Aspirational activism in urban Latin America

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As more than half of the global population now lives in cities, urban governance has become a key interest for scholars and policymakers. This project will analyse a variety of emerging mobilisations by social actors in Latin America who are driven by demands for better government projects and policies so as to improve the quality of urban life. Grassroots efforts to negotiate and achieve collective aspirations constitute a process of imagining and creating possible futures. As such, they are receiving increasing scholarly attention, but still require rigorous systematic investigation. This project introduces aspirational activism as a critical category of grassroots practices in order to analyse the interplay of material and moral interests of activists. It will investigate the way in which activists in two networks (Tomala, in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Rede Nossa Sao Paulo, in Sao Paulo, Brazil) navigate collective aspirations for material and moral improvements in urban life. As a region that grapples with striking levels of inequality, and because of its authoritarian past, Latin America exemplifies the difficulties related to promoting civic engagement when there is a strong resistance to inclusive public dialogues among government institutions and other influential bodies. This is an anthropological study especially focused on three concurrent processes: (1) the way in which activists combine concerns of urban dwellers to articulate aspirations for better futures; (2) the decision-making strategies of activists in light of their demands for inclusive governance schemes; and (3) the innovative performances of dissent by activists as forms of engagement with urban dwellers and government officials. In contexts of increased affluence and persistent inequalities, this project will offer insights into ongoing negotiations over desired futures taking place in Latin America and a critical tool for the analysis of grassroots practices worldwide.