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Accepted Paper:
Contested Spaces: The Past and Future of Participatory Democracy and the Communal Councils
Matt Wilde
(University of Leicester)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses the impact of the communal councils (CCs) on everyday political practice in a Venezuelan barrio. It goes on to discuss the future prospects for grassroots activism in the post-Chávez era.
Paper long abstract:
When they were launched in 2006, the communal councils (CCs) were heralded as the first step towards the establishment of a radical, participatory democracy in Venezuela. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in a working-class barrio (shantytown) of Valencia, this paper analyses the impact of the CCs on everyday political practice among local residents. It proposes that they should be understood as "contested spaces", showing how different members of the community perceive and make use of the bodies in a variety of ways, producing a multiplicity of tensions and ambiguities in the process. It goes on to discuss the future prospects for grassroots political practice in the post-Chávez era.