Conclusion

Summary

In a world in which civil society actors and their defiance of the institutional status quo are more prominent than ever, the scholarship on social movements has not provided enough insight into the mobilization of highly excluded groups. This concluding chapter synthesizes the novel framework produced in this book, called mobilizational citizenship, to explain how collective action survives over time in the urban margins under highly unfavorable conditions. This research involved examining how urban contentious politics and local organizing can endure with minimal influence from elite actors or political opportunities. The analytical components of mobilizational citizenship can be used to explain collective action in cases of Latin America beyond Chile’s urban margins, such as the enduring community organizing of El Alto, in Bolivia, the leftist territorial organizations of Villa El Salvador, in Peru, or the Piquetero Movement organizations still mobilizing in neighborhoods of Argentina. This book’s framework could also travel beyond Latin America to analyze movements that spread leadership and have strong collective identities, such as Black Lives Matter, the White Power Movement, and Extinction Rebellion.