Social Movements, the Poor and the New Politics of the Americas

Håvard Haarstad is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Geography, University of Bergen. He has worked extensively on the political economy of natural resource extraction, and the role of social movements, civil society and labor unions in politicizing extraction. Mark Amen is graduate program director in the Department of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Florida/Tampa and Deputy Editor of Globalizations. His current research is on urban indebtedness and the global economy. Asuncion Lera St Clair, philosopher and sociologist, is Research Director at the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo-CICERO and Associated Senior Researcher with Chr. Michelsens Institute (CMI). Her research focus is on the interface between climate change, poverty and development, with particular emphasis on justice, ethics, and knowledge productions processes.

1. Introduction 2. Social Movements Confront Neoliberalism: Reflections on a Caribbean Experience 3. The Politics of Space in the Bolivarian Alliancefor the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA—TCP): Transnationalism, the organized Society, and Counter-Hegemonic Governance 4. Social Movements and Political Parties in Brazil: expanding Democracy, the "Struggle for the Possible" and the Reproduction of Power Structures 5. Global Social Movements in Global Governance 6. Popular Participation in Venezuela’s Barrio Adentro Health Reform 7. Labor and community Organizations in Alliance? Alternative Development Visions in the Caribbean Region of Colombia 8. Poverty’s Numbing Effect on Collective Action: A Case Study of squatter settlers in Lima, Peru 9. Social Movement strategies for articulating claims for soci-ecological justics: Global asymmetries in the Chilean Forestry Sector 10. Conclusion