This panel provides a space for discussion on the transformations of political cultures in Latin America in the face of the rise, reconfiguration, and contestation of the political right, the radical right, authoritarianism, and contemporary forms of fascism. We recognize that these phenomena cannot be understood solely as contingent responses to electoral or institutional crises, but must also be examined in relation to historical structures of inequality, racism, elitism, exclusion, and ongoing struggles over citizenship and democracy.
We are interested in examining how contemporary political cultures produce and reproduce particular understandings of power, authority, order, citizenship, political participation, and democracy. We also seek to problematize the ways in which boundaries are constructed between citizens considered politically legitimate and those whose political capacities are questioned, as well as representations of elites, popular sectors, Indigenous peoples, migrants, young people, and other groups occupying different positions within Latin American social structures.
The panel invites contributions examining the relationships between institutional distrust, polarization, crises of political representation, and the expansion of right-wing discourses, while paying attention to the historical, social, and political specificities of different Latin American countries. It also encourages critical discussion of the distinctions, continuities, and transformations among the political right, the radical right, authoritarianism, and fascism in contemporary Latin America.
We welcome papers employing diverse theoretical, epistemological, and methodological perspectives, including ethnographic and autoethnographic research, qualitative and quantitative approaches, discourse analysis, electoral studies, historical and comparative analyses, case studies, interdisciplinary approaches, and participatory methodologies, among others. Contributions incorporating perspectives on gender, race, class, territory, Indigenous peoples, youth, popular culture, and digital technologies are also particularly welcome.
The panel seeks to bring together research that contributes to understanding how political cultures are changing across Latin America and what these transformations mean for democracy, citizenship, political representation, power relations, and political coexistence in the region.
