Cycles of protest in Curitiba: Mobilization structures and collective action repertoire in two cases in Curitiba

Conflict as an object and key of interpretation of urban phenomena is a theoretical analyses category that articulate a set of laboratories and research groups members of Rede de Observatórios de Conflitos Urbanos, also integrated by the Observatório de Conflitos Urbanos de Curitiba. The events that express conflicts (according the common methodology applied) are described and classified according to conflict’s object, kind of manifestation, involved agents (mobilized or claimed), location, the date of occurrence, supporters and research source. This form allows relating the classification categories as a whole, but does not contribute to the identification of sequences of events linked to one same conflict or even the analysis of the dynamics of the conflict from their individual events. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the importance of considering networks linking categories in the records of conflictive events, helping to improve the analysis of mobilization structures, the behavior of social movements and changes in their collective action repertoire. In this sense, it is also important to understand how the extent changes in the political institutions contribute to the expansion or weakening of collective actions. Thus, on one hand, understanding the processes of mobilization requires a look inside the collective actions for the manner which claim’s arguments and justifications are constructed. On the other hand, we must broaden our gaze to the context in which these actors are embedded, ie, for the opportunity structures and political constraints. To illustrate the proposal, two cases occurred in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba (Brazil) linking various manifestations of a single object of conflict will be analyzed: an occupation in the Fazendinha neighborhood in 2008 and the expropriation and eviction of the community of Itaqui.