New Democratic Initiatives in Authoritarian Twenty-First Century Latin America uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand the coincidence of emerging social movements, seeking more meaningful forms of democratic participation, on the one hand, and the rise of new authoritarian politics that in part rely on chaos and disorder as mechanisms of domination, on the other. This edited collection argues that Latin America has entered a new phase of political and economic volatility ...

This book presents case studies around issues of national development, right wing populism and use of social media, left wing authoritarianism and popular uprisings as well as reflections on short and long term political and economic cycles in Latin America in the past 10 years.Scholars, government and civil society practitioners have long recognized both the democratic and development deficit in Latin American countries, as well as their potential. The path towards a consolidated ...

Paraguay is an under-examined, but remarkably fascinating country, where war, dictatorship, and elite capture have produced cycles of popular mobilization and repression. Yet, its social movements are less known to international audiences. This book analyzes Paraguay’s principal social movements since the transition to democracy and examines how, in the context of a weak state, authoritarian political elite, and a deficient democratization process, they contribute to progressive policy, so...

Building and expanding on the literature of case studies of urban commons that have emerged which question the development of urban commons theories and concepts and identify results and contradictions, this edited collection progresses our understanding of the different aspects, characteristics, challenges, contradictions and potential of the urban commons in Italy.Presenting different case studies of urban commons and socially innovative and democratic practices in Italian cities...

The women’s movement is a central, complex, and evolving socio-political actor in any national context. Vital to advancing gender equity and gendered relations in every contemporary society, the organization and mobilization of women into social movements challenges patriarchal values, behaviours, laws, and policies through collective action and contention, radically altering the direction of society over time.Twenty-First-Century Feminismos examines ten case studies from ...