Between Cancel and Escrache in Latin America: The Shift in Political Practices and Subjectivities
Guest Editors:
Andrea Neira
German-Colombian Peace Institute, CAPAZ
andrea.neira@instituto-capaz.org
Eduardo Restrepo
Universidad Católica de Temuco
eduardoa.restrepo@gmail.com
In Latin America, escrache, or public shaming, has social and historical roots. Escrache emerged as an instrument for public denouncement by human rights organizations during and after military dictatorships. In countries like Argentina, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo often used escrache to publicly denouncing the culprits of human right abuses, as part of their crusades for justice and visibility.
The escrache practice was later taken on by feminist mobilizations and sensitivities to denounce gender aggressions or violences, which are now exposed in social media. Boosted by social media, some feminist expressions have found in escrache a powerful instrument to publicize cases of abuse and harassment, which often emerge from the core of some power structures that minimize them and even endorse them.
Meanwhile, cancelling, more commonly known as “cancel culture”, goes beyond denouncement, in that it pursues blaming and exclusion of an individual, institution, or product being considered responsible of inadequate practices through a boycott campaign, looking for their careers or businesses are shut off. Cancelling refers to the act of mobilizing social outrage against what appears a physical or symbolic aggression, which often succeeds to get social and professional isolation for all liable individuals or the political or economic ban of institutions or products involved.
With this issue, we at Tabula Rasa want to encourage the submission of articles resulting from research and reflections addressing escrache or cancelling, related to gender and feminism issues, but not exclusively, linked to the changes of political practices and subjectivities across Latin America. Rather than merely reproducing stances for or against escrache and cancelling, we expect to receive proposals reporting specific research works, from empirical approaches to help us understand escrache and cancel as expressions of emotionalities and intelligibilities shaping our present time, but also helping us to understand their social effects both in the social actors involved and the whole society.
Some questions we expect to see addressed in the article proposals submitted are formulated in the following terms: How can escrache historical roots be traced in Latin America, and how that practice has been transformed from its emergence in human rights organizations to its current use? What has been the role of social media in the shifts of escrache as a denouncement instrument? What are the similarities and differences of escrache and cancelling in their purposes, methods, and consequences? How are escrache and cancelling influencing contemporary political subjectivities across Latin America, and which new forms of political participation are emerging from those practices? Which are the social effects of escrache and cancelling both in individuals and collectives directly involved and in society as a whole? Which are the most adequate theoretical frameworks to analyse escrache and cancelling practices in Latin American contexts specifically? How escrache and cancelling are helping shape new rationales and emotionalities in Latin American publich spheres?
For further information or to submit your final articles, complete with their abstracts and keywords (in English, Portuguese, or Spanish languages), please write to: eduardoa.restrepo@gmail.com
Submission deadline is March 20, 2025.
Submissions shall be unpublished, research products, and comply with Tabula Rasa’s author guidelines: https://www.revistatabularasa.org/normas/
