Latin American Struggles| A Conversation with Geoffrey Pleyers: The Battlefields of Latin American Struggles and the Challenges of the Internet for Social Change

Authors

  • Emiliano Treré Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico Lakehead University, Canada
  • Geoffrey Pleyers Catholic University of Louvain

Keywords:

Latin America, extractivism, informatiodemocracy, public education, impunity, social change

Abstract

In this conversation, professor and leading scholar on global social movements and contemporary protest Geoffrey Pleyers maps and critically reflects on the main battlefields of Latin American struggles, from resistance over land dispossession and extractivism to conflicts over information control and the quality of democracy, from the battle against the neoliberal privatization of public education to the struggles for justice against impunity and violence. He then situates the role of digital media within a multifaceted scenario where powerful mainstream media and political elites are colluded, independent journalists are threatened and struggle to get their voice heard, and governments invest immense resources to spy on citizens and to influence public opinion. While recognizing the importance of the Internet to pursue social change in the Latin American context, Pleyers urges us to look at the broader social, political, and economic picture in order to understand the extent of the transformations on the continent.

Author Biographies

Emiliano Treré, Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico Lakehead University, Canada

Associate Professor, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico. Member of the Mexican National System of Researchers, Level 1. Research Fellow, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Lakehead University, Canada. 

Geoffrey Pleyers, Catholic University of Louvain

Professor Pleyers holds a PhD from the ‘Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales’ of Paris, where he works with Alain Touraine. He is FNRS researcher and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Louvain and the current president of the Research Committee 47 “Social Classes and Social Movements” of the International Sociological Association (ISA). 

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Published

2015-11-16

Issue

Vol. 9 (2015)

Section

Special Sections

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