CONFERENCE POSTER AND DETAILS

Hello everyone, we are pleased to be finally able to share the poster of the conference with you. Please feel free to pass it on, and let people who may want to attend know about the event. Do not forget to RSVP! See you at the conference!

PROVISIONAL AGENDA OF THE CONFERENCE

Dear all,

here is the provisional agenda for the day of the conference. We hope this will give you an idea of the exciting discussions we will have on that day. We are currently taking care of the final details for each panel, but we are very glad to count with very interesting panellists. Looking forward to meet you there!

Chile’s Winter of Discontent: The Breakdown of a Paradigm in Latin America?

Cambridge University, May 11^th 2012 – Seminar Room, Free School Lane (Sociology)

Conference Convenors: Carmen Sepúlveda Zelaya, Tomás Undurraga, Andrés Villar-Gertner

Agenda

9.00-9.20 Registration

9.20-9.30 Welcome and Introduction

9.30-10.30 Guest Speaker Presentation: Laurence Whitehead (Oxford University) “Chile after the Concertación: the Return of More Normal Conflicts”

10.30-10.45 Tea/Coffee Break

10.45-12.15 Panel 1:  “Social movements: emergence, learning process and impact”

12.15-12.30 Tea/Coffee Break

12.30-13.30 Guest Speaker Presentation: Eduardo Silva (Tulane University) “Contentious Politics in Chile?”{TBC}

13.30-14.15 Lunch Break

14.15-15.30 Panel 2: “Chile's education system: revisiting equity and equality, class issues and ideas”

15.30-15-45 Tea/Coffee Break

15.45-17.15 Panel 3: “The Chilean Political System and Neoliberalism: resistance, disaffection, public and private interest”

17.15-17.30 Tea/Coffee Break

17.30-18.15 Guest Speaker Presentation: Gabriel Palma (Cambridge University) “How the ‘new left' in Chile lent a helping hand to those resisting evolutionary change: the distributional stalemate during the 20-years of Concertación rule"

18.15 Closing Remarks  

Chilean winter of discontent: are protests here to stay?

Here is the link to a very interesting piece in Open Democracy, by Sofia Donoso and Kirsten Sehnbruch. They discuss the way in which the 'governance formula' chosen by Concertacion governments  has affected the way in which citizen's participation is understood and incorporated in democracy in Chile. We will have the pleasure to count with Sofia's participation at our conference.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/kirsten-sehnbruch-sofia-donoso/chilean-winter-of-discontent-are-protests-here-to-stay

Aysen: the rise of a Patagonian social movement and new challenges for Chile's government in 2012

The region of Aysén has come to occupy the headlines of newspapers since February when the people of Aysén decided to mobilise and protest against what they consider the abandonment of their region by the state. Although the mobilisations and protests were sparked by the rising price of fuel, Aysén's Social Movement has also denounced the lack of investment in the region and inequality of wages affecting the region's infrastructure, as well as the quality of its education and health systems among many other topics affecting the people of Aysén. 
But on Friday March 16th, 2012, in a very controversial decision, the government opted to enforce the state’s security law on protesters after failed meetings with the local social movement. This legal decision means the leaders of the social movements can be criminalised for calling upon other citizens to organise and protest if the state considers such actions as affecting the daily running of basic services and activities in the region. The decision has proved highly controversial posing new questions for the future of social and political movements in Chile, as well as for the functioning of democratic institutions in the country.

Here is an article from El Mostrador on the application of the "Ley de Seguridad del Estado" http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2012/03/15/la-moneda-confirma-tesis-de-la-mano-dura-y-finalmente-invoca-ley-de-seguridad-contra-manifestantes-de-aysen/

Entrevista a Francisco Figueroa, ex vicepresidente de la FECH sobre el movimiento estudiantil en el 2012

El movmiento estudiantil en el 2012: entrevista a Francisco Figueroa ex vicepresidente de la FECH

Call for Papers en Español

CALL FOR PAPERS (en Español)

EL INVIERNO DE DESCONTENTO CHILENO: ¿EL FIN DE UN PARADIGMA EN AMERICA LATINA?

