Co-opted or autonomous? Notes to review –and reorient– studies between social movements and the State, in contemporary Argentina

Abstract

This article analyzes the different theoretical perspectives from which the relationship between social movements and the State was observed in Argentina recently. To this, two large perspectives are identified, ranging from framing social movements as able to preserve themselves against state determinations, or as subsumed to those bureaucratic -and no emancipatory determinations. One of the conclusions of the work indicates that in the academic debate between the perspectives mentioned, some concepts were used as synonyms and some experiences were homologated under categories that need to be specified. For this, the article contributes to identify common points rarely noticed between both perspectives and proposes a redefinition of some key terms in the relationship between movements and the State such as: bureaucratization, demobilization and cooptation.