Sam Halvorsen’s research while affiliated with Queen Mary University of London and other places

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Publications (22)


Democracy
  • Chapter

February 2025

Sam Halvorsen

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Fernanda Valeria Torres

The Spatiality of Popular Politics on the Urban Margins: Insights from Argentina and Chile

November 2024

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8 Reads

Antipode

Popular politics—a heterogeneous set of grassroots demands and subjectivities antagonistic to dominant power blocs—finds itself at a crossroads in Latin America. In Argentina and Chile, progressive governments have failed to curtail a resurgent populist‐right despite, as recently as 2019, appearing to be on the brink of a new centre‐left hegemony. This paper argues that paying attention to the spatiality of popular politics demonstrates a failure to articulate popular politics within a national movement, either neglecting them (under Boric in Chile) or incorporating them in a top‐down strategy that erased particularities (under Fernández in Argentina). It does so from the vantage point of two neighbourhoods at the urban margins in Buenos Aires and Santiago. Bringing together Ernesto Laclau's work on populism together with Henri Lefebvre's relational understanding of urban space, it analyses how popular demands and subjectivities have been articulated in relation to national progressive politics.



Participatory clientelism: A socio-spatial approach to popular politics in Buenos Aires
  • Article
  • Full-text available

September 2024

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27 Reads

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2 Citations

Latin American Politics and Society

What is the relationship between clientelism and political participation in popular urban neighborhoods? This article addresses the question based on qualitative research in two popular neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, drawing on participant observation and interviews with residents, activists, and party brokers. Adding to a growing literature on “participatory clientelism,” we argue for greater attention to the urban context through which this unfolds. To date, research into participatory clientelism has predominantly considered specific practices—participatory innovations or contentious politics—and been limited to the survival of the urban poor and the demand for political support by party brokers. While these are crucial practices, they are not exhaustive of the relations that sustain participatory clientelism, particularly in contexts of territorialized politics. Based on the socio-spatial approach of Henri Lefebvre, influential in urban studies, we define three interconnected dimensions of participatory clientelism and identify them in the cases under study.

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Proximity as urban democratic legitimacy: Strategies of participation in Buenos Aires

January 2024

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15 Reads

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2 Citations

Urban Studies

Since 2007, Buenos Aires has been governed by a centre-right coalition that has made participation an integral part of its approach to governance. Under mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta (2015–2023), the idea and practice of proximity became central, notably through weekly meetings with neighbours across the city. This article demonstrates that proximity was a strategy for building urban democratic legitimacy. In so doing, it introduces the work of Pierre Rosanvallon to an urban studies readership. Contemporary literature on urban participation is at risk of establishing ontologically fixed positions, as seen in recent debates on the ‘post-political city’. Rosanvallon’s legitimacy of proximity is an analytical device that provides an open and non-essential reading of participation. Based on extensive qualitative research, the article examines how and why Larreta and his city government deployed the strategy of proximity, while also highlighting its limits.


Relational Approaches to Social Movements in (and beyond) Latin America

May 2023

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22 Reads

Since the redemocratization of much of Latin America in the 1980s and a regional wave of anti-austerity protests in the 1990s, social movement studies has become an important part of sociological, political, and anthropological scholarship on the region. The subdiscipline has framed debates about formal and informal politics, spatial and relational processes, as well as economic changes in Latin America. While there is an abundant literature on particular movements in different countries across the region, there is limited coverage of the approaches, debates, and theoretical understandings of social movement studies applied to Latin America. In The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements, Federico M. Rossi presents a survey of the broad range of theoretical perspectives on social movements in Latin America. Bringing together a wide variety of viewpoints, the Handbook includes five sections: theoretical approaches to social movements, as applied to Latin America; processes and dynamics of social movements; major social movements in the region; ideational and strategic dimensions of social movements; and the relationship between political institutions and social movements. Covering key social movements and social dynamics in Latin America from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements is an indispensable reference for any scholar interested in social movements, protest, contentious politics, and Latin American studies.


Care for Transactions

January 2023

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108 Reads

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7 Citations

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Adrian J. Bailey

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Markus Breines

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Phil Emmerson

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[...]

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In this editorial we ask key questions about what it means to publish ‘a journal’ in a world of publishing which is driven by individual article metrics and online access. Seeing the value of journals as venues for intellectual debate, we therefore set out a renewed vision as to how the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers can provide space for more collective and collaborative approaches to geographical debate. This approach revolves around the idea of ‘transactions’ itself and creating spaces in the journal for more commentary, debate and dialogue, alongside continuing to publish landmark papers. In this editorial we ask key questions about what it means to publish ‘a journal’ at the current moment, and set out a renewed vision as to how Transactions of the Insittute of British Geographers might provide space for more collective approaches to geographical debate. This approach revolves around the idea of ‘transactions’ itself and creating spaces in the journals for more commentary, debate and dialogue, alongside continuing to publish landmark papers.


