La démocratie par l’enquête sociale

The Argentine movement of popular neighborhood assemblies emerged in 2001 in the context of a major economic and political crisis. This crisis not only gave rise to demonstrations and complaints to the state, but also to experiments in political reorganization based on self-organized citizens' assemblies at the local level. In Buenos Aires, these assemblies federated for several months on a city-wide scale, before developing forms of cooperation on an ad hoc basis for those that became established. This article analyzes the contribution of this movement to democracy from the perspective of political philosophy. In particular, the epistemic practices of the movement, aimed at developing knowledge of social problems and the formation of a culture conducive to self-government, are considered in order to outline the specificity of the democratic contribution of municipalist movements. The local scale and the assembly mode of organization give rise to a set of specific epistemic practices, which can provide tools for thinking about the deepening of democratic norms of inclusion and participation