Advocating for Livelihoods through Social Movements

Abstract

A social movements’ perspective provides a valuable way for looking at livelihoods due to the particular role of social movements in shaping social, cultural and political relations both from the grassroots level but also across scale. Geographically, we centre this chapter in Latin America, and thematically we centre this chapter on issues pertaining to rights. For decades, social movements in Latin America have advocated for the preservation, mobilisation and recovery of livelihoods through grassroots struggles for rights. We focus our discussion on three key areas of rights struggles: territorial rights, cultural rights and environmental rights. Importantly, we stress the interconnected nature of these different struggles and the multidimensionality of social movements, demonstrating this throughout the chapter. Conceptually, we place these discussions within a framework of decoloniality, understanding these mobilisations as contestations and resistances to the colonial matrix of power that continues to exert control over social relations and political structures. We ground the chapter in a series of case studies from across Latin America, primarily drawing on the experiences of various Indigenous and campesino social movements in their efforts to preserve, mobilise and recover livelihoods.