Re-inventing the Left in Latin America: Critical Perspectives from Below

Issue Editors: Sara C. Motta and Laiz R. Chen

This edition seeks to bring to light ‘views from the underside’ about the reinvention of politics, power and political economy that is occurring in the region or what is often referred to as the Pink Tide.
The Pink Tide, or shift to the left in governments and politics in Latin America, can be many things, depending on the perspective one takes. The ‘perspective of power’ tends to see politics from the top, with a focus on political elites, the actions and decisions of political leaders, and the changing and making of policy. This perspective sometimes has a fear of the masses. Their creativity and politicization is often framed as irrationality and the governments that they elect such as Chavez in Venezuela and Morales in Bolivia are framed as the Bad Left in contradistinction to the Good Left to be found in the Concertación in Chile and the Workers’ Party Government in Brazil. Conversely, views from the underside are developed from, and in engagement with, the practices, imaginaries, political histories, cultures and projects of the subaltern, understood here as those excluded from the fruits of the liberal project of free markets and liberal democracy. They have a commitment to making visible and legitimate such practices and experiences as a means to develop an ethical critique of dominant forms of capitalist power and domination. This special edition seeks to contribute to this process of strengthening and legitimizing subaltern alternatives from below by opening windows to their diversity, complexity, creativity and vibrancy.
Many of the new forms of popular politics in the region, from the development of new forms of state power in participatory asembleas and decision making forum, to forms of self-government, expand the practice and theory of politics. They involve a politicization of community and social relations, the formation of new democratic subjectivities from the informal sectors, urban shanty town dwellers, landless peasants and unemployed workers and often an experimental and open practice of collective construction in the everyday of their projects of social transformation and political change. These new forms of subaltern politics are often outstripping conceptual and theoretical frameworks premised in representational understandings of political organization and theoretical production. We are faced with political practices that are recognized as leftist but which differ from many of the leftist theoretical traditions. There is therefore often a mismatch between old tools of analysis and the practices of new movements. Hence the desire and need for theoretical, conceptual and methodological reflection based on an engagement with, and participation in, these experiences of subaltern politicization.
Thus, the focus of this edition is to contest the perspective of power by developing analyses from, and in dialogue with, popular politics from below. We hope that these analyses can contribute to forging epistemological, theoretical and methodological categories and tools to bridge the gap between new movements and the academy. Thus as opposed to framing the Pink Tide as a homogenizing project, this issue aims to present the rich diversity of the many Lefts through their plural, experimental, creative, institutional, political, social, subjective, everyday and affective experiences. The distinct natures of these experiences (i.e. from popular education, autonomous movements, participatory assemblies, social programs, cultural politics, co-operatives, etc.) from different countries in Latin America will provide the diversity and creative energy that we want to capture.

This issue combines the re-thinking of power, political change and social transformation through the analyses of left politics from cultural workers, social movements participants, organic intellectuals, artists, popular educators and community activists – with different ways of seeing and learning to see all the lefts, in their contradictions, tensions but also resonances and connections. Therefore, in this issue, we welcome reflections about the use for example of story and song in constructing a cultural politics of resistance, as well as political economy and social movement research.

In sum, we invite papers that engage from below to produce theoretically rich, empirically embedded and politically enabling analyses that can contribute to the consolidation and development of subaltern left political projects of the 21st Century. 

We recommend contacting the issue editors as soon as possible with a short abstract of proposed articles to avoid duplication.  We cannot guarantee consideration for this issue of manuscripts received after Dec. 31, 2010.  If you cannot meet this deadline but are interested in submitting, please contact the issue editors (contact information below) and the LAP Future Issues Coordinator, Rosalind Bresnahan at rosalind568@gmail.com.

We invite manuscripts including, but not limited to, the following key questions that are the focus of the issue:

• What are the projects, imaginaries and practices of new forms of subaltern politics?
• What is the role of political parties in these processes?
• Is the state a barrier or enabler of new forms of subaltern politics?
• What is the role of pedagogies of dissent and transformation, often based on experiences of popular education, in the formation of such new forms of politics?
• How do we develop conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools to engage meaningfully with such new forms of politics?
• What type of politics of knowledge is being developed and how can we as researchers, committed to developing politically enabling research, learn from and contribute to this?
• What role is there for movement relevant research?
• How are the lefts shaping and being shaped by emerging popular political cultures?
• What are the future prospects for grass-roots political organizing in Latin America when building up relationships at regional and transnational scales?
• What is the nature of the links between the Pink Tide and external politics (beyond Latin America)?

 

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts should be no longer than 25 pages (approximately 7,000-7,500 words) of double-spaced 12 point text with 1 inch margins, including notes and references, and paginated.  Please follow the LAP style guide which is available at www.latinamericanperspectives.com under the “Submissions” tab.   Please use the “About” tab for the LAP Mission Statement and details about the manuscript review process. 

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.  If submitting in Spanish or Portuguese, please indicate if you will have difficulty reading correspondence from the LAP office in English. 

All manuscripts should be original work that has not been published in English and that is not being submitted to or considered for publication elsewhere in identical or similar form.

Please feel free to contact the Issue Editor with questions pertaining to the issue but be sure that manuscripts (including separate file with basic biographical information and e-mail and postal addresses) are sent to the LAP office in Word or rtf format by e-mail to:
laps@ucr.edu with the subject line – “Your name – MS for Reinventing the Lefts issue”

In addition to electronic submission (e-mail, or CD-R or floppy disk if unable to send by e-mail) if possible submit two print copies including a cover sheet with basic biographical and contact information to:

Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517-5703.
 
Editor contact information:  Sara Mota  - Sara.Motta@nottingham.ac.uk
                                              Laiz Chen - asxlc@nottingham.ac.uk

The LAP style guide is available on request or online.

Please send any manuscript submissions to:
Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517-5703