Counter-hegemonic possibilities: is it possible to reinvent politics?

Abstract

The present work is connected to the debates about experiences of new ways of organization, mobilization, claim, and reinvention of politics. They arise at a time when formal democratic practices are losing their legitimacy, becoming discredited and emptied, especially in the spaces of popular participation. Starting from a critical discussion about the concepts of democracy, citizenship and popular participation, and understanding fissures and insurgencies as alternatives to the heteronomous model of participation, we search to discuss possible connections between direct and institutionalized actions. We present, as an example, a brief analysis of an experience of collective and collaborative construction of a so called open mandate. Thus, the ideas of participation and collaboration, directly connected with possibilities of joint work, are brought to the center of the discussion that we intend to carry out. The main objective of this ongoing research is to investigate possibilities of expanding popular participation, and the gains brought by a collective construction of politics, mostly related to the right to the city and its deployment in the use, planning and management of urban space in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, as well as the possibility of collective occupation of institutional spaces.