Juliana Flórez-Flórez
mflorez@uoc.edu
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Abstract:
Since the turn of the Eighties and until today, analysis of collective action tends to concludethat the fight of Latin-American movements is directly coupled with illustration. That mightbe because they vindicate basic necessities, because their primary interlocutor is the State, be-cause their fight context is sluggish, or because they are attached to localisms. In any of thosecases, it is understood that these actors can hardly deny the limits of globalized modernity. Inthis article, we suggest that those conclusions assume a dichotomist thought that differenti-ates and hierarchizes social dynamics based on their greater or shorter distance from tradition.This illustrated operation, paradoxically, is derived from critical perspectives of illustration;more specifically from the eurocentric notion of modernity. Starting with a revision of thatconcept offered by postcolonial positions, the «Program for the Investigation of Modernity/Coloniality», we postulate several key interpretations that will change the terms of the debateabout the scarce potential of Latin-American movements as critical actors of modernity.
Keywords: Modernity, Coloniality. Social Movements, Latin America.