Territory and decolonisation: debates from the Global Souths

December 2022

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101 Reads

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12 Citations

Third World Thematics A TWQ Journal

This extended introduction to a volume on territory and decolonisation from the Global Souths highlights a series of tensions that arose in its production and discusses possible strategies for further developing dialogue on the theme. Specifically, it looks at the centrality of Latin America – as an idea, experience and epistemology – from which debates on the intersection of territory and decolonisation have been framed. The seeming hegemony of certain lines of Latin American critical geography could present a challenge to decolonial imperatives. In response, this introduction is framed around two discussions. First, this article considers a resurgence of interest in Area Studies and relational conjunctural analysis in Anglophone geographies, and suggests the latter may provide a fruitful intersection with decolonising tendencies. Second, it discusses recent feminist debates on body-territory as a travelling idea and practice that has the potential to articulate across different geographical realities. In making these humble contributions to existing debates, the introduction also reflects on the significance of positionality and highlights tensions between the authors as a means of exemplifying strategies of epistemic dialogue that may (or may not) provide ground for decolonial discussions on territory.


Articulating Populism in Place: A Relational Comparison of Kirchnerism in Argentina

May 2022

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78 Reads

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9 Citations

How are populist movements articulated in place, and what political tensions can arise when they mobilize across scales? Despite the historical significance of particular places for populist movements (e.g., countryside or city), much populist scholarship remains trapped in a national lens, and geographical analyses are only starting to take seriously place-based articulations. Drawing on Gillian Hart’s Gramscian approach, we understand articulation as a dual process of cojoining and resignifying that unfolds through geographically situated practices and language. We extend this by paying attention to actors of populist mobilization, political parties, and social movements, examining their articulation of political subjectivities and antagonisms through place-based contexts, thus providing an analytical framework for studying populism. Considering the national-popular movement of Kirchnerism, our analysis unfolds through a relational comparison of two contrasting places in Argentina—its wealthy capital city and the impoverished province of Jujuy—moving dialectically across different scales, considering contradictions between local and national mobilizations of Kircherism while also contextualizing these in regional and global process. In so doing, we demonstrate that a geographically sensitive analysis of populist conjunctures provides insights into the success and failures of national popular movements. Specifically, place-based movements face dilemmas between gaining support and autonomy from national counterparts, whereas national popular movements both depend on and are threatened by local populist success.


Movimientos socioterritoriales. Casos de América Latina y Europa

November 2021

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152 Reads

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7 Citations

Geograficando

Se desarrolla la noción de “movimientos socioterritoriales” del geógrafo Bernardo Mançano Fernandes, en tanto una categoría analítica específica para aquellos movimientos sociales que tienen como objetivo central la apropiación del espacio en pos de lograr su proyecto político. Se distingue el concepto de movimiento socioterritorial del de movimiento social y del de movimiento socioespacial, y se proponen cuatro ejes: estrategia, identidad, sociabilidad política e instituciones, a través de tres casos de estudio: el MST en Brasil, la Organización Barrial Tupac Amaru en la Argentina y el movimiento “Occupy” en Londres. Se concluye con algunas diferencias claves entre los casos estudiados y se evalúan las potencialidades y límites del análisis socioterritorial.


Citations (15)


... The second contribution is more general and considers how the intellectual thrust of this article is aligned with ongoing and accretive efforts to reimagine what sort of geographyas discipline, as intellectual standpoint, or as a series of thematic tools and openingsis needed in and for the present world. In past decades, these efforts have evolved from the poststructuralist imperative to forge a 'queer epistemology' (Binnie 1997), to 'queering the geographical imagination' (Knopp 2007, 52), to recent and concerted attempts to 'decolonise' geographical knowledge production (Radcliffe 2017; Bailey et al. 2023). Whilst this trajectory is laudable, fundamental questions concerning what it means to queer geography remain. ...

Reference:

No destination: queering mobility through the virtuality of movement
Care for Transactions

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

... In the words of Haraway (2013: 8), I am a 'kin-making guman', 'that worker of and in the soil'. Therein, multiple and diverse agencies are imbued in the sharing of energy produced in labours of, to, and for Her (Cabnal, 2010;Ulloa, 2016;Sweet and Ortiz Escalante, 2017;Halvorsen and Zaragocín, 2021;Zaragocín and Caretta, 2021). The benefits and reciprocities of care (Pedersen et al, 2011) go beyond species boundaries. ...

Territory and decolonisation: debates from the Global Souths
  • Citing Article
  • December 2022

Third World Thematics A TWQ Journal

... Furthermore, the discourse against corruption associated with previous Workers Party (PT) governments fuels this resentment, creating a complex socio-political landscape that drives populist mobilization. This research aligns with recent studies on populism from a geographic lens (Agnew and Shin, 2019;Casaglia et al., 2020;Halvorsen and Torres, 2022;Castro, 2022;Rodrigues, 2022;Pape et al., 2024). Populists often invoke territorial ideologies even inside the same country, creating "us vs. them" narratives central to their discourse (Nagel and Grove, 2021). ...

