LANDLESS PERSPECTIVES:
40 YEARS OF THE LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT
Just submitted the manuscript of my latest book! Forthcoming with Routledge, “Landless Perspectives: Forty Years of the Landless Workers Movement” brings together ethnographic perspectives on Latin America’s largest social movement as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.
The Landless Workers’ Movement - MST, with over 1.5 million members, has been fighting for agrarian reform since 1984. In its forty-year struggle, the movement has secured land for over 350,000 families and become a worldwide beacon for progressive politics. Its enduring presence is a remarkable feat; while the original Occupy Wall Street encampment lasted just 59 days, the MST continues to be a steadfast force in the pursuit of social justice and environmental sustainability.
How has the MST managed to endure in a country dominated by agribusiness and characterized by a hostile politics? The rationale of this collection is to answer such questions from an ethnographic standpoint, connecting personal stories to theorizations of land and struggle. The detailed accounts of the book’s contributions sit in dialogue with the longitudinal commitment of the invited authors, many of whom have been working with the movement over a period of decades. Such a commitment allows the book to speak to a forty-year timeframe, creating an approach that points to broader conclusions and possible futures. With contributors from Brazil, Europe and North America, the book connects lived experiences with wider political questions pertaining to global mass mobilization.
A huge thanks to the wonderful contributors, Nashieli Rangel Loera, Rebecca Tarlau and Alessandro Mariano, Claire Lagier, Mel Gurr, Jonathan DeVore, David Simbsler, Bárbara Wagner, Benjamin de Burca, and the Banzeiros MST Theater collective.
The Landless Workers’ Movement - MST, with over 1.5 million members, has been fighting for agrarian reform since 1984. In its forty-year struggle, the movement has secured land for over 350,000 families and become a worldwide beacon for progressive politics. Its enduring presence is a remarkable feat; while the original Occupy Wall Street encampment lasted just 59 days, the MST continues to be a steadfast force in the pursuit of social justice and environmental sustainability.
How has the MST managed to endure in a country dominated by agribusiness and characterized by a hostile politics? The rationale of this collection is to answer such questions from an ethnographic standpoint, connecting personal stories to theorizations of land and struggle. The detailed accounts of the book’s contributions sit in dialogue with the longitudinal commitment of the invited authors, many of whom have been working with the movement over a period of decades. Such a commitment allows the book to speak to a forty-year timeframe, creating an approach that points to broader conclusions and possible futures. With contributors from Brazil, Europe and North America, the book connects lived experiences with wider political questions pertaining to global mass mobilization.
A huge thanks to the wonderful contributors, Nashieli Rangel Loera, Rebecca Tarlau and Alessandro Mariano, Claire Lagier, Mel Gurr, Jonathan DeVore, David Simbsler, Bárbara Wagner, Benjamin de Burca, and the Banzeiros MST Theater collective.
auflynn [at] arts.ucla.edu
Alex Ungprateeb Flynn is an Assistant Professor at the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, University of California, Los Angeles. Working as an anthropologist and curator, Alex’s practice explores the intersection of ethnographic and curatorial modes of enquiry. Researching collaboratively with activists, curators and artists in Brazil since 2007, Alex explores the prefigurative potential of art in community contexts, prompting the theorisation of fields such as the production of knowledge, the pluriversal, and the social and aesthetic dimensions of form.