Description

From the Barrio to the Barricades: Grafiteros, Punks, and the Remapping of Urban Space

Magaña analyzes the mass social movement in Oaxaca that originally formed in June 2006 following the violent eviction of striking teachers from their labor union’s annual encampment in the zócalo (main square) of Oaxaca City. By employing an understanding of politics that is informed by Foucault’s conceptualization of power, Magaña takes into account not just the mechanisms and institutions of the state, but a broader terrain that includes the practices, discourses, and extra-institutional spaces where power is exercised and contested. The author argues that new political cultures and subjectivities have been radically shaped by collective experiences from 2006. This article focuses on how participation in the social movement has affected youths’ political subjectivities and the ways in which youth from marginalized neighborhoods reimagine and reconfigure urban space and the social fabric of their city.

Oaxaca, Mexico, teachers’ strike, politicization, youth

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 42, Nos. 3-4 (2015): 170-183