Latin American Social Movements: Research Agendas and Regional Constructions

Unlike the debate in United States and Europe, the study of social movements in Latin America has never had a well-defined field of study in the social sciences to enable systematic discussion on notions, categories and controversies. However, social movements have been treated in a transversal way within a wide range of topics, approaches, discussions and disciplines, which, in turn, allowed a rather comprehensive and plural perspective. This paper seeks, firstly, to contextualize the sociological production on social movements in Latin America within the regional social theory. Secondly, we would like to identify and examine some analytical axis that has great potential for advancing the agenda of sociology of social movements in Latin America. In particular, we focus on the particularities of Latin American societies; the social and political regional thought; the diversity of contexts of action and the spatial and historical orientations; the socio-political and ideological matrices; and, finally, the practices, imaginaries and transnational networks that allow the establishment of a common collective action and the generation of a regional frame. In doing so, we discuss some research possibilities for the study of social movements in the Global South who are looking to construct regional research agendas that go beyond Western theories of social movements.