• Login
    View Item 
    •   OpenDocs Home
    • IDS Research Community
    • IDS Research
    • View Item
    •   OpenDocs Home
    • IDS Research Community
    • IDS Research
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    The Movement of the Landless (MST) and the juridical field in Brazil

    Thumbnail
    View
    Wp248.pdf
    Download
    Wp248.pdf (287.3Kb)
    Date
    2005
    Author
    Houtzager, Peter P.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    What modalities of legal change can social movements set in motion to diminish systemic and durable forms of social exclusion? This paper focuses on the Movement of the Landless (MST) in Brazil, which through a number of legal strategies has helped produce watershed high court rulings, contributed to the process of constitutionalising law, and made access to land more equitable in parts of Brazil by redefining property rights in practice. The paper explores legal change triggered by the strategic action through what Bourdieu (1987) calls the juridical field. The MST has been successful in pushing forward legal change through this field, I argue, for two broad reasons. First, it has a remarkable ability to concentrate the talents of diverse juridical actors – lawyers, judges, law school professors – on defending its claims. This ability has been built by mobilising across multiple fields, including the political, and not just in the juridical field. Second, the movement’s capacity for strategic legal action, and the impact of such action, has been contingent on substantial changes during the 1990s in both the social movement and juridical fields triggered by the unfolding of the country’s democratic transition and shifts in the transnational Catholic Church. Keywords: access to justice, social movement, Movement of the Landless (MST), Brazil, property rights
    URI
    http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/4112
    Citation
    Houtzager, P.P. (2005) The Movement of the Landless (MST) and the juridical field in Brazil. Working paper series, 248. Brighton: IDS.
    Is part of series
    IDS working papers;248
    Library catalogue entry
    http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=154391
    Rights holder
    Institute of Development Studies
    Rights details
    http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/IDSOpenDocsStandardTermsOfUse.pdf
    Collections
    • IDS Research [956]

    About OpenDocs | Contact Us | Send Feedback | Disclaimer and Cookies | OpenDocs Policy | Help
    BLDS
     

     

    Browse

    All of OpenDocsCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    About OpenDocs | Contact Us | Send Feedback | Disclaimer and Cookies | OpenDocs Policy | Help
    BLDS