Benjamin Junge
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
State University of New York, New Paltz
Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellow
Thursday, February 11
4:15 p.m. - C103 Hesburgh Center
“The Neoliberalization of Participatory Democracy: Grassroots Community Leaders’ Perceptions of Change and Continuity in Porto Alegre, Brazil”
Benjamin Junge (PhD, Emory University) focuses his research on the relationship between gender, citizen identity, and forms of democratic governance in contemporary, urban Brazil. Grounded in the emerging anthropology of democracy, his work is interdisciplinary in scope.
Abstract
In this ethnographic paper, I consider sociopolitical change and continuity in the former leftist hotspot, Porto Alegre, Brazil, specifically how grassroots community leaders have made sense of the 2004 defeat of the Workers Party (PT), the weakening of the PT's signature initiative in participatory democracy (the Participatory Budget), and the rise of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in grassroots community politics. With the exodus of the PT, I argue, the private sector has been “welcomed back” into grassroots politics, with a new narrative of urban development replacing the former narrative of active citizenship. Finally, I consider implications for research on NGOs and participatory democracy under neoliberalism.
