The art of social change: An ethnographic study of the cultural politics of a socio-political organization in Quilmes, Argentina

Abstract

Through an analysis of the ways in which the socio-political movement Cultura Vallese constructs and inhabits the public sphere, this thesis emphasizes the under-theorized role of embodied participation, affect and emotion in politics. The artistic practices of Cultura Vallese, a movement based in Quilmes, Argentina, are conceptualized as cultural forms of mobilization, constitutive of a public realm in which ideas and knowledge are transmitted to members, audiences and the State. Furthermore, the artistic practices form an alternative terrain for political participation and for practicing a moderate form of activism for social movements that are supportive of the government. At the same time the public sphere created through artistic practices fosters a realm to negotiate the movement’s relation to the State and safeguards the movement’s continued political visibility. Cultura Vallese’s artistic activities are interpreted as constitutive of a counter-public in Hirschkind’s (2006) notion of the term, referring rather to the (alternative) mode in which ideas are disseminated, than to their content (whether oppositional or not). In that sense this thesis forms a critique of the traditional Habermasian interpretation of the public sphere, since it shows the limitations of conceptualizing debates in the public sphere as solely deliberative. In contrast, the members of Cultura Vallese implicitly spread political messages through their materialization and embodiment in images and artistic practices. By analyzing the microphysics of mobilization and participation in a socio-political movement, this ethnographic study contributes to an understanding of the ways in which affective ties and experience based forms of political participation play an important role in local Argentinean politics.