Articulating Populism in Place: A Relational Comparison of Kirchnerism in Argentina

... Al respecto, Oslender (2002) a partir de la espacialidad de la resistencia analiza las formas concretas y decisivas en las cuales espacio y resistencia interactúan el uno sobre el otro, sus ejemplos parten de analizar la espacialidad de los movimientos sociales. Halvorsen, Fernandes & Torres (2021), por su parte menciona que el territorio es central para las estrategias de los movimientos socioterritoriales y es parte de las luchas. Aunque aquí se abordarán también otras formas de resistencia, no menos importantes que aquellas vinculadas a los movimientos socioterritoriales. ...

Movimientos socioterritoriales. Casos de América Latina y Europa

Geograficando

... In other words, socio-territorial movements engage in a repertoire of collective actions as a product of their territories and vice versa. Territory is mobilized as a core strategy to achieve their objectives, becoming a means and an end for the very existence of these movements, as it informs their identity and political socialization and enables the creation of new institutions (Halvorsen, Fernandes, and Torres, 2021). ...

MOVIMENTOS SOCIOTERRITORIAIS EM PERSPECTIVA COMPARADA / Socioterritorial Movements in Comparative Perspective / Movimientos socioterritoriales en perspectiva comparada

REVISTA NERA

... En el presente capítulo, queremos explorar cómo un asentamiento, barrio popular o villa puede ser no solo un recurso estratégico (Merklen, 2010;Zibechi, 2007) o un escenario (Auyero, 2012;Frederic, 2004Frederic, , 2009) para la movilización política, sino también un objeto disputado en sí mismo por distintos actores políticos y sociales. En particular, para arrogarse su representación frente a públicos locales y autoridades gubernamentales, en el ámbito de un proceso generalizado de territorialización de la política en Argentina (Rossi, 2018;Natalucci et al., 2013;Halvorsen, 2021). Al mismo tiempo, nos interesa explorar cómo un programa de reurbanización impacta sobre las tramas políticas y sociales de un barrio informal, incentivando conflictos y profundizando esta competencia política entre distintos actores, a medida que introduce modificaciones espaciales, jurídicas y económicas. ...

The role of territory in grassroots party-building: insights from Argentina
  • Citing Article
  • March 2021

... El territorio es una idea y práctica (Halvorsen 2020), que se construye a través de relaciones entre adentros y afueras (Mosquera-Vallejo 2021), reterritorializar supone redibujar contornos, a través de nuevos pensamientos cristalizados que inciden en el proceso de reterritorialización. En tanto práctica, el nexo entre etnización y los procesos de creación de territorio, se hace evidente por lo menos en dos sentidos: primero en el 'enfoque territorial' y segundo en las modalidades que adquiere la 'movilización socioespacial.' En el primero, el 'territorio' 'remite a un área determinada (identificada, localizada, delimitada), donde se encuentra una determinada población objeto de una acción; la acción estaría encaminada a cambiar las relaciones sociales allí existentes, hacia adentro y/o hacia afuera' (Benedetti 2011, 59). Este sentido práctico e instrumental es principalmente apropiado y utilizado como un medio que posibilita la ejecución de programas por parte de organismos multilaterales como el Banco Mundial o el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). ...

El Territorio en disputa: estrategias políticas y movimientos socioterritoriales
  • Citing Article
  • November 2020

Punto sur

... Today, Latin America shows great effervescence in terms of geographies informed by activism, decoloniality and in general critical and feminist scholarship (Finn and Hanson 2017;Halvorsen, Fernandes and Torres 2019;Zaragocin and Caretta 2021). In Argentina, recent grassroots mobilisations have been the object of sustained geographical scholarship on territorialisation and localisation of struggles (Wald and Hill 2016;Halvorsen 2020 and. Works of some Brazilian critical and radical geographers working in the second half of the twentieth century have been recently rediscovered by a bourgeoning international literature (Melgaço 2017;Davies 2019 andFerretti and Pedrosa 2018). ...

Territorialising Movement Parties: The Case of Nuevo Encuentro in Buenos Aires

Antipode

... Effective decentralisation brings decision-making closer to citizens and can yield programmes and services that better address local needs and demands. A general description of decentralisation involves shifting a combination of political, fiscal and administrative responsibilities from central to sub-national governments and civil society and the private sector (Halvorsen, 2019). Decentralisation is often described as part of democratic governance. ...

The political opportunities of urban decentralisation: Mobilising local governance in Buenos Aires
  • Citing Article
  • October 2019

Political Geography

... Therefore, in order to let the students in colleges and universities still maintain a high ideological awareness after joining the party, the school should focus on the current problems in the construction of the Civic Party, combined with the current social characteristics of the times, and put forward solutions to solve the problem, in order to gradually improve the quality of the Civic Party construction [4][5][6]. The continuous development of electronic computer technology has brought the current education and teaching work into the information age, and in the teaching of basic courses in colleges and universities, teachers have begun to take the initiative to make use of modern educational resources to optimize and adjust the traditional education methods, in order to improve the quality of education [7][8]. In the work of Civic Party building, educators should also actively see the advantages of information technology and timely find a landing place for modern educational resources in the work of Civic Party building, so that students can realize the content of Civics and politics of the time to understand and know so as to gradually improve the quality of Civic Party building [9][10][11]. ...

The Geography of Political Parties: territory and organisational strategies in Buenos Aires
  • Citing Article
  • September 2019

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers