The Art of Social Change: Cultural Production and Youth in the Bolivarian Revolution

• In Event: 66.061 - Cultural Production and Participatory Politics: Practices, Intersections, and Pedagogies

Abstract

Elsewhere, the presenter of this paper has examined the role of artistic and cultural production as acts for social transformation in the occupied factories of Argentina (see AUTHOR, 2011). In this presentation, she extends her analysis of the centrality of ‘cultural production’ (through art, media, recuperation of public spaces, etc) as a form of ideological critique that contributes to the establishment of conditions to aid participatory politics among youth in the Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela. The Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela represents one of the most significant state-led and community based social movements of the 21st century that has attempted – through various means – to institute an alternative social, ethical, and economic ethos for socialism of the 21st century. One of the least cited dimensions of the Bolivarian revolution has been its focus on ‘culture,’ loosely defined as the representation and reconstitution of ideas, history, and symbolic imaginary from the underclasses of society. Through the theoretical framework of the Latin American school of decolonial thought, the presentation will examine the role of cultural production and its relevance to youth’s participatory politics. Active participation in the political process has been a cornerstone of the Bolivarian revolution since its inception in 2002. Youth have played a significant role in both sustaining and opposing the revolution in multiple instances. The intent is not to enter into a discussion of the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of youth in the Bolivarian revolution, but rather to examine the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of social change that have been developed for and enacted by youth to become protagonists in a contentious political process that has claimed a ‘post-capitalist’ alternative to the dominant social order.

Author

• Nathalia E Jaramillo, Kennesaw State University