Fernanda R Page Poma

Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Escuela de Politica y Gobierno, Faculty Member

SUNY: Stony Brook University, Sociology, Graduate Student

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The Morphology of Repression: Dialectics between Chilean Students and State Force Actions

Research in Social Movements and Change. Four Dead in Ohio. Emerald Publishing Limited., 2021

This paper analyzes the relationship between the Chilean student movement and state force action ... more This paper analyzes the relationship between the Chilean student movement and state force action during the period 2000–2012, placing specific attention on three waves of student contention that took place at the turn of the century. During the decade under study, the Chilean students became more contentious, they broadened their demands beyond specific grievances to encompass a critique to the education system as a whole, their alliance system grew (gaining from these denser networks of collaboration more resources to mobilize), and they managed to win public opinion on their side. However, the relationship with state forces has not been static across time, and both students and state forces have experienced changes in how they interact with each other. The results of this paper are based on a mixed method approach that drew on a quantitative database of student contention in Chile (n = 491 student events) and 15 in-depth interviews with leader activists from the most salient recent Chilean student movements of three periods under study, in addition to some key informants. The findings confirm that when student protests target the government, when they use disruptive strategies that affect the status-quo, and when they mobilize alongside other challenging actors, they are more likely to be met with direct repression by authorities. The research shows that there is a “dialect of repression” at play by which state forces' direct repression of protest can be two-fold: on the one hand, it gives students visibility in the public opinion, but on the other, it can be negative for ushering support if the media and authorities are successful in portraying them as violent or a threat to public order. In this sense, the figure of the “encapuchado,” students who disguise their identity and purposefully seek confrontation with authorities during mobilizations is problematized by the movement itself. How to win public opinion and use that visibility in their favor is related to decision-making mechanisms that the movement puts at play but also to the calculations done on the part of the government and security forces about the leverage of the movement.

The power to control: State forces’ action and student contentious politics in the Argentine educational field

Education, Citizenship and Social Justice

Student movements in Latin America have historically been at the forefront of democratization and... more Student movements in Latin America have historically been at the forefront of democratization and progressive social action. This article seeks to understand state-led protest control against students and their movements in Argentina in the last decades (1997–2007). By drawing on a database of contentious politics events in Argentina using newspaper data, analysis of secondary sources, and in-depth interviews of actors, it closely examines when, why, where, and how the state contains student protests and how the power relations between them and the state unfolds over time. A main finding underlying this study is that the nature of state repression of students is related to (a) the tactics being used, (b) the demands being made, (c) the actors that are protesting alongside them, and (d) the political party in power. The article shows how the associational ties between students, teacher movements, political parties, and other movements change during moments of economic crisis and poli...

Collective Action, Violence, and Clientelism during Argentina’s 2001 Crisis

Theory in Action, 2020

In a context of an economic, social, and political crisis that resulted in widespread food riots ... more In a context of an economic, social, and political crisis that resulted in widespread food riots and uprisings, what explains the absence of collective violence and lootings in a district with a legacy of intense mobilization? I argue that the answer to this question lies in a specific combination of patronage politics and collective action. Far from dominating their clients and preventing horizontal ties, brokers in the poverty-stricken district of Florencio Varela in Argentina mobilized the population to act together and suppress violence. Drawing on in- depth interviews, newspaper reports, and secondary sources, I posit that during the peak of the revolts in December of 2001, brokers in this district appeared to validate collective mobilization seeking to prevent violence and lootings. The primary significance of this work is the differential way in which patron-client ties unfold to promote
participation and collective actions.

Patronage Politics and Contentious Collective Action: A Recursive Relationship

by Fernanda R Page Poma and Pablo Lapegna

Latin American Politics and …, 2009

Based on ethnographic reanalysis and on current qualitative research on poor people's politics, t... more Based on ethnographic reanalysis and on current qualitative research on poor people's politics, this article argues that routine patronage politics and nonroutine collective action should be examined not as opposite and conflicting political phenomena but as dynamic processes that often establish recursive relationships. Through a series of case studies conducted in contemporary Argentina, this article examines four instances in which patronage and collective action intersect and interact: network breakdown, patron's certification, clandestine support, and reaction to threat. These four scenarios demonstrate that more than two opposing spheres of action or two different forms of sociability, patronage, and contentious politics can be mutually imbricated. Either when it malfunctions or when it thrives, clientelism may lie at the root of collective action.

Fernanda R Page Poma

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