The transformation of collective action in Latin America

We are witnessing the disappearance of the traditional paradigm that viewed the structural position as the determining factor in shaping collective action and social actors. Because of the structural and cultural changes that have occurred in the world and the region –the transformation of Latin America’s weak national Statecentred industrial society and the break-up of the traditional relationships between State and society– collective action is tending to take shape mainly along four axes: political democratization; social democratization or the struggle against exclusion and for citizenship; the reconstruction and international reintegration of national economies or the reformulation of the economic development model, and the redefinition of a model of modernity. As a result, social actors are becoming less wedded to single causes, more concerned with sociocultural issues than politico-economic ones, and more focused on demands concerned with quality of life and inclusion than on projects of broader social change.