Insurgent Citizens Kyle Leoni Ashley and Catherine What

Insurgent Citizens Kyle, Leoni, Ashley, and Catherine

What is Insurgent Citizenship? § Insurgency: an uprising against constituted authority. § Citizenship: a measure of differences and means of distancing people from another.

What is Insurgent Citizenship? § Examples of a movement: § Sudan Liberation Movements

What is Insurgent Citizenship?

Creation of Insurgent Citizens (Kyle) § Social Factors § Economic Factors § Political Factors

Economics Factors § § § Economic opportunities lead to a massive influx of rural migrants, which creates overcrowding. Export-oriented nature of the Brazilian economy does not lead to the rise of organized labor, instead, masses of unskilled workers. High wealth inequality in Brazilian society.

Political Factors § § Urban development programs compound economic roots of overcrowding to entice more rural out-migration. Relative lack of urban planning contributes to the concentration of the poor in the favelas. “Democratization” of social struggles, post-1985 Rise of Lula and the Workers Party

Social Factors § § Religious groups- the Catholic Church and evangelical movements. Latifundios, inequality of land ownership and the rise of the Movimiento Sem Terra (MST) Increasingly youthful demographics Urban crime.

Methods of action/ mobilization insurgent citizens engage in

Founding Mobilizations § Taken from assessments of insurgents in Brazil, scholars have found their mobilizations have developed not primarily through struggles of labor but through those of the city--particularly illegal residence, house building, and land conflict.

What does this mean? § § Mostly rural area has become mostly urban Simultaneously, we live in an era of unprecedented global democratization during which the number of electoral democracies has doubled since 1970, increasing in just 30 years from 33 to 63 % of the world's sovereign states. combined developments in particular places produce a remarkably similar condition worldwide: most city people live in impoverished urban peripheries in various conditions of illegal and irregular residence, around urban centers that benefit from their services and their poverty. Yet this new urbanism also generates a characteristic response worldwide: precisely in these peripheries, residents organize movements of insurgent citizenship to confront the entrenched regimes of citizen inequality that the urban centers use to segregate them.

What actions do insurgents participate in? § § Conflict/violence Autoconstruction Protests Petition

What do they wish to achieve? § Change § urbanization of their neighborhoods, forcing the state to provide infrastructure and access to health services, schools, and child care § Equal rights/voice against elites § Representation

Insurgent Citizens’ Power § Power of the insurgent movement is based on the size of the movement § The more cohesive the movement, the better chance they have at gaining social change

More influential than institutional reforms? § There are many examples of insurgent citizens changing the climate of the favela § Rio de Janiero is an example in the fight against corrupt police and gangs

Still a long road ahead… § Conditions in the favelas in Brazil are still in poor conditions and the citizens (even when they turn “insurgent”) do not have the same privileges as those in the urban centers of the cities § Success is still very minor in gaining full rights

Taking the past and forming a new future § In the case of Sao Paulo, insurgent citizens take the past oppression of being forced to the outskirts of the urban area and produce a future with a new type of citizenry § Thus, the status quo of the urban residents is changing with the emergence of insurgent citizens

Questions § Why might insurgent citizens be more active in Brazil than the United States? § Over time, some insurgents have tried different approaches in order to attempt to obtain change; rather than partaking in violence/conflict, they have tried peaceful protests and petitions and have generated legal framework yet still no change has occurred – what method do you think gains more of an audience for the cause? § Do you think insurgent citizens can truly change the status quo and bring about social changes to the favelas in Brazil?