DRIFTS AND TENSIONS IN THE MATERIALIZATION OF THE UTOPIA: Ethnography to the Rainbow Movement in Chile

Abstract

The case of the Rainbow Movement in Chile allows us to illustrate in two areas, the meanings attributed to nature and the forms that contemporary collective action acquires, the drifts and tensions that arise when trying to materialize the longed-for world. This research was carried out through an ethnography (2009-2022) and ten semi-structured interviews analyzed from a hermeneutic approach. It resulted in nine sedimented practices -of which three are presented- and a heterogeneous set of meanings for each of them. By way of discussion and conclusion, it is proposed that this movement expands a type of affective/spiritual bond with nature that avoids the industrial production mode and that its forms of collective action privilege autonomy and horizontality among its members. Both issues find limits in the spontaneity of the actions, green capitalism, in the difficulties to reach agreements and/or their scarce compliance. © 2023 CONICET - Emiliano Aldegani. All rights reserved.