumphalist, picture. Most importantly we can point to the
continuation, even expansion, of organized political and economic violence within Latin
American societies, making Latin America the most violent continent on earth. This
points to a decreasing ability of states to control violence, and continued fragility of the
legal sector despite more than ten years of sustained efforts at structural reform,
suggesting that despite being ‘post’-conflict, societies can never leave violence behind.
In other political spaces we see the reproduction of authoritarian tendencies (sometimes
under the guise of neo-populism) in society as well as in state institutions; as in
intensified state presence as a result of (so-called) decentralization, municipalization and
land reform policies; and entrenched racism and social exclusion (notwithstanding the
recognition of indigenous rights). Furthermore, gains made in the past may be in danger
of reversal, through the undermining and de-railing of social and political movements and
co-optation of the political language of contestation.
Currently, as Dagnino5 argues, concepts of ‘citizenship’ and ‘participation’ are being
appropriated and re-defined through their entanglement with global neo-liberal discourse
which is limiting their political scope and creating new associations with the market place.
This transformation of keywords, in turn, is indicative of the spread of a new mode of
governance in which global (more specifically US) discourses, interests and agendas are
making in-roads (despite national political moves ‘to the left’) and are being brought to
bear on states and societies.
While framing the overall debate, the aim of this Ph.D. researcher course is to leave
national-regional political frameworks and move beyond simple binaries that arise when
juxtaposing ‘citizenship’ and ‘governance’ and distinguishing processes as ‘old’ or ‘new’,
or as leading to ‘continuity’ or ‘change’. Instead the researcher course will focus on the
analysis of political subjectivities, mentalities, relations and engagements and the
unfolding of political processes when seen from vantage points ‘in the margins of the
3
Deborah Yashar, 2005, Contesting citizenship in Latin America: the rise of indigenous movements and the
postliberal challenge, Cambridge.
4
Evalina Dagnino, 2005, Meanings of citizenship in Latin America, Institute of Development Studies,
Working Paper 258, November.
5
ibid
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state’.6 This brings to the fore questions relating to the scale and scope of theory and
methodology, and the need to draw upon and build bridges among different disciplinary
traditions, political science, anthropology, geography and history. Through what lenses
and analytical frames can we best approach and make sense of ‘local-level’ politics; how
can we take a non-centrist, maybe provincial or marginal, view; how can we see the
wood from the trees?
Objectives of the workshop
This Ph.D. researcher course aims to train participants in analyzing questions and
appraise different approaches to the study of local-level politics in the margins of the
state. Not only is Latin America the geographic focus, we also hope to discuss and reflect
on current debates which emanate from Latin America. However, the course is first and
foremost a pedagogical exercise. This will be underlined by asking the invited speakers at
plenary meetings to reflect on and open up to scrutiny how they chose their concepts,
theories and methodology and what makes these appropriate to their scale/level of
analysis; how they determined which questions were central to their investigation and
how they set about analyzing them. This form of enquiry will carry over into ‘workshop’
sessions where participants have the opportunity to present their work and receive
detailed comments.
Workshop organization
The working language will be English, though some papers may be given in Spanish. We
shall strive to generate an atmosphere of open, frank, productive debate. The workshop
will be structured around three elements:
1. Plenary sessions where 5 invited speakers are given sufficient time to present
papers and have them discussed.
2. ‘Workshop’ sessions where Ph.D. papers are presented. An abstract is requested
at the time of application; a month before the course, each participant is expected
to submit a short written paper (of max. 10 pages) which will form the basis of the
workshop presentation. Two discussants will be allocated to each paper, one will
be a fellow Ph.D. participant and the other an invited speaker or resource person.
3. The organizers will select some 6-8 classic texts which will be distributed as a
compendium. Participants (in small groups) will be asked to prepare and make a
short presentation of the main ideas and arguments of each text.
Time plan
September 2 Arrival + ½ day workshop
September 3 Workshop
September 4 Workshop
September 5 ½ day workshop + departure
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Veena Das and Deborah Poole, 2004, Anthropology in the margins of the state, Santa Fé and Oxford.
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Requirements
The course is open to all Ph.D. students who are working on research in (or highly
relevant to) Latin America. There will be a maximum of 25 students. Application for the
course is to be sent to inge@ruc.dk by May 1, 2008, including an abstract for the PhDpaper of a maximum of 500 words. Participants will be selected on the basis of their
abstract, as themes are expected to relate to the overall theme of this workshop. Notice of
acceptance will be sent by May 15, 2008. Deadline for the PhD-paper, of a maximum of
6000 words, is June 23, 2008. The paper is to be sent to the same address, together with a
half to one page description of one’s research project.
Fee
Fee for the participation in the workshop is 300 Euro, payable after the notice of
acceptance. This includes food, and accommodation for three nights. The fee is not
refundable.
Credits
Participation in the workshop earns the student 7 ECTS points.
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