Cultural Occupations: lay theories about the meanings of political participation

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the frequent incorporation of cultural occupation events into the repertoire of political participation of different groups, which takes place in Brazil especially from the second decade of the 2000s. This protest tactic is permeated with controversies, encountering criticism in terms of its legitimacy and political effectiveness, both among left-wing activists and in more normative scientific approaches. This work seeks to understand, from the perspective of lay theories, what meanings the organizers of these events confer on political participation in order to legitimize their form of action. For this, it takes the case of the city of Porto Alegre/RS and makes use of different data collection strategies, such as online research, participant observation and interviews with the organizers.