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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Matthew RichmondORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Based on research with current and former housing activists in São Paulo, this article identifies the concept of “politics of worthiness” as central to the moral justification and technical legitimation of social movements. Attributions of worthiness have long up- held the relationship between institutionalized grassroots organizations and the state but are equally present in everyday life and social distinctions among Brazil’s popular classes. By examining contrasting constructions of worthiness among both present-day housing movements and residents of areas that are the product of past mobilizations, the article contends that collective experiences of mobilization in dialogue with myr- iad external influences produce diverse and often ambivalent political subjectivities. The politics of worthiness sheds light on how these actors organize themselves, expe- rience participation, and square universalist demands with the contingent solidarities and changing social, institutional, and political realities that they inhabit.
Author(s): Kopper M, Richmond MA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
Year: 2021
Volume: 26
Issue: 2
Pages: 276-296
Print publication date: 01/06/2021
Online publication date: 11/03/2021
Acceptance date: 04/11/2020
Date deposited: 12/11/2023
ISSN (print): 1935-4932
ISSN (electronic): 1935-4940
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12533
DOI: 10.1111/jlca.12533
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