The social turn and contentious politics in Latin American post-neoliberal regionalism

Post-neoliberalism can be characterised as both a utopian project, and a set of emancipatory political projects aimed at overcoming the ideological and institutional heritage of neoliberalism. In Latin America this has manifested as a combination of an ideological project and a set of policies and practices that revolve around the dual aim of redirecting a market economy towards social concerns; and reviving citizenship via a new politics of participation and alliances across sociocultural sectors and groups (Grugel and Riggirozzi 2012). At the same time, since the early 2000s there has been a greater shift towards alternative models of regional governance aimed at strengthening democracy, mitigating trans-border harms, and balancing situations of exclusion in open contestation to exclusionary policies and practices of neoliberal models of the past. These developments paralleled expanding civil society associations concerned to uphold a rights-based approach to regional governance as opposed to trade-led regional integration. Yet little is known about the opportunities for advocacy by civil society organisations in regional policy circles and the extent to which regional institutional changes over the past decade reflect the demands voiced by these groups. In light of this, the chapter analyses social contention in post-neoliberal regionalism in South America. It focuses in particular on the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to ask: (i) to what extent civil society movements - as opposed to regional governments – have been driving forces in the shift towards post-neoliberal regionalism in South America? (ii) How do social movements understand and seek objectives, strategies and campaigns? (iii) What, if any, are the possibilities for regional institutions to reflect new repertoires of civil activity and mobilisation? The answer to these questions suggests that nor is regionalism or (regional) social contention of one piece. It is thus argued that while the re-politicisation of Latin America represents new opportunities for social activism in regional politics, and that while regional institutions serve as opportunities for civic contention, the capacity of social actors to break the historical legacy of elite politics and technocratic decision making processes in South American regionalism is still weak, casting doubts about legitimacy in post neoliberal regional governance