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Politics of the Periphery’ in Urban Latin America: Reconceptualising Politics from the Margins

Project description

Politics of the Periphery in Urban Latin America

POPULAR is a comparative ethnographic research project on the relationships between residents of low-income neighbourhoods and the state around housing issues. Existing theory generally conceptualises these relationships as non-standard citizenship, informal politics, or protest. Such conceptualisations risk contributing to inequality, as they understand the practices of marginalised city residents as ‘less than’ or as ‘anti’ formal state policies and citizenship regimes. POPULAR counters this disparity by developing a theory of politics that reconceptualises periphery-state relationships from the vantage point of the periphery. It approaches residents’ diverse emic concepts and practices as a politics of the periphery. It compares these politics in three Latin American cities where housing is an urgent issue: Medellín (Colombia), Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), and Recife (Brazil).

Objective

Existing theory on how residents of urban peripheries engage with the state is largely state-centric. Political anthropology and urban studies have generally conceptualised periphery-state engagements as non-standard citizenship, informal politics, or protest. Such conceptualisations risk contributing to inequality, as they understand the politics of marginalised city residents as less than or only as anti formal state policies and citizenship regimes.

POPULAR will counter this disparity by developing a theory of politics that reconceptualises periphery-state engagements from the vantage point of the periphery. This reconceptualisation will connect the concepts and practices residents use as part of their political praxis to recent anthropological debates that pluralise and decentre our understandings of politics. It will approach the variety of practices inherent in periphery-state engagements as a politics of the periphery, a diverse politics in its own right and on its own terms that emerges from local modes of agency, subjectivities, and the social configurations of urban populations which are marginalised on a daily basis.

POPULAR will ethnographically study the politics of the periphery in three domains: governance, electoral politics, and activism. It will compare these politics in low-income neighbourhoods in three cities in Latin AmericaMedelln (Colombia), Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), and Recife (Brazil)a region known for its urban poverty, popular mobilisations, and the diversity of government engagements with marginalised populations. The three city governments can be characterised as, respectively, neoliberal capitalist, socialist and moderately neoliberal with a socialist legacy. Each case represents a distinct approach towards the urban periphery. Through a new theory of politics that centres upon the periphery, POPULAR will move the fields of anthropology and urban studies beyond the inequalities inherent in current theories.

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG

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Host institution

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 000 000,00
Address
DROEVENDAALSESTEEG 4
6708 PB Wageningen
Netherlands

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Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Veluwe
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 000 000,00

Beneficiaries (2)

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