Second CALL FOR PAPERS (please feel free to distribute widely) Society for Latin American Studies Annual Conference 2003 (Friday 11 - Sunday 13 April 2003, University of Manchester, UK) Symposium: "Social movements in Latin America: experiences, problems, and the potential for networking beyond state boundaries" Convener: Ulrich Oslender, Dept. of Geography, University of Glasgow The 1990s have seen a proliferation of social movement activities throughout Latin America. In some countries the adoption of new national constitutions have created new spaces of political mobilisation for social actors. While most movements emerge out of specific national contexts, some of them have connected with wider regional and global struggles. The importance of Latin America within the globalising anti-capitalist movement, for example, has been highlighted with successive annual stagings of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, since 2001, and the People's Global Action meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2001. It has been increasingly recognised that networking and the construction of alliances, both within and beyond a particular state's boundaries are important strategies for social movements in the pursuit of their aims. This session seeks to address these issues and critically examine the current state of social movement organising in Latin America. It is hoped to explore a broad range of experiences of social mobilisations, analysing problems encountered in these processes as well as reflecting on ways forward. The session aims at providing a space of exchange of ideas and discussions that identify common themes arising out of the concrete experiences in various countries. Both conceptual papers and those presenting more empirical case studies in the light of wider regional or global processes are welcome. In particular it is hoped that papers will explore the potential for networking between social movements of different countries in Latin America. Movements to be analysed would include, but are not restricted to, struggles over ethnicity, gender, land rights, labour, human rights, environment, neighbourhood. The conveners will actively explore the possibilities of publication of the papers presented. Please send your abstracts of no more than 250 words to Ulrich Oslender, Department of Geography, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, email: [log in to unmask] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. Ulrich Oslender Department of Geography University of Glasgow Tel: +44(0)141.3304782 Glasgow G12 8QQ Fax: +44(0)141.3304894 Scotland UK email: [log in to unmask]