11 de MAYO 2012, UNIVERSIDAD DE CAMBRIDGE, de 9.30 a 18.30

Durante las dos últimas décadas, el paradigma económico neoliberal chileno ha sido considerado un modelo latinoamericano de estabilidad política y desarrollo socioeconómico. A pesar de los importantes avances económicos y políticos, en los últimos años, sin embargo, la ciudadanía ha empezado a manifestar de modo creciente señales de malestar.

Desde inicios del 2011, el descontento se ha hecho visible a través de una serie de movilizaciones políticas y sociales en oposición a diferentes posturas del gobierno sobre diferentes temas que afectan a la educación, el medioambiente, las libertades civiles y derechos sexuales, temas de género, minorías étnicas, y participación política. La ciudadanía se ha tomado las calles en grandes números, convirtiendo la movilización social una nueva forma de expresión política. Esto se ve manifestado de modo más particular en las incesantes protestas organizadas por los estudiantes a lo largo de los más de seis meses, y a los que la prensa popular apodó como “invierno del descontento”, estableciendo una nueva crítica social al modelo neoliberal.

¿En qué modo explicamos la manifestación masiva de descontento? ¿Cuáles eran las condiciones que impidieron que fuerzas similares se manifestaran durante las dos últimas décadas? ¿Y por qué se manifiestan ahora?  ¿Cuál es y será el impacto de estos nuevos movimientos sociales en la política chilena? ¿Cómo se canalizarán estas demandas? ¿Cómo se vinculan estos elementos domésticos a la agenda internacional en debate a lo largo del 2011? 

Esta conferencia de un día invita a académicos y estudiantes de postgrado a discutir los temas que emanan de los recientes eventos que conforman el “invierno del descontento” chileno.

Se ruega hacer llegar por email resúmenes de no más de 300 palabras al comité organizador  a chilesdiscontentconference@gmail.com junto con un breve CV o biografía antes del 1 de marzo, 2012. Preguntas y dudas sobre la conferencia deben ser enviadas a la misma dirección email. Aquellos posibles contribuidores seleccionados serán notificados el 15 de marzo 2012.

Se ruega hacer  llegar los artículos seleccionados para la conferencia no más tarde del 20 de abril, 2012. El documento debe tener no más de 8000 palabras incluyendo notas y bibliografía.  

Tras la conferencia, esperamos poder hacer una compilación de los mejores papers presentados con el fin de publicarlos sea bajo forma de libro o edición especial de un periódico del área más relevante.

Para más información sobre la conferencia por favor visitar nuestro blog:  http://chileswinterofdiscontentconference.blogspot.com/

Estos son algunos de los temas posibles o sugeridos, sin ser ésta una lista restringida:

×          Movimientos sociales y nuevos actores    

×          Educación

×          Representación política

×          Políticas de género y sexualidad

×          Inequidades sociales         

×          Minoría étnicas y reconocimiento legal

×          Temas y políticas de salud

×          Sistema electoral y partidos políticos

×          Cobertura de los medios de comunicación           

×          Mercados laborales

×          Relaciones internacionales de Chile

Presentadores: Profesora Maxine Molyneux, Directora del Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London. TBC.

Organizadores

Andrés Villar, International Studies, University of Cambridge

Carmen Sepúlveda, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London

Tomás Undurraga, Sociology, University of Cambridge

Sexual Diversity and Sexual Rights: When Chile Marched for Equality

One of the most conflictive issues on the agenda for the government in 2011, was related to its promises to allow homosexual citizens to marry, establishing in this way a real equality in front of the law. But due to internal tensions with the most conservative factions within the governing coalition, especially with the extreme right party UDI closer to conservative Catholic circles, the government started to backtrack from its promises.

MOVILH, the widest organisation defending LGBT rights for the past twenty years in Chile, launched a campaign called "El amor es amor" (Love is love) http://www.movilh.cl/elamoresamor/ rallying people from across the political spectrum, as well celebrities and regular citizens to bring attention the the issue of equality, and remind the the gorvernment of the promises it had made during its electoral campaign.

As a way to gather wider support a "March for Equality" was organised, and received wide coverage in the news. The support by celebrities and politicians proving to be an effective way to campaign.  MOVILH also showed how the issue was a cross-cutting concern across ideological lines.

Here are two videos regarding the campaign and the march.

And some images from the march: