Contemporary Social Movements and Radical Democracy: Insights from the Global South
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Camilo Tamayo Gomez
and
Kaan Ağartan
Abstract
Radical democracy and social movements have an intricate relationship as the former is often expected to inform, inspire, and guide the latter to challenge oppressive social orders and power structures – yet, not always successfully. This article offers an analysis of contemporary social movements in Colombia and Turkey to show the limits and potential of radical democracy to reimagine new expressions of citizenship and non-capitalist alternatives. It argues that there is a mismatch between various conceptualizations of radical democracy and the ways it has been articulated and practiced by anti-austerity and pro-democracy movements of the twenty-first century. We propose that radical democracy should be rethought in light of novel forms of political activism and visions emerging from the social movements of the Global South in response to the failures of liberal democracy.
Funding source: British Academy
Award Identifier / Grant number: VF2\100374
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Funding: This work was partially supported by the grants from the 2023 British Academy Visiting Fellowship Program (Project Number VF2\100374).
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Disclosure Statement: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
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