In Search of "new": social movements in the brazilian social thought of year 1970/80

Abstract

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, a significant part of Brazilian intellectual field that included social scientists with an intense academic life besides being politically and ideologically linked to the left had dedicated its studies to the analyses of popular movements, more specifically trade unionism and urban social movements. Many of these scholars supported popular movements working at committed intellectual organizations, such as CEDEC and CEDI. In this process, concepts of “new trade unionism” and - less defined - “new” urban social movements were largely used. There was a strong emphasis in the “new” emerging on these movements. Approximation with popular groups, criticism to the left groups pre-1964, and adoption of an academic model of research helped to develop empirical studies and phenomenological analyses about trade unionism and urban social movements. In scholar terms, it was recognized that both movements presented the legitimacy and autonomy of social, political and cultural experiences of subaltern sectors of Brazilian society. So, this part of the intellectual field decisively renewed Brazilian social thought that works on the understanding of constitution and development of national social actors with a popular face.