Cynical Citizenship
Cynical Citizenship
Gender, Regionalism, and Political Subjectivity in Porto Alegre, Brazil
This anthropological study of grassroots community leaders in Porto Alegre, Brazil’s leftist hotspot, focuses on gender, politics, and regionalism during the early 2000s, when the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores) was in power. The author explores the ways community leaders make sense of official notions of citizenship and how gender, politics, and regional identities shape these interpretations. Junge further examines the implications of leaders’ deep ambivalence toward normative participation discourses for how we theorize and study participatory democracy, citizenship, and political subjectivity in Brazil and beyond.
Cynical Citizenship is a meticulous and efficacious book. Junge’s intuitions about cynicism are inspiring, and his work on gender identity is solid. His writing is immaculate, ensuring that his conceptual engagements and argumentative structure are fully transparent.
Cynical Citizenship calls attention to the ambivalence and contradiction that typify the political subjectivities of Porto Alegre’s progressive citizenship formations. Blending rich ethnographic detail and incisive discourse analysis, Junge shows how participatory citizenship in Porto Alegre can be simultaneously ‘active’ and ‘cynical,’ thereby demonstrating that ‘another citizenship (theory) is possible,’ and necessary.
Junge offers a deep and insightful account of how ‘being an active citizen’ is influenced by one’s gender, racial, and class background.…He does so by taking us deep into some of the most known and propagated forums of citizen participation—the World Social Forum, the Participatory Budget, and electoral politics.
Benjamin Junge is an associate professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at New Paltz. His research on the topics of gender, social movements, religion, and public health has been widely published.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. The Appeals of Citizenship: A Performative Approach to Discourse, Subjectivity, and Gender
Chapter Two. "We Are Gaúchos, We Are Gaúchas": Incitements to Gendered and Regional Subjectivity in the 2002 Election Campaigns
Chapter Three. Political Time in Porto Alegre: Electoral Citizenship, Experimental Subjectivities, and Gendered Self-Agency
Chapter Four. "Participation Speaks Louder": Ambiguity and Contradiction in Official Representations of Citizenship in the Porto Alegre Participatory Budget
Chapter Five. Cynical Citizenship: Gendered Performance and Parody in the Porto Alegre Participatory Budget
Chapter Six. Invitations to Global Citizenship, Neoliberal Critique, and a Party: Official Discourses and Local Media Coverage of the 2003 World Social Forum
Chapter Seven. Participation from the Periphery: Beira Rio Community Leaders’ Perceptions of the 2003 World Social Forum
Chapter Eight. Another Citizenship (Theory) Is Possible
Epilogue
Appendix One. Research Methodology
Appendix Two. Participatory Budget Meetings: Methodological Notes and Statistical Profile
Appendix Three. World Social Forum Charter of Principles
Appendix Four. Newspaper Articles Cited in World Social Forum Analysis
Notes
Works Cited
Index
