Participatory spaces, urban commons and democracy
Responsables : Dan Furukawa Marques et Charmain Levy
Co-chercheur·es : Montambeault, Durazo Herrmann, Hilgers, Islas Weinstein, Veillette, Luna, Coenga-Oliveira
Theoretical background and research question: How do citizen practices and their interactions with the state in urban spaces - whether common or public - contribute to the transformation of citizenship regimes? What are the relationships between citizens and their urban spatial environment in contexts of social and political tension? How do the cohabitation and regulation of public spaces, in principle common, transform them by renegotiating them and reappropriating them collectively? Latin American cities are innovation laboratories where citizens, whether organized or not, can invest public space (Irazabal, 2008). However, urban citizenship is determined by intersectional inequalities, socio-spatial differences, material infrastructure (Sultana, 2020) and governance, resulting in differentiated access to citizenship regimes (Holston, 2008). This axis proposes to identify and understand practices of citizen participation (everyday engagement, commoning, aesthetics of memory, deliberation, etc.) and to analyze their effects on citizen-state links and the factors creating (or not) accessible, democratic and participatory urban spaces.
Research projects and objectives over 4 years: This axis focuses on three main themes: 1) public space as a producer of citizenship, 2) participatory and creative everyday practices and democratic resilience, and 3) the urban commons. The axis is based on structuring partnerships with the Canada Research Chair in Participation & Citizenship (Montambeault) and the Alban d'Amour Chair for Leadership in Teaching in the Sociology of Cooperation (Furukawa-Marques). He counts on the funded research projects of Levy on feminist urban commons (SSHRC Dev Savoir, 2023-2025), Furukawa-Marques on commons in comparative perspective (FRQ Relève, 2021-2026; SSHRC Dev Savoir, 2022-2025) and Islas Weinstein on urban cultural heritage and polarization (FRQSC 2024-2027, under evaluation).
Violence, resistance and human rights
Responsables : Jean-François Mayer et Tina Hilgers
Co-chercheur.es : Anzueto, Durazo Hermann, Furukawa Marques, Nagels, Veillette, Luna
Theoretical background and research questions: How do peripheral populations living and working in informal contexts resist chronic violence by asserting their rights? How do they strategically use human rights in the fight against impunity? How do these strategies shape citizenship regimes? In Latin America, a majority of people live in contexts of violence specific to political dynamics and work situations (Passos de Oliveira and de Oliveira Nunes, 2008; Davis, 2007; Davis and Hilgers, 2022). Vulnerable people such as women, Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples also face the violence of the extractive economy (Anzueto et al, 2022). Often, only mobilization and protest make these people visible (Müller, 2016; Tapias Torrado, 2022). This axis examines marginalized populations' responses to violence through organized or unorganized, overt or covert and formal or informal strategies (Crossa, 2009; 2012; Mayer, 2021). Thus, this axis studies both how these multifaceted strategies of resistance shape the state's policies of inclusion, and conversely, how these state policies influence the claims and strategies of these populations.
Research projects and objectives over 4 years. This axis is organized around three themes: 1) chronic violence, multifaceted resistance and impunity, 2) human rights in a context of informality, and 3) migratory crises, informal work and resistance. The projects and activities of this axis will be based, among other things, on a partnership with LLACS and the CISSC Informal Cities working group (Hilgers and Mayer), and will be propelled by Hilgers and Mayer's funded research projects on informality, violence and resistance (SSHRC Savoir, 2020-2025), Durazo-Hermann's on the infosphere (SSHRC Savoir, 2021-2025) and Anzueto's on migratory crises (SSHRC-UQO, 2023-25). A grant application on migratory crises, informal work and resistance will be submitted by Anzueto and Mayer (SSHRC Développement Savoir, 2025-2027). Two articles on the organization and resistance strategies of urban peripheral populations in times of crisis will be published (Hilgers and Mayer). A collective work following the axis seminar will be published (Robert, Anzueto and Hilgers, 2025), and a special issue, including a co-authored article, on informal work and resistance in a migratory context will be organized (Anzueto and Mayer).
Care, citizenship and governance
Responsables : Nora Nagels et
Françoise
Montambeault
Co-chercheur.es : Islas Weinstein, Levy, Mayer, Anzueto, Coenga-Oliveira
Theoretical background and research questions: What are the emerging forms of care in Latin America? How do they contribute to the transformation of citizenship regimes? Based on the idea that care activities both influence and are influenced by processes of inclusion - and in particular, intersectional relations - this axis analyzes both care policies (day-care centers, parental leave) and private, paid care activities (domestic workers) or community activities (collective gardens or kitchens; urban feminist art spaces or performances, defense of indigenous territories). Focusing on physical, material, emotional and social care activities for dependent people, often carried out by women free of charge in private space (López Estrada, 2017), the notion of care is now being amplified by feminist, indigenous, peasant and grassroots women's organizations, as well as certain activists and researchers (Catela, 2017; Hernández, 2021; Pozos, 2021). It thus includes relations of care to missing people and to non-human entities such as territory, forest or water, for example via feminist art (Mesa Cuadros, 2008; Toro and Boff, 2009; Guinta, 2021). This axis will analyze both the formal and informal factors of inclusion, and the impact of the collectivization of care practices in public space on citizenship regimes.
Research projects and objectives over 4 years. This axis focuses on three areas: 1) care policies as a mechanism for inclusion, 2) care practices and experiences of citizenship, and 3) care mobilization and social movements. It draws on partnerships with the Participation & Citoyennés Chair (Montambeault, 2023-2027) and the Chair in Gender Equality Social Policies (Nagels, submitted, 2024-2028), as well as on ongoing projects on care and women's lived citizenship in collective kitchens by Montambeault & Nagels (SSHRC Dev Savoir, 2023-2025), and on gender and family policies by Nagels (SSHRC Dev Savoir, 2019-2024). A project extending the care and women's citizenship project to other countries will be submitted by Nagels and Montambeault, with collaborator Rousseau (SSHRC Savoir, 2026-2031). A SSHRC project Engagement partenarial on political art and care will be submitted by Anzueto and Islas Weinstein (2026-2027), with a view to setting up an exhibition in partnership with the Latin Arte collective. A special issue on plural forms of care from a feminist perspective will be co-edited by Nagels, Levy and Pozos (2024), Nagels and Montambeault will publish two articles drawn from their fieldwork in Mexico City, and an article will be co-authored by Islas Weinstein and Anzueto on the methodology underlying the partnership project on political art and care.