Challenges for Social Movement Research in Contexts of Inequality: The MST in Brazil

Abstract

Research on social movements in Brazil is a fruitful area that brings up debate and discussion about the ways in which marginalised and underrepresented sectors of society succeed in demanding and achieving rights. The most common research approaches include attempts to explain the action of such organisations, their protest repertoires as well as strategic and tactical perspectives developed by social movements. The question guiding this chapter is thus: How do these types of research contribute to make social movements’ demands visible in the public space, considering the contexts of inequality and criminalisation of social movements in Brazil? In this sense, the text problematises the relations between research and the objectives of social movements, centring on the case of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the main organisation acting in the struggle for agrarian reform in Brazil. We do this by analysing how postgraduate programmes in Brazil relate to MST as subject of research, looking into approved master’s theses and doctoral dissertations in Brazilian universities during 2